VQ-4 Sailors sink competition in Cardboard Boat Regatta

  • Published
  • By John Stuart
  • Tinker Public Affairs
Petty Officer 3rd Class Joshua Graver awoke groggily and slapped his alarm off. It had been a late night and he was behind schedule. Still half asleep, he rolled out of bed with a Sailor's resolve and dressed for aquatic combat -- he had a cardboard boat race to win.

Graver and his teammate, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jimmy Salinas, sped down Interstate 40 toward Tinker, their cardboard skiff in the pickup bed, fresh paint gleaming in the Saturday morning sun. Though arriving 30 minutes late for registration, it was all good -- the duo, a.k.a. Mid Checkers for the night shifts they'd been working at their Navy VQ-4 unit, had made it to the Gerrity Pool to do one thing -- win the 10th Annual Cardboard Boat Regatta.

What had seemed a kind of after-thought tomfoolery only hours before had turned to determination for the enlistedmen. Although most of the 12 regatta teams had prepped their crafts for weeks, Graver and Salinas started building theirs a little later than the rest. But these Sailors weren't about to let a crew of Airmen beat them in their own watery medium.

"Friday morning we started looking at designs and we didn't start building till Friday night about 5 p.m.," Salinas said. "We stayed up all night building it and painting it. I didn't get any sleep."

With a three-ply cardboard design, the duo crafted their vessel, USS Shadow, to hold their cumulative 260 pounds, with Salinas at the helm and Graver as first mate. Their design parameters were simple for the July 31 competition -- make their boat quick and nimble. The boat crews had to maneuver down the 50-yard lane of the Gerrity Pool, make an about face and paddle back. Fastest time wins.

But the Mid Checkers had another element working against them. If building an entire boat overnight weren't a big enough swell to crest, Salinas had a 4:30 a.m. report time for work Saturday morning for a shift ending just a few hours before race time. But true to their cause, they finished spraying on the silver flames shrouding the boat's bow just before Salinas drove to work with no sleep.

"I was searching through Google photos and I saw a real boat with flames so I said 'let's bring back the '80s speed boat with flames,'" Salinas said.

Their craft proved the ideal balance of speed and agility in the two-lane pool. Although a fellow Navy team from VQ-7 was in the running, the Mid Checkers were rudders amidships and full steam ahead as they took first place for best time and also best boat design. They won two of the three categories after their all-nighter, only ceding the best dressed captain and first mate award to Captain Sinkalot (Jeff Luterbach) and his wife, First Mate Leaky Boards of team To the Bottom Again. Team To the Bottom Again also won third place in the time category. Earning second place in overall time was Team Sunset, with Captain Terry Pershing at the helm and First Mate Don Reichman on board.

The two trophies Mid Checkers gleaned for their efforts were a welcomed surprise to Salinas' and Graver's leadership.

"We brought the trophies back to the command the next working day. They're pretty stoked," Salinas said. "Nobody thought we were really going to win, but as soon as we got out there I just thought 'we're here to win it.'"

The Mid Checkers earned a $250 credit toward a unit function, well worth the $100 they spent to build the USS Shadow. And what started as a last-minute entry could be a new tradition.

"We're already talking about a repeat for next year's competition," Salinas said.