The change agents from Team Kinexus might have piloted their Internship along the inner harbor last night for the 2nd Annual Rock the Boat Cardboard Boat Races in front of a new record crowd, but it was a different pair of summer interns who copped top honors for the fastest time along the watery course…winning both the top speed in qualifying as well as finishing ahead of the other three finalists in a rollicking good time that has likely established a new benchmark for a great mid-summer break to Live United.
Andrew Haffner and Parker Lewellen are both Sales Interns for Whirlpool’s Sears sales team and their sleek blue craft, with a couple of red stars on both starboard and port sides of the craft and a small American flag flying from the aft deck, glided across the water, not only in their first appearance where they set what proved to be an unbeatable time of under a minute and a half, but as they competed paddle-to-paddle with the three speediest other contenders.
As they stood on the shore seconds after winning the event, Haffner said, “It all comes down to willpower,” while Lewellen pointed out, “There was a collision at the end, but we made it work.” The winning entry was built over a two-day time frame by a team of Whirlpool employees and their interns who engineered the design and then put it together and “slapped some paint on it.”
The winning entry was one of the more simplistic, subtle watercraft in a fleet of 30 cardboard boats, but it was solid in its design and held up very well, and moved quickly through the waters of the harbor.
Second place honors went to Whirlpool’s MOL Lightning as shown trailing the winners in the photo above. Third place was won by Whirlpool Quality’s S.S. Star. Fourth place was taken by Whirlpool’s North American Region Laundry Group aboard the Laundry Lighthouse, which employed a washing machine agitator as the “lighthouse” attached to the helm.
The face off between local craft brewers went to Simon Rusk’s S.S. Livery from the Livery Brewery in Benton Harbor after Jay Fettig’s Buckrider II from North Pier Brewing Company capsized while making the turn at the buoy.
The award winning team from United Way of Southwest Michigan continued incredible prowess at boat building taking Best Theme honors for their remarkable and authentic rendition of the friendly confines of the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field with an entry called the S.S. Bleacher Seats, even fielding a live baby goat during the registration period and staging of the boats along the harbor. United Way staffers Ryan Cheevers and Doug Ferrall struggled to maneuver the large watercraft through the waters and were beaten like many a Cubs team of old by the Kinexus “Internship.”
The “People’s Choice” Award was delivered to the team from Wightman Associates of Benton Harbor who introduced the “Wightman Wave” to a welcoming crowd who delivered the most “votes” in the form of $1 tickets to them as they amassed $371-dollars to take the trophy.
In the mismatch of the day, my colleagues at Rock 107 WIRX Radio, Brock Havens of the “Plan B” Morning Show and radio host Benny Loshbaugh were pistol-whipped by a couple of intrepid sailors from Cub Scout Pack 624 sponsored by Pizza Hut with their entry of Cub Scout Pirates. The scouts outmaneuvered, outraced, outplayed and outwitted the rockers easily as Brock & Benny capsized their Screaming Yellow S.S. Good Enough before reaching the first buoy and had to undergo the supreme embarrassment of being towed back to shore by a Berrien County Sheriff’s Marine Division Deputy aboard a jet ski.
Last year’s winners from American Electric Power’s Cook Plant made the tragic error of shifting both Norse oarsmen to the same side of their Viking Ship while rounding the first leg buoy and unceremoniously dumping themselves into the drink.
From Lake Michigan College’s sizable rendition of The Millenium Falcon and Whirlpool’s “Last 3 Feet Battleship” complete with impressive cannons to the Youth Build’s colorful “Second Wind” and KitchenAid’s sleek black S.S. Origami Tsunami, there were some awesome entries both on land and on sea.
If they ever create an award for the flimsiest entry, they might want to consider naming rights by Whirlpool’s GSS ZIM. That cardboard wonder capsized three times between the launch site and the starting line and almost gave up before they elected to ditch a co-pilot and fly solo. Amazingly, once they did that the floppy vessel actually made it down the course, rounded the buoy and made it to within about a foot of the finish line before sinking for the final time. By they time it got back to shore it was a corrugated heap of soggy cardboard virtually unrecognizable as ever having been a “boat.”
With games, raffle prizes, a food trucks, apparel sales, live radio broadcasts, and a sizable crowd stretching almost all the way back to the porch at the Inn at Harbor Shores, and a packed house at the Inn’s dining room and Tiki Bar, and with parking spilled from the parking lot to the newly plotted streets of the Harbor Village and even to the west side of M-63, the eager crowd of cardboard boat racing fans have likely convinced Whirlpool and United Way that this great showcase of how to Live United has earned a place on the summer calendar for years to come, so you might want to start plotting strategies now for not only the best design, but the fastest possible entry in next year’s 3rd Annual Rock the Boat competition.
Stay tuned for word on how much was generated for United Way through the event which last year raised nearly $15,000.
(I took a lot of photos of the race action last night and will try to post most of them on the Moody on the Market Facebook Fan Page this weekend — so stay tuned for more!) If you haven’t already “liked” that fan page, do so now so that you’ll get the notice when those pictures go up.
