Whiteville Rotary Club to hold 5th annual Cardboard Boat Championships

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The North Carolina Cardboard Boat Championships will be held Saturday at the Waccamaw Sailing Club in Lake Waccamaw.

The race challenge is to design and build a human-powered, cardboard boat that’s capable of finishing a 200-yard course.

This will be the 5th year the Whiteville Rotary Club has held the event.

“We have Lake Waccamaw, which is one of the most beautiful parts of North Carolina you could imagine, so we thought it’d be a great idea to try to hold an event out there and do something fun to raise money and do something on Father’s Day weekend,” Whiteville Rotary Club President Jonathan Medford said.

“This year’s kind of new,” Medford said. “We’re building boats for our sponsors and then a lot of people build their own boats. We already have 21 boat entries this year. Last year we had 12 boat entries, so there’s going to be a lot more people out there this year.”

Organizers are expecting the event to draw over 400 spectators.

“If you’ve built a really good boat, it’ll last,” Medford said. “We have one guy that’s actually, you know, he’s reusing a boat that he built last year.”

Family, youth group and individual boat entries are $30, club and non-profit organization entries are $50 and corporate team entries are $100. The event is free to attend.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Whiteville Rotary Club’s Good Works Fund which supports local charities, non-profits and scholarships throughout Columbus County.

The schedule of events begins Saturday, June 18. Team registration and check-in will begin at 11:00 a.m., boat judging will begin at 11:30 a.m., and races will begin at noon.