Sarasota Boys and Girls Club makes a splash with cardboard boat race

How does that tune go?

“Rock the boat. Don’t rock the boat, baby. Rock the boat, … and make sure it’s made out of cardboard and covered in duct tape.”

No? Well, that’s how the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota County must have heard the 1974 Hues Corporation song — and it paid off.

The third annual Rock the Boat Regatta, sponsored by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and Intertape Polymer Group, featured 15 vessels decorated to look like everything from “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Jaws” to a unicorn and a dragon. The fleet lined up in the Lee Wetherington Boys & Girls Club pool July 19 to take their shot at victory.

The race participants spent a week creating their boats with help from the sponsors, said Sara Bealor, the Boys and Girls Club director of communications. She said the race gives community members a chance to engage with one another.

Split into three levels of 9- to 12-year-olds, teenagers and CEOs, each race was neck and neck as the designated boat captains paddled from one end of the club’s pool to the other amid cheers from around 200 members of the Boys and Girls Club, the Sheriff’s Office and Intertape Poly employees.

The younger group, which had 10 boats, raced in three groups followed by the three winners racing again to see who would advance onto the next round. A boat designed to look a Disney Cruise Lines ship with Mickey Mouse’s face, steered by Serena Fox and CJ Hamilton, came in first.

Next, the teens took to the waters where a unicorn and a green box sought to see who would be victorious. The green box, operated by Ezequiel Mori and Kyle Smith, took the win.

Then it was time for the CEO race among the Boys and Girls Club, the Sheriff’s Department and Intertape Polymer Group. A Spider-Man, a Lego sheriff and a banana boat glided through the water, but in the end the Sheriff’s Office came out on top.

Bill Sadlo, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club, told the crowd that he made a friendly wager with Sheriff Tom Knight. If he didn’t win the race, “he was going to be arrested,” Sadlo said as he put his hands behind his back for Knight to jokingly cuff.

The final race featured Mickey, the green box and the Lego sheriff teams to see who would take the winning title. The Sheriff’s Department ditched the wooden paddles and instead used their hands to make their way through the pool. In the end, it was Fox and Hamilton who took first place in their Disney boat.

“We did it,” Fox yelled.