John Fowler is part of a volunteer group that organizes the single-largest weekly exotic car show north of Los Angeles in Redmond Town Center.
But soon he and his team will bring one of the most unusual cars yet to Kirkland’s Lake Washington – a full size cardboard Formula One.
The first annual Moss Bay Cardboard Boat Regatta is coming to the second annual Kirkland Summerfest event on Saturday, Aug. 10. Event coordinator Julie Metteer decided to include the cardboard boat regatta in this year’s Summerfest because she and her husband, Mike Metteer, saw two other cardboard boat regattas on St. Thomas island and thought it would be a fun addition to Summerfest.
Fowler, who heard about the event from Metteer, volunteers at Exotics At Redmond Town Center and is bringing their cardboard car-boat to the water. His other team members involved with the boat race include Nick Bergeron, Jason Bourriague, Ted Cabalayan, Darrin Wong, Steve Larimer, and TN (Math Guru). This will be Fowler’s first time racing in a cardboard boat race. He said the event “sounded like a great idea to bring together our volunteer group [to do] something fun and competitive in the community.”
His group, Exotics At Redmond Town Center, shows classic 1900s cars all the way to the current Lamborghinis and Ferraris.
It took Fowler and his team three weeks to put together a sturdy cardboard car-boat that will hold four of his team members.
“We started off with the six of us, thinking of what we could do to display what we do as volunteers,” said Folwer. “We started off with a whole design where we laminate the cardboard together also using the various glues that are allowed in the rules and then from that point we started to take the creative ideas and figure out how to fold the cardboard properly and how to bend the cardboard into a certain design and it evolved into a 16-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, 5-foot-tall race car,” Fowler said.
The most challenging part of building the boat was building the wheels and calculating how to fit four men weighing 200 pounds a piece in a cardboard boat, he said.
But they’ve gotten some help along the way from the community. They have had several supply donations from various groups, such as Costco and Home Depot, just to name a few.
Fowler and his team are looking forward to competing in their first boat regatta.
“We want to be competitive, but yet throw a lot of fun in there, so to create a design that will give people some incentive to build something next year like ours,” Fowler said. “We just want to be creative and competitive, that’s what’s it’s all about.”
So far, Metteer said that five teams have signed up for the boat regatta but there are still five slots left to fill.
Trophies will be given out for most creative design and most dramatic sinking. If interested in participating in the Moss Bay Cardboard Boat Regatta, submit an entry by Aug. 6 at www.kirklandsummerfest.com, where there is also rules and guidelines for making a cardboard boat.
This year’s Summerfest will be held from Aug. 9-11, but the Moss Bay Cardboard Boat Regatta will be at 4 p.m. Aug. 10 at the Marina Park.
Reporter intern Maddi Miller is an incoming senior at Lake Washington High School.
