Local News - August 2003

Boat racers ‘romp’ to stop river waste

By AMY WADSWORTH, Staff Writer

On your mark, get set, go!

The first annual Catawba River Romp Kinetic Eco-Race took place Saturday and featured seven eager participants showing-off their homemade vehicles.

The Kinetic Race was a fund-raiser for the Catawba Riverkeeper foundation, which works to preserve the ecosystem of the Catawba Basin’s waterways.

To participate, racers had to have a safe, functional and entertaining apparatus fit for both a land and water race.

“It is free fun,” said Catawba Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby. “It is a way for us to get all the folks together.”

Many of the vehicles were made of old boat and bicycle parts as well as anything else that participants could find. Each apparatus was required to have an environmental theme.

The kinetic race is based on others like it in the country, such as one held in Colorado that has been going on for two decades, Lisenby said.

“It is a really big thing there,” she said. “It draws in 20 to 30,000 people.”

In order to enter the race, the vehicles had to pass a safety inspection.

All of the vehicles passed inspection, but not all of them made it to the finish line.

“Hunk O Junk Ya’ll,” a vehicle made by Timothy Jones and his girlfriend Patricia Siddons, capsized during the water portion.

The couple represented the Pizza Hut in Cornelius. Their vehicle was made entirely of trash, including water bottles and bicycle tires. They did not spend any money on the float.

Although they did not finish in the race, they are glad they participated.

“It was a lot of fun,” Siddons said. “We learned next time not to make things out of trash.”

However, Siddons said it was a pleasure to build the boat.

“We have never built a boat before,” she said. “We got what we wanted out of it.”

The winners of the race, Todd Hoover and Rick Chatham, both of Elkin, rode their “Keep Natural Kinetics” float. Dressed up as rats, with a piece of cheese on the back, Hoover and Chatham were all smiles as they crossed the finish line.

 The two men are members of the Elkin River Rats, a group working to clean rivers in their area, primarily the Yadkin River.

“This is our boat that we take out on the river to clean up trash,” Hoover said. “We just put it together by decorating it a little bit.”

Several other boats had more dramatic themes.

The HMSGW Strangelove team float had a mock-up of George W. Bush floating in the middle of it.

The presidential mannequin was straddling a nuclear waste drum.

“Our float represents the Bush Administration,” David Mickey said, community organizer with Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. “It is representing the plan to use plutonium fuel in the McGuire nuclear facility.”

A lifeguard theme was used for the “CATAW-BAY WATCH” float, built by Mark Sleeper and his son Ian from Lake Wylie. The float consisted of a lifeguard stand suspended on a pontoon, marked with the words, “No lifeguard on duty.”

“We thought it would be fun,” Sleeper said. “It took us about a month to put it together.”

Another boat had a theme of aliens, titled “Earthlings Unite.” Nina Layton, dressed as an alien cat, stood on land to cheer them on. All members in the boat were dressed in alien masks.

Ron Bryant of Charlotte, with the Catawba River Foundation, decided not to construct a float. Everything he used he said he already had.

His theme was the CRF Seal, Sewage Elimination And Limnology.

He was ready in gear with his surf board, flippers and mask.

He even had a rubber duck on the front of the his board.

“The rubber duck is for psychological comfort,” he said. “It is to inspire me in the race, I borrowed it from my grandchildren.”

Bryant installed “stoppers” on the front of the board which he said he would use to stomp pollution if he saw it. He also had bottles attached to his board to take samples of any pollution.

“The Good Guys,” a float from the Lake Norman Cove’s Keepers had their kayak attached to two bicycles. Their float was designed to remove sewage from the lake.

Cynthia Jones had to ride one of the bikes, which she said was a lot of fun.

“I have not ridden a bike in 20 years,” she said. “I was so worried I would fall off.”

Many of the passers-by were intrigued by the sight of the racing floats.

Kay and Paul Spagler were in town from Michigan visiting their daughter in Davidson.

“We like special events and we didn’t want to miss this,” Kay said. “Anything on the water is exciting.”

Other attractions Saturday included live music, food and vendors. 

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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