Crazy Cardboard Boat Race on intermission for 2017 Whitewater Challenge

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

After four years of whimsy, soggy cardboard and swims to the finish line, the Crazy Cardboard Boat Race won’t be on display during this year’s Charles City Whitewater Challenge.

For four years, businesses, clubs and individuals created their own watercraft out of duct tape, cardboard and perseverance, hoping their own watercraft could float down the rapids faster and in better shape than their competitors’.

This year’s community race will be the Inner Tube Intermission, tourism coordinator Ginger Williams, of the Charles City Chamber of Commerce, said. The event will still be timed, but participants won’t be designing their vessels.

“We just decided to change things up and keep everything fresh,” Williams said.

The race will encourage people to sign up in teams of three to five inner tubes. Teammates will float down the whitewater course together at 12:30 p.m. on June 17, during the timeslot that the Crazy Cardboard Boat Race has traditionally taken up.

Although the Charles City Whitewater Challenge started in 2012, the Crazy Cardboard Boat Race didn’t begin until 2013. A registration form is being drafted for Inner Tube Intermission participants, Williams said.