On June 5th the team loaded up and road tripped down to Melbourne Florida for nationals. Legio (our canoe) safely arrived in one piece thanks to our awesome ASCE president who carefully drove the 25 foot U-Haul. After unloading, settling into our dorms, and eating a 10pm pizza dinner, we called it a night.

The following day was swamp testing and display day. The swamp test was conducted in the outdoor pool at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). We passed the swamp test and the team was thankful for the chance to get in the pool because it was a HOT day. Afterward, we set up the display and walked around admiring other teams' hard work. We were able to have good conversations with many of our peers and brought back a lot of knowledge from other schools to build on next year. Thursday evening we had the chance to attend a welcome dinner at the Kennedy Space Center - it was an awesome experience.

Friday our team took the stage delivering a superb presentation and tackling the judge's questions with ease. That afternoon the team took the free time opportunity to go to the beach!

Saturday: Race Day! Legio was loaded up and the team made the short drive from FIT to Goode Park where we had a busy day in the sun cheering on our paddlers. Lots of friends and family came out to support us and we even got to see some dolphins and manatees swimming with the canoes!

Our team cannot express how thankful we are for all of the support we have received from our community; the skills and knowledge we learn through this competition are invaluable to our future and it would not be possible without the considerate monetary and emotional support we receive. We are very proud of what we accomplished this year and we look forward to building on our experiences for more success in the coming years. on what we learned in the coming years. 

Check out our final standings below!

Design Paper: 14 out of 24

Oral Presentation: 12 out of 24

Final Product: 9 out of 24

Races

   Women's Sprints: 13 out of 23

   Men's Sprints: 16 out of 24

   Coed Sprints: 13 out of 24

   Women's Slalom: 13 out of 23

   Men's Slalom: 12 out of 24

Overall: 16 out of 24

Last week we competed at the Carolinas Conference and won first place in the paddling races, design paper, final product and overall! Race day was rainy and chilly, but our paddlers persevered, and it paid off. We're making UNC Charlotte history and returning to nationals for the second year in a row! Once again, thank you to all our sponsors and donors who have made this possible for us! We will keep posting updates as things progress, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop.

We completed and submitted our design paper over spring break, so all we have left on the academics side is the presentation! 

As for construction, we just poured gunwales, bulkheads, and seats. Time is ticking, so we're going to be quite busy sanding and adding the final touches in the next few weeks.

Thank you for your support! You've helped us raise enough money to pay for registration in addition to the remaining construction costs. In fact, you've made it possible for us to seriously consider getting a trailer to transport the canoe. Any extra funds will go toward purchases for next year or Nationals expenses if we make it (We'll keep you posted). Since we already met the goal, and there are still a few more weeks in the campaign, we stretched it to $8,000, so please keep sharing our page! 

Thanks again!

Thanks to all our donors, we exceeded our original goal of $2,500! Now, we're raising the bar to $6,500. This will allow us cover the cost of Carolinas Conference registration in addition to supplies needed to finish the canoe and display. Thanks again for your generous support, and please continue to share our page with others. Here's a peek at the work in progress:

The canoe has been curing for 28 days, so we finally demolded on Saturday! In the meantime, we've been patching, wet sanding, and polishing to smooth out the exterior. Next, we'll be casting the gunwales, bulkheads, and seats before adding the exterior details.

We also got to help with Engineers Week in the Charlotte Discovery Place! Kids enjoyed building spaghetti towers and paper bridges at the ASCE table, and they were quite amazed to see our concrete samples float in water. We enjoyed showing them a little of what is involved in civil engineering.

Thank you to all who have donated so far! You can follow us on Facebook to see more about what we're doing. We appreciate your support, and we hope you share our campaign with others to help us succeed in this year's competition.