© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Local hackers win boat race fundraiser [video]

danielegoldstein
/
Flickr

  Last Saturday was the second annual "Float Your Boat" fundraising event for the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri. It's a wacky event where teams build real boats out of cardboard and duct tape and then race them at the lake behind the Bass Pro Shop in Columbia.

This year's surprise winner was a group of hackers called Columbia Gadget Works. We've covered them before when they were visited by a hacker-themed band on tour.

The Columbia Missourian reported that the event drew an impressive 50 teams and raised $15,500 before concessions. Registration for the event cost between $30 and $100 per team.

So what was the key to Columbia Gadget Work's victory? It looks like you can point to their ridiculously well-designed boat. It almost doesn't seem fair--while other cardboard boats struggled to just stay afloat, the hackers' sleek dragon boat style boat looks like it might hold up on the open sea.

This video they produced made use of some great first-person view cameras:

http://youtu.be/s5bdbToKWQE

The group of hackers are big followers of the "hackerspace movement" and recently moved into a new workspace on Missouri B.

H/T Redditor WildCheese