The Duct Tape Kayak team is proud to announce that we have surpassed our fundraising goal for the 2012 season! We were able to raise a grand total of $1025.00 thanks to the very generous donations made by our many supporters! All of these proceeds have been donated to Stand Up 2 Cancer, a grassroots organization that promotes cancer awareness through community action and funds state-of-the-art research that promises to end the fight against cancer once and for all!
Now what you’ve all been waiting for…the winner of the “Guess how much duct tape it took to build this kayak” raffle!!!
I’ll start by saying that it took A LOT of duct tape to build this year’s kayak. The raffle produced many solid guesses ranging from 305ft to over 1 mile of tape. We estimate that the actual amount of tape used in this version of the kayak to be very close to 1/2 mile (~2600ft)!
The winner of this year’s raffle was Frank Campbell who guessed 3,000ft. We have a KayakDave.com T-shirt with your name on it!
Taking the duct tape kayak from a sketch in the sand to the finish line of the Great River Race has been an adventure that we won’t soon forget! The entire project was a great team effort from the design to the build to race day. It turns out that a robotics engineer, a communication major, and a chemistry student have all of the skills needed to make a duct tape kayak float! Having Alex and Brett as partners in this project has made the experience all the more memorable and worthwhile for me! Thanks, guys, for your hard work, creativity, and (most of all) your friendship!
Image Courtesy of Emily Files, Boston Globe
Our mission would have never made it off the ground without the support of our sponsors. We’d like to start by thanking Doug Gray, the owner of Billington Sea Kayak, for everything that he did to ensure the success of this project. Doug’s support extended well beyond providing the work space and donating most of the building materials. He was always there, as our friend and mentor, offering solutions and encouragement rather than doubts. Thanks, Doug for believing in us and helping to see us through! We’d also like to thank Teva footwear for their generous donation of much of the duct tape that went into the hull. Finally, we’d like to thank Ross MacVicar for his help in the machine shop and Nick DelPrete for the carbon seat.
This is just the beginning of the journey for the Duct Tape Kayak. We have a lot of plans for the winter which include: modifying the hull for DT190 version 2.0, expanding our list of sponsors, and identifying a new charity for next year. We’re open to suggestions so please feel free to comment if you have any ideas. Otherwise, stay tuned for the next chapter in the Amazing Adventures of the Duct Tape Kayak!
Happy Paddling!
-Kayak Dave