Just over 20 years ago, engineering students from Eastern Canada met and founded a highly unique competition involving the design, construction, and racing of concrete canoes! This event, the Canadian National Concrete Canoe Competition (CNCCC), stems from the ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition originating in the 1960’s. Each year, competing teams must design a concrete canoe that holds up to four paddlers during the race. Universities are judged on an oral presentation, technical report, final product, and how the canoe performs on race day.
The University of Waterloo’s concrete canoe team was formed in 2013 and just finished competing for the first time at CNCCC 2014 in Sherbrooke, QC. The team was formed by the captains of Waterloo’s multi-award winning concrete toboggan team. Together, these form the two sides of the Waterloo Concrete Design Team. Waterloo’s canoe team placed 7th out of the 11 schools in the competition, ranking 5th for the oral presentation and 5th for final product. The team was praised by judges and fellow competitors for the build quality of Waterloo’s first concrete canoe. Overall, the team is very proud of their placement in the competition.
Students involved in the concrete canoe team have the opportunity to gain exposure to the following:
-Hull design using computer assisted design software
-Mix design analysis to create a concrete mix that is less dense then water
-Scheduling and other aspects of project management
-Fundraising to send students to the annual competition
-Help with designing and updating the team website
-Formwork design and construction of a concrete canoe
Students from any engineering department are more than welcome to join and contribute to the team. If you’re interested in joining Waterloo’s concrete canoe team, shoot an email over to the team captains at concretecanoe@uwaterloo.ca!
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