According
to the Seafair website, 'Deprived of direct sunlight for many
months, Seafair is the Northwest's excuse to burst outside like
children on the last day of school and release energy at one of
the many fantastic Seafair events.' I can agree with that. ;-)
Seafair lasts a month, and one of the first official events is the
Milk
Carton Derby. The boat races took place today at Green Lake
Park, just down the hill from us. Whatever the design of the boat,
milk or juice cartons are used to provide flotation. There are some
rules,
of course, but generally it is a free-wheeling, wonderful celebration
of whimsy, creativity and determination. |
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The
races appeared to be run in heats of five 'boats' at a time. The
first was starting as we arrived. Here's a Seattle Seahawk milk
carton boat. The wings actually flapped on this one!
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A
milk carton jeep looked mighty impressive, and I'm sure it struck
fear into the hearts of its competitors. Alas, it had mobility problems
and I don't think it got further than a few feet from the starting
line.
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'Rubber
Duckie' dwarfed most of the other milk carton creations and surprisingly
was powered by only one guy!
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I
spied one half of a caterpillar(?) taking a break. The boats were
propelled in several different ways.
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Organic
Valley's viking-type boat slid through the water pretty quickly.
You can see the milk cartons underneath.
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Just
around the corner, a couple of dragon boats took turns putting on
exhibitions of rowing around large buoys.
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And
speaking of dragons, here's an outstanding milk carton boat! The
work on this one was phenomenal. It is quite legal to use plastic
milk bottles.
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Here's
a side view of the dragon.
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Racing
against the dragon was an Orca.
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This one made
me laugh so hard. The sailors appeared to be struggling to keep
a tipsy mermaid on course.
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The
kids were having tons of fun today. Many participated, and I'm sure
a lot helped with the boat-building too.
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This
was one of the more visible boats, out on Green Lake.
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Here's another
one which made me laugh. Soy Wars? What did that mean? I took
a closer look and saw it was made not of milk cartons but of Soy
milk cartons.
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It's
quite legal to use juice cartons as well, as the Soccer Boat did.
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The
nice thing was that everyone seemed to be having such fun.
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I'm
not quite sure what this was - RoboCow?
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Some
hoped for a little wind power to scoot them along.
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Others
looked as if they were propelling a floating island.
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Now
this one was amazing! The construction was impeccable and the manpower
was incredible. It blasted down the course, leaving everyone in
its wake.
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You
can see how they really put their backs into it.
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Meanwhile
the Cowpie-Rats, which was beautifully made, crept along very slowly.
I'm sure the inventor was frustrated.
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The
Little Moo-Maid was the last milk carton boat we saw. The boaters
took a break and so did we, as we'd been standing in the hot sun
for a couple of hours. It was a lovely, fun day and for once I didn't
even mind the crowds because everyone was smiling.
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