Who says cardboard and water must be a recipe for disaster?

Most of the more than 30 teams who competed Saturday in cardboard boat races at Clinton Lake somehow managed to stay afloat, thanks to a little ingenuity along with strategically placed glue and duct tape.

“All I had to do was stand up and look good,” said Alex Anderson, 17, captain of the “pirate” ship, Seadogs, led by a crew from the First Presbyterian Church’s Boy Scout Troop 59. “I’m ready to do it again.”

Anderson, wearing a fake beard and waving a toy sword, stood at the front of the ship as Seadogs became one of the early winners in the cardboard boat races, taking a big lead in its heat and beaching with hardly any intake of water. The boat was a product of about a dozen Scouts who designed and built it over two weekends and an additional four days, Scoutmaster Mark Stogsdill said.

Before the races, the Scouts weren’t sure what type of performance to expect from their boat.

“It’s all going to depend on how fast we paddle,” said Keagan Taylor, 13, another Scout.

“We’re hoping to have a scuba recovery team ready to go,” said one Scout leader standing nearby.

Several hundred people gathered along the lake’s shore near the Clinton Marina to watch the races, the first ever held by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Lawrence Program.

“I had no idea this would attract so many people,” said Megan Hiebert, marina manager and who spearheaded the organization of the race. “Everybody had a big smile on their face.”

Leadership Loch ness is among the teams competing in the cardboard boat races at Clinton Lake. The group wore pirate masks and life jackets for the trek. Saturday's races were a fund-raiser for and sponsored by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Lawrence Program.

Among those smiling were youths who built and sailed the Leadership program’s own boat. The crew took only a day to build their ship, they said. They somehow steered through a multiboat collision during their race.

“We thought we were going to crash,” said Harrison Longhurst, 12, one of the crewmen.

“We didn’t think we’d make it to the first buoy,” said B.J. Hambleton, 11, another crewman.

A few boats didn’t fare so well and quickly sank below the surface, and others, such as Liquid Asset, manned by a crew from Commerce Bank’s commercial lender Nathan Price, branch manager Toby Gettler and teller Samantha Wells, nearly went under before making it ashore to finish the race.

“It was gushing in the back and seeping through the front,” Price said.

Pat Slabaugh, of the Leadership Sharks, watches the competition at Clinton Lake. More than 500 people attended the cardboard boat races Saturday.

In fact, its crew of three almost gave up because the boat was taking on so much water.

“We thought about just standing up out there and hugging each other and going down together,” Gettler said.

Designing the boats was half the fun, participants said. Designs included not just pirate ships but others that might have intrigued but scared the Vikings. One boat was an imitation of a water ambulance, complete with emergency lights and siren, and crewed by employees of Lawrence Memorial Hospital,

“We’re hoping other boats will pull over and get out of the way,” said Andrew Fann, LMH information technology employee, as he demonstrated the lights and siren prior to the races.

Contestants carry their boats to the shoreline before the races begin. Hundreds attended Saturday's event at Clinton Lake Marina.

Nick and Raegann Berger, Lawrence, watched and enjoyed the races.

“It was a lot of fun,” Raegann Berger said. “It was great to look at all of the variety of boats.”

“The weather was great; if it had been hot we probably wouldn’t have been here,” Nick Berger said.

Phil Strobel paddles his school bus boat as part of the cardboard boat race at Clinton Lake. The event was Saturday.

The races were such a success they will be back next year, Hiebert said.

“It will be bigger and better,” she said.