THE ULTIMATE BUILD-A-BOAT CHALLENGE

Each of the last few years, during Norfolk Harborfest, an annual festival on the Downtown Norfolk waterfront, the popular and crafty Ultimate Build a Boat Challenge draws innumerous spectators. Lining the Town Point Park waterfront for a prime view of the competition and race, spectators wonder at the capacity of the hastily-built boats.

Teams construct boats from scratch, in various engineering and decorative designs. Contestants were given about four hours to put together a seaworthy craft from materials provided by organizers the day before the competition. Those materials consisted of a few sheets of plywood, marine caulk and some zip ties. The boats were allowed to set overnight with zip ties in place, but on Sunday, the zip ties had to come off.

The competing teams place their boats, and boating skills to the test with an all-out race to the finish line. With hopes that their design would survive the test of the Ultimate Build a Boat Race Sunday, two ODU Engineering juniors, Sam Gibson and Aaron Cohen, tried their hand at boatbuilding entering this year's competition. In the end, the two students found themselves a spot among the top rankings, placing second overall in the race. Their sleek canoe-shaped boat also took the first place prize for best design.