Mt. Pleasant regatta

Mt. Pleasant High School students learned some physics lessons Thursday after building boats from cardboard and duct tape and then launching them onto the pond at the school.

For some the lessons included getting wet.

While classmates who were not as brave watched from the shore, four boats were launched onto the pond. The goal was to stay floating for 15 minutes. Only two made that mark.

Nearly everybody took a spill into the pond.

The only boat that stayed afloat for 15 minutes and did not sink was piloted by Johnny Mahavong. His back got a little wet as his boat began leaking, but it did not capsize. Mahavong lay in his boat, dispersing his weight over a greater area.

He was in the afternoon class. His boat was launched into the pond with the soggy wreckage of the morning class’s boats piled on the shore.

Andrew Rauenbuehler watched as Mahavong floated in the pond nearly dry.

Rauenbuehler noted some differences between the afternoon boat and his that capsized with his partner Kade Welcher.

“Johnny is nice and light and lying down,” Rauenbuehler said, “probably two things we could have done better.”

There was no question that Rauenbuehler and Welcher’s boat would have won the award for the best style … if there was an award for that.

Their boat was the RMS Barbra Streisand. It had a tall bridge that the two of them stood in. They popped open a couple of Dr Pepper’s and enjoyed a can of Pringles as they floated on the pond.

And there was a soundtrack playing Streisand’s songs “Memories” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”

“I was in charge of music,” Rauenbuehler said. He only picked two songs because “I thought we were going to go down faster.”

They lasted about 8 minutes before capsizing.

Not thinking they would stay afloat long was a common theme.

Zoe Bentler and Nathan McWilliams lasted nearly all 15 minutes before submerging in the pond.

“I thought we were going to go down faster than that,” Bentler said.

She said they lined the bottom of their boat with duct tape, which she credited with keeping them afloat longer.

This wasn’t all fun and games. There were lessons hidden in the fun.

Physics teacher Dale Shultz required the students to determine the buoyancy of their vessels. This required computing the weight of the occupants and determining how much water would be displaced. A water line on the side of the boats showed their calculations.

Students could use only cardboard and duct tape to build their boats. Your Dream Home furniture store provided the cardboard boxes.

Not everybody’s boat was a success.

As Liam Halawith climbed into his boat near the shore, it filled with water and sank.

“I lasted about 10 seconds,” he said.