Minimal construction and marginal seaworthiness meant maximum hilarity Labor Day Weekend, when nearly 40 teams tried to keep plywood-and-duct-tape vessels afloat during Key West's wacky Schooner Wharf Minimal Regatta.
Rules required each team to build a boat out of a four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood, two eight-foot two-by-fours, a roll of duct tape, a pound of fasteners and epoxy paint.
As spectators cheered, team members navigated the vessels through a "sink or swim" course at Key West's Historic Seaport Sunday afternoon, trying to stay afloat the longest. Many got "that sinking feeling" soon after launching, but a few craft proved surprisingly seaworthy.
Creativity eclipsed function in entries including a quickly-sinking craft with a colorful parrot figurehead, a bright yellow banana-shaped gondola and a paddlewheeler whose duct-tape gears refused to function. Among design standouts were a "vino vessel" resembling a giant wine bottle and a tiny replica pirate ship paddled by a costumed buccaneer.
Prizes were awarded for the fastest boat, most creative design, best paint job, best costumed entry as well as the dreaded "sinker" award for the least seaworthy vessel.
