This Week on Chesapeake Summer...Oxford Residents Compete in Unusual Ways OXFORD, MD (wypr) - For some reason, a lot of boating challenges start in a bar and turn into annual traditions. In this week's edition of Chesapeake Summer, WYPR's Joel McCord soaks himself in the tradition of Oxford's annual cardboard boat races.

The racers crossed the starting line, paddling madly for their first buoy in boats made almost entirely of cardboard. And oddly enough, they didn't sink.

Skipper Marquess, the Fleet Admiral of the Cardboard Boat Races, called the action from the top of a trailer parked near the edge of the Tred Avon River for the day.

Okay, here we go. The Coast Guard is well out ahead, followed by the State's Attorney who is coming right up on their heels. High and Dry has suddenly gone into third place, passing the fraternal order of the police department."

Out on the course, the racers struggled to control their unwieldy craft as their fans cheered from the beach, known in Oxford as The Strand.

These are the twentieth annual cardboard boat races, named in honor of Oxford's late police chief, Wally Johns. Proceeds from entry fees, T-shirt sales and so on go to his favorite charity, Special Olympics.

As Marquess tells it, the chief and a couple of other reprobates were sitting around a bar one night arguing about what constituted a boat.

Consequently, somebody said, well I can make a boat out of anything and the next thing you know we had a challenge.

The challenge was to build a boat out of cardboard and race it. There were only two contestants that year, but they drew a crowd.

A lot of people were out from the pubs who knew about what was going on and everybody came down to the shore to watch. Subsequently somebody else said, Well, I can make a better boat than that,' and that's what happened.

Now, the Strand is packed on race day with fanciful craft and fanciful people. There is one boat adorned with a giant duck head and ruffles, another made to look like a corn cob and a 26-foot long red behemoth made of seven layers of appliance cartons.

There's Susan Delean-Botkin, an Oxford grandmother dressed in a shocking pink T-shirt with the legend, Real Pirates Wear Pink on the back. It's her seventh year in the races.

I started out with an IBM computer box and two pieces of wood duct taped to the side and milk cartons for flotation and we've progressed from there. (And how did that first one work for you?) It didn't sink (laughter). 00:57

This year's pink themed version, adorned with feathers and such, is much more sophisticated. It's made with double-walled cardboard, covered with papier mache and coated with paint.

It's got about 16 layers of paint because we're always afraid it's going to leak anyway. 02:00

It's called Fish n Lips.

Nearby, Matthew Barth, a Bosun's mate at Coast Guard Station Oxford was readying his craft, El Diablo.

We're trying to keep it a scorcher, so we got the white boat, you know, it's got a kayak look to it with a flame job, and uh we got the cardboard 454 big block on the back here, blown engine and uh, you know, plenty of horsepower for us with the kayak paddles. 00:43

The Coast Guard has a gold medal streak going, he said; so he and fellow Coastie John Harris had a lot to live up to; which they did.

All right, Coast Guard, followed by Talbot County State's Attorney. Scott, this is a much better showing than years before.

But then, by their own admission, they got greedy and entered a second race, only to meet with disaster. El Diablo started taking on water before it crossed the starting line. Soon it was down at the stern and sinking quickly. Barth and Harris hustled it to shore with most of the bottom in shreds.

We pretty much when we set up after the last race we saw that we had a catastrophic failure to the hull and you know, we brought her out for the second race, thought we'd take a go at it and it was evident that she wasn't going to make it.

But, hey, the paint job still looked good. And the races went on.

So, Crab Feast takes first place, Gator, no Croc is in there, Gator missed a mark, Ruffled Duck comes in second place and Margaritaville' has come in for a soda. 0157

I'm Joel McCord, reporting in Oxford for 88.1, WYPR.
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