South Hams students take third and fourth place in the Devon and Cornwall Cardboard Boat Race.

Back in June, two local schools, Kingsbridge Community College and Loddiswell Primary, and Bigbury Youth Club were visited by Dr Juliette Jackson of Seadream Education, a non-profit education company.

Dr Jackson taught a science and engineering lesson on the mechanics of boats and the trouble to keep them afloat. After the lesson she mentioned the Institute of Mechanical Engineers Devon and Cornwall Cardboard Boat Race.

Even with the recently gained technical knowhow and the fact that the main building material is not well recognised for its water repellency, there were still volunteers to build and race.

The IMechE event involves making a boat using only cardboard, gloss paint or varnish and duct tapes.

The KCC team was made up of Douglas Butler, Jake Widger and Lola, all from Year 8, the Loddiswell Primary team was Arthur Butler, Scarlett Murgatroyd, Sienna Reid and Katie Beer, all currently in Year 6, and Marianne and Maya Jackson took part from the Bigbury Youth Club.

All three entered the pre-build class, which meant they had to arrive on the day with their boat already assembled - no mean feat in its self, with their individual designs.

Both KCC and Bigbury Youth Club went for a catamaran-style while Loddiswell went with a totally unique ’clinker’ style mono-hull, believed to be the first of its kind in this competition.

The Lodd’s style the most stable and more importantly, waterproof, with their boat ’Swallow’ finishing intact, making them winners of their heat, second out of the primary schools, and fourth overall in the pre-build section.

The KCC boat ’SS Sinking’ managed to complete 130m of the course which put them third in the secondary school category. However, unperturbed by their sinking the KCC crew went on to swim their rapidly disintegrating craft across the line, reminiscent of the film ’Cool Runnings’ about the Jamaican Bobsleigh team from the 1988 Olympics.

Apparently it was “truly heroic to watch” according to Sarah Butler who was watching her son Douglas.

Unfortunately, the Bigbury Girls also sank, but they were still victorious as they picked up the prize for Best Dressed Crew in their striking Aloha Girl outfits.

Sarah Butler added: “The whole event proved to be a great family day out with a brilliant atmosphere with interesting exhibits and engineering challenges; who knew you could balance 13 nails on one nail head or create a submarine out of a ruler, plastic bottle and a few rubber bands!”