Concrete Canoe UIUC

Concrete Canoe UIUC Official page for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Concrete Canoe Team.
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Since its humble beginnings in 1970, the concrete canoe project has been an annual tradition at UIUC. The project idea was conceived by UIUC Professor Emeritus Clyde Kesler as an educational and engaging design project for his honors class. Upon the completion of the 360-pound Mis-Led, Purdue University heard about this effort to construct a ferrocemento boat. So, in a true spirit of campus rivalr

y, Purdue challenged UIUC to a race. In May of the following year, the competition was held at Kickapoo State Park near Danville, Illinois. Following an intense, challenging contest, UIUC was officially crowned the first Concrete Canoe World Champion. In the years since, the Concrete Canoe Competition has become an annual event, both at the Regional and National level. Every year, students from twenty Regions around the country compete, with each Region’s winner advancing to the National Competition. Each year, UIUC tries innovative methods to improve the Concrete Canoe design.

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Our Story

It all started with a challenge. In 1970, Professor Clyde E. Kesler at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign decided that designing a reinforced concrete beam was far too useful for his concrete senior design class. Instead, he tasked them with designing an aquatic vessel out of cementitious materials and aggregates, and thus the tradition of cast-stone catamaran was begun. Just kidding. He challenged his students to design a concrete canoe that could make its way all the way across the lake in Kickapoo State Park. Thus, a tradition was born!

News of such a novel idea traveled fast, and in the spirit of competition a professor at Purdue University gave his students the same assignment. Naturally, to prove which university had the superior engineering program, the two schools challenged one another to a race.

In May of 1971, the first race between two concrete canoes in the history of humanity occurred. UIUC brought its canoe - the Mis-Led, a 360 lb behemoth cast out of a bathtub. Purdue, being a sensible team, had a much lighter vessel that actually resembled a canoe. The competition was a best of 5, and when it came to the final race the teams were 2-2. It was a dead heat in that final race, until Purdue’s canoe capsized! Thus, the UIUC team was crowned the first concrete canoe world champion, and the Purdue team was awarded a concrete lifesaver for their efforts.

Since then, concrete canoe has blossomed into an international competition under the American Society of Civil Engineers, in which hundreds of engineering programs send teams to compete with one another. Every year, members of the UIUC team, also known as the Boneyard Yacht Club, devote hours of their time and expertise toward designing, building, and racing concrete canoes, and with your help perhaps we can reach world champion status once again.