Water and cardboard mix well in Fox Lake

Water is wet, and cardboard is super absorbent, so paddling a boat made of the material across a wide swimming beach might not be a good idea. But it worked in Fox Lake on Saturday.

A dozen boats were entered in the 30th annual Fox Lake Cardboard Boat Races at Lakefront Park on Nippersink Lake and almost all of them completed the voyage from one end of the beach to the other, about the same distance as a football field.

The secret, according to Lucas Lenz of Fox Lake, is layers of duct tape and a simple boat design. He built only one 3-foot-long craft and his three children each paddled it in different races.

“I was going to build more boats but I ran out of tape,” he said. “Doesn’t matter. Just paddle hard.” Last year, his son, Christian, won the event in a similar boat.

Mark Wilson of an unincorporated area near Lake Villa said his secret was to build a double-hulled boat big enough for himself and daughter Mara, 11.

“It’s like two boxes, one inside the other,” he explained. Then a lot of tape. His daughter chose the name “America You Can Do It” before he wrapped layers of red, white and blue tape around the cardboard before adding flags to the corners.

“It’s the 250th anniversary of America, so it had to be this,” he added.

Prizes were awarded to the two fastest boats as well as the best design, mayor’s choice and the fastest boat to sink.