Author: Zach Menchel
Found in section: Sports
(L-R) Taff, Lee, Bedrosyan Celebrate Thier Victory in the Racing Portion of The Quick & Dirty Boat Build at the 59th Annual Maritime Festival
On Saturday, May 8, the Bellevue College Engineering Club competed in the Quick & Dirty Boat Build at Waterfront Park in Downtown Seattle. The event was part of the 59th annual Seattle Maritime Festival in which boating aficionados could kick back, relax, and anchor down for a day filled with fun for the whole family.
The objective of the competition was to assemble a sea-worthy vessel utilizing standard building materials under a strict $100 budget. For example, foam could be used for sealing, just not for floatation purposes and the boats had to be human-powered, no motors were permitted. If that doesn’t seem challenging enough, the boat had to be completed and ready to race in six hours or less.
Building teams were not permitted to begin construction of their boats prior to the event, but they were allowed to map out and trial-run their designs off-site ahead of time, a perk that the BC team used to its full advantage. “We had 14 sheets of plans and two prototypes that we tested on Lake Washington,” said Mark A. Taff, a member of the three-man building team. “One of them took on some water but fortunately my boots were water-proof. We ended up working out those kinks.”
Taff and the other two members of BC’s build/race crew, Jonathan Lee and club treasurer Arman Bedrosyan, ended up using all of the allotted assembly time and then some. The competition officials called time prior to Bellevue’s completion but luckily granted them another moment to make their finishing touches.
When all teams had finished erecting their watercraft, it was time to affix their life jackets and move all handy-work off-land and into Bell Harbor Marina for the racing portion of the contest, a 200-meter course (accounts for going out and coming back).
Including BC, there were nine teams divided into three heats with three teams in each heat. “The first heat featured us, the University of Washington team that consisted of a couple mechanical engineering students, and Highline,” said Joshua Sandy, the Engineering Club’s secretary.
Bellevue’s first heat was nothing short of impressive, blowing the UW boat out of the water (pun intended) by almost two full minutes. A little friendly post-race banter was in order, “They may have been mechanical engineering students but they had no idea about the initial advantages…we were probably in the water five minutes before they figured out how to get in their boat without taking a bath,” said Taff.
“The second heat was basically the professionals: Jensen Maritime Consultants, Elliott Bay Design Group, and Phillips Publishing. I know Jensen was a group that designed some of the tugboats shown at the Maritime Festival, and both them and Elliott Bay Design Group are professional naval architect companies whom had won the contest in the past,” said Sandy. The third heat included Chief Sealth, Eastlake, and Mercer Island High Schools.
Overall, the race provided little room for error as the victor in each heat would instantly advance to the final round, subsequently trimming the field from nine boats to three. Bellevue College survived the cut and faced Phillips Publishing and Mercer Island in the ‘title’ round.
Interestingly enough, the men of Bellevue College’s Engineering Club coasted through the competition and became champions (earning the fastest boat title) on a craft entitled “Fail Boat,” a name Bedrosyan accredits to Failblog.org, a website he visits. Perhaps there really is something to reverse psychology after all, because failing certainly wasn’t in the cards for these skilled sailors.
Sandy was quick to point out that the whole operation was a total team effort from start to finish. “The whole club contributed in the design and testing but we had the three people build and race the boat during the competition.” Group members all accredited classes they took at BC such as Aesthetics and Graphic Design in helping them create such an effective boat model.
The club would obviously like to retain their title (and accompanying championship plaque) next year but would prefer new members to help bask in their well-deserved glory.
Therefore, if the challenge of putting together a functioning boat in a short amount of time with only a select few materials on hand and putting that very boat to good use by out-racing four year universities and professional boat building companies sounds like something you’d be interested in, the club is eager to meet you. “We meet in room B113 every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30…barring any fire alarms,” said Taff, “and it looks really good on college applications.”
“When are you going to get a chance to build a boat? Engineering Club gave me the opportunity to do just that,” said Lee.
According to club member, Danny Grenard, the next ambitious project will likely be “a camera attached to a weather balloon [that we send] to the edge of the atmosphere.”
