Seafair Milk Carton Derby encourages whatever floats your boat

Despite ominous clouds, the banks of Green Lake were packed Saturday for the not-quite-seaworthy spectacle that is the Seafair Milk Carton Derby.

Dozens of mariners manned 75 boats floated on milk cartons, showcasing their backyard naval engineering and creative cardboard flair.

The Derby isn't just a chance to test the laws of buoyancy atop a pile of milk cartons, but also an opportunity for Seattleites to launch a piece of their personality on the lake.

Competitor Shaun Bornemeier waded near shore Saturday afternoon, helping kids in life jackets clamber onto his 26-foot-long milk-carton homage to ancestors.

"I'm Norwegian," Bornemeier said, "so the natural thing to do was make a Viking ship."

The Timber Tamers, an off-roading club, brought their "Moonster Truck" complete with oversized wheels filled with milk jugs.

"We're already talking about the design for next year," Timber Tamer Moose James said. "It saves us gas since we're just sitting here instead of out in the woods."

Ernie Jorgensen is a fan of the Discovery Channel series "Deadliest Catch," so he built a milk-carton crab boat inspired by the show.

"I like to have a nice, sleek look," Jorgensen said running a hand over the canvas-covered hull. It's his eighth year competing and Jorgensen doesn't skimp on detail: The "Crab Bandit" had a milk-carton radar and several handmade cedar crab pots that held rubber crabs and half-pint milk cartons.

Soy what?

Not a trace of lactose went into the construction of the Litov family's boat. They're soy-milk drinkers, and said so with their giant brown foot, "Soy Squatch," made of some 1,500 Silk soy-milk cartons. The family's past entries were "Pirates of the Soyabean" and "Soy Wars."

Tzachi Litov, executive director of Beth Shalom Synagogue, is already dreaming up next year's entry.

"Soy vey," Litov said, a play on the Yiddish "Oy vey." Litov is thinking about modeling next year's ship after "The Scream" painting by Edvard Munch.

Brad Horton's family has been competing 11 years. They're motorcycle enthusiasts, so this year's entry was a four-part biker-gang paddle boat.

"We didn't finish, but that's OK," Horton said. The Horton boat emphasized design rather than speed.

Naval warfare

Not all racers favored artistry over velocity.

"We plan on taking the military category," said Cmdr. Scott Murdock, executive officer of Naval Recruiting District Seattle.

Naval Recruiting has been using the same aerodynamic, if austere, milk-carton canoe for four years.

This year Murdock's crew was up against a raft helmed by Navy recruiter Elliott Newcomb and four fresh recruits. Newcomb's group began cobbling together their humble vessel only four days before the race. But the greenhorns were equipped with a water gun to fend off their soon-to-be superior officers.

While milk-carton boaters showed their stuff at Green Lake, more maritime hoopla was under way at Alki Beach, where the Seafair Pirates stormed the shore.

Leslie Anne Jones: 206-464-2745 or ljones@seattletimes.com