The Triangle

Issue date: 7/11/08 Section: Sports

The Drexel concrete canoe team recently won the Tony P. Crest Award for demonstrating superior and creative use of technology and materials in the construction of their canoe.
"It feels excellent," Pat Perhosky, a member of the team, said. "We put a lot of hard work into this project this year. I thought we had a great chance at winning the innovation award. No other team has ever done what we've done."
Greg Scott, another member of the concrete canoe team, said he is happy the award is finally theirs, but they have to do better overall next year.
"Now it's real," Scott said. "This year, we won the award, but didn't place well overall. But next year we have to put the best product out and win the races."
Drexel was lucky it didn't have another competition the ensuing day because the canoe broke on the way home.
Some students may have never heard of the term "concrete canoeing" before, but it is an engineering competition that started in the late 1970s. It eventually became more popular and is now recognized as the National Concrete Canoe Competition.
"My mom thought it was a joke for engineers," Perhosky said. "She didn't know it was a real competition."
There are usually about 15 active members on the team and this past year, there were nine men and four women involved on the team. But for Drexel to compete for first place, it will need to recruit more members.
"We're hoping to pull in more people next year," Scott said. "There is a lot to learn. With a more structured process, we will be able to pull off a lot of crazy things and fun trips while we can."
A concrete canoe is no ordinary canoe. This year's canoe was 19.5 feet long and the total weight of the boat was 350 pounds.
The components of the competition consist of canoe design, concrete mix design, construction and project management. The competition is judged based on four parts, including final product, technical paper, oral presentation and canoe races.
The competition generally occurs annually on the second or third weekend of June. Regionals occur during April and the team has to win in order to compete in nationals.
Concrete canoeing has been so popular that even teams from Canada and Mexico compete.
Last year, the team had issues with the construction of the canoe because the female mold was on top of the male mold, which caused voids on the exterior of the canoe.
However, this year the Drexel concrete canoe team fixed this problem by having the female mold on the bottom and the male mold on top, ensuring that air voids would be on the interior of the canoe. This allows the team to repair it much easier.

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