The Daily News
LONGVIEW, Wash. — Fittingly enough for a competition called the Procrastinator’s Cup, Tim Kampii and his team of boat builders arrived late at Lake Sacajawea on Wednesday.
His team, which included his daughter Jenna, 10, and niece Natalie Krick, 18, visiting from Idaho, even chose their team name — the Sombrero Heroes — just a day before competing in the sixth annual Longview Cardboard Boat Regatta.
“Being a procrastinator is kind of a theme in my life,” said Kampii, a Knappa High School shop teacher who lives in Rainier.
The Procrastinator’s Cup is the newest Regatta challenge. The idea was for up to 10 competitors to be provided with cardboard and to assemble a boat at the lake in just two hours. Typically, it takes dozens or hundreds of hours to assemble some of the elaborate vessels that have competed in the Regatta over the years.
One concession to the procrastinators: They would race as a group, not against those who had put weeks of sweat into their vessels. But the question remained: Could they build a boat durable enough for the 200-yard course in just two hours?
Kampii’s team was one of two to take on the last-minute challenge, with the other boat entered by members of the Longview National Guard unit.
Kneeling on all fours, Kampii’s team of three cut scraps of cardboard, fitting them together with duct tape and working feverishly until their boat took the general shape of a canoe. The work wasn’t difficult, but the deadline was a challenge, said Kampii, who worked from a design in his head.
“The time is flying faster than I thought,” he said, sweat trickling down his forehead.
Once the boat was assembled, his daughter and niece sprayed the craft green and a hue they called “sombrero yellow.” Real, oversized sombreros sat stacked under a nearby tree, ready to be worn during the race.
Nearby, eight Washington National Guardsmen worked furiously in hopes of making two boats, the first of which resembled a canoe. As the deadline approached, plans for another craft sank, and team members dubbed a piece of cardboard that had been destined for it as “Faith” — as in a leap of faith that it would float.
The guardsmen started working on their boats at 2 p.m., leaving themselves only an hour to finish. Kampii volunteered to help them out, but the guardsmen declined, good-naturedly suggesting that the Sombrero Heroes wanted to sabotage their effort.
“We’re just trying not to sink right off the bat,” said guardsman Jacob Schippers, 19, of Longview.
Guardsmen Zachary Sebers, 18, Jeremiah Dills, 17 — all of Longview — admitted they had no idea where to start. With the help of Google, Schippers found a model boat he thought could work as a canoe.
But as the 3 p.m. deadline approached, they scuttled much of the design as impractical or too time-consuming. The end result worried Schippers.
“That looks like it is going to fall apart,” he deadpanned.
Structure, though, wasn’t their problem. Seaworthiness was another matter.
Their unsteady canoe capsized upon entering the water. As they struggled to stay afloat, the Sombrero Heroes glided forward at a slow but steady speed, leaving the National Guard’s boat— nicknamed the “Keep Calm and Soldier On”— treading water in their wake.
About 15 minutes later, the Sombrero Heroes made a slow drift past the finish line. They proved, at least this time, that procrastinators can sometimes come in first.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
