Team pours learning into concrete canoe

By Jazmin Smith

A canoe made out of concrete may not seem like it should float, but a UK team is working to make it happen before a national competition.

Each year UK’s chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers competes in the Concrete Canoe Competition, an annual event in which students research ways to make concrete lighter. Schools compete in conference competitions held in the spring, and the winners go on to the national competition in June.

To build the canoe, teams must first raise funding and do research. Then the mold is built and the concrete mix designed. The mix is placed on the canoe, cured, sanded and stained. Once the canoe is built, the team members must practice paddling and work on the technical design papers.

At the competition, groups will give an oral presentation and race the canoes.

This past Saturday, the ASCE held the Concrete Canoe Pour. By noon, at least a dozen students were working diligently on shaping the mold and smoothing the concrete onto the canoe. The first of three layers was finished, and students worked to add the first layer of reinforcement.

Others worked on batching the mix, adding water and carrying in buckets upon buckets of the concrete mixture. Fumes were strong, especially in the room where the mix was being made.

“This is worse than black lung,” civil engineering senior Brad Miles said jokingly.

Saturday was not the team’s first day of work on the canoe. They’ve held meetings once a week since September and worked every day for the last week creating the mold.

These ASCE members have had to work during a lot of their spare time. Miles, who has worked on the project for three years, explained that he’s put at least 100 hours into the concrete canoe this year.

The team leader of the project, civil engineering senior Ben Mason, said the project is voluntary at UK, whereas some other schools do it as a design project. That makes it hard for the students to find the spare time to help out and be really competitive, he said.

“It’s hard to sustain success when it’s just voluntary for us,” said Mason.

The team has never won at a national competition, Miles said, but the group still has fun.

“We’re serious, but not overly serious about it, and we have a good time,” he said.