Spring Break
Concrete canoe competes in race
Paul Mercado, Daily Staff Writer
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San Jose State University, along with Santa Clara University, hosted this year's regional conference, which was held at Lake Cunningham on Sunday.
The competition consisted of a straight course on the water, in which the competitors had to row 400 yards to a buoy, row around it and come back.
There was also an endurance course, in which competitors had to row around the lake.
For the past year, SJSU civil engineering students have been building a concrete canoe to compete in this year's race.
The canoe was decorated in Spartan blue with gold Greek style lettering, weighed 61 pounds, was about 25 feet long and strong enough to hold four students.
Last year, SJSU's concrete canoe entry finished second overall in the regional competition.
This year's entry finished a fourth overall with 109.5 points.
The University of California at Berkeley finished first with 133 points, Sacramento State University finished second with 122.5 points, University of California at Davis finished third with 116 points, Chico State University finished fifth with 77.5 points and Fresno State finished sixth with 47 points.
The concrete canoe conference was held in two parts.
The first part of the contest was held on Saturday at Santa Clara University, which involved a display of the building techniques used, an oral presentation and a paper on the design and building of the canoe.
However, on Sunday at Lake Cunningham, the Spartan entry finished first in the final product part of the competition and second only to UC Berkeley in the race category.
Fresno State's entry did not finish in the race because it cracked and sank during an early race.
Fresno State tried in vain to hold its canoe together with duct tape, but the design couldn't handle the weight of the students in the water.
The competition is judged on aesthetics, a display category, an oral presentation, its performance in the water and whether the canoe is able to maintain its integrity in the race.
Greg Thiebaut, a senior civil environmental engineering major and canoe team co-captain, said they have been working on the design and building the canoe since the end of last year's competition.
"We used a blue pigment in the concrete," Thiebaut said. "We've put in hundreds of hours of research on different mixtures, and our concrete weighs about one-fifth of the weight of normal concrete,"
To reduce the weight of the concrete, glass and plastic beads are used as the aggregate in the cement, Thiebaut said.
Michael O'Neal, a senior civil engineering major, said SJSU has the best boat since it is the lightest and the most streamlined of them all.
Thalia Anagos, a professor of civil engineering, said the reason there are only six schools competing is because this is the mid-pacific region and some of the schools choose not to compete.
"These conference-competitions are going on all over the country," Anagos said. "We went to the nationals a few years ago and had hoped to go this year."
Steven Arnold, professor of civil engineering, said the program is a national program.
"Rules are, you have to build a canoe using Portland cement," Arnold said. "This year, the canoes have to be made of concrete that is less than the density of water. Water weighs 62 pounds a cubic foot. Concrete normally weighs 150 pounds a cubic foot."
Arnold said the boats are made from a special concrete mix, which presents various problems.
"The lighter the concrete mix, the easier it breaks. So, we have to use a lot of tricks and chemistry," Arnold said.
The students are responsible for the design, the materials and building the entry, as well as the race.
"It's a 100 percent student project," Arnold said.
What are critical in the competition are the reviews of the methods of building the entry, an oral presentation, academics, engineering and competition, Arnold said.
The contestants had hoped to go to the finals that will be held in Wisconsin in June.
