Concrete canoe club cruises to third place

By: Stephanie Vallejo

Posted: 5/13/09

An eight-month concrete canoe project proved worthy at the Mid-Pacific Regional Conference in Reno last month, earning SJSU's team third place.

The SJSU Concrete Canoe Club brought their 20-foot-long homemade canoe to Reno for the regional competition to try to qualify for the national competition.

"We tied for first place in final product," said Anthony Cirinelli, a senior civil engineering major and concrete canoe project manager. "But the tie-breaker went to Berkeley, because they were better than us in the other categories."

At the competition, the judges critiqued each competing team based on four categories: racing, final product, a 13-page technical paper and a five-minute business presentation.

All 13 members, which included a four-party paddling team, started creating the canoe's design last August and finished in April, Cirinelli said.

Mark Young, a junior civil engineering major, joined the team after winter break.

"When I first heard about it, I thought, this can't be for real," he said. "Then I realized that as long as the density of the concrete is lighter than the water, it would float."

Cirinelli said building the canoe was a less time-consuming task than the rest of the project.

Before the initial construction, he said, the team had to design, form and mold an example of the final product with Styrofoam or fiberglass.

During that four-month stretch, they tested different types of concrete. In January, they began the concrete mold.

"When you first show up and you don't even have a canoe yet, it's just a fiberglass mold sitting there," Young said. "You just can't help getting into it when you see the canoe take shape."

Cirinelli said that they used a lightweight concrete mixture, which is less dense than the water, in order to make it float.

Although the team's canoe weighs 160 pounds, he said its length actually makes it glide faster in the lake.

"When people think concrete, they immediately think heavy, but it's about the displacement," Cirinelli said. "When you think about an aircraft carrier or a cruise ship, those are big steel vessels, but they still float."

Daniel Wanner, a sophomore civil engineer, is the team's construction engineer.

"One of my roommates last year, when I was a freshman, told me about it," he said. "I just tagged along last year and got hooked on it."

Both Wanner and Young said they heard about Concrete Canoe Club through the American Society of Civil Engineers club at SJSU.

In total, 85 students from the engineering department went to the Mid-Pacific Regional Conference, participating in steel bridge, water treatment and water canoe competitions.

Cirinelli said this is going to be his fourth year on the concrete canoe project.

"It's not a senior project or a class," he said. "We all do it on our own time for fun."

Next year's goal is to improve everything and win at regionals, Cirinelli said.

"The winners get glory, they get bragging rights and they get trophies," he said. "If you can make it to nationals, you get to be recognized at the national level and get representation for your school."

Wanner said it was fun hanging out with his teammates while working on the canoe.

"We become a team, and you learn teamwork skills and leadership skills," he said.

Young said he is already thinking about ways to improve for next year's canoe project.

"So much of what we do in engineering is purely paperwork, equations, problems, report," he said. "We don't ever get our hands dirty, usually. This is sort of a way to tie what we learn."