BETTENDORF, Iowa — The Middle Park Lagoon in Bettendorf isn't a place you'd usually expect to see aspiring sailors testing the waters, but students from around the Quad Cities were up to the unusual challenge.
On Friday, May 10, more than 50 local students competed in the annual cardboard boat regatta. Participants worked to create a boat that could carry them 600 yards down the lagoon using nothing but cardboard and adhesive. It wasn't an easy task, but students tried to learn something from the experience.
"It's way harder than it looks like, not just rowing the boat, building the boat's the most important part by far. I think we made our boat a little bit too big, even if it was just us two," Moline Senior Ali Mousa said.
Mousa's partner, fellow senior Bleu Beckwich, agreed with that statement.
"I found out that cardboard doesn't really work well for water, and it's not a very good way to build a boat in the future," Beckwich said.
Students from Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, West Liberty, Riverdale and Moline all competed in the event.