South Side High School's Engineering Club floats to victory

Before school ended last June, South Side High School’s Engineering Club was the big winner at the Anything That Floats Race in Oyster Bay — taking first and second places. Organized by the Friends of The Bay, the race challenges students to design, construct and race hydrodynamic human-powered boats. Traversing the course around several buoys, teams face the same challenges naval engineers do, and quickly find out whether they can turn efficiently, cut through the water smoothly, or sink. 

  A large crowd assembled at the annual regatta to watch the students paddle their homemade vessels across the course’s finish line for the victory. The competition gets bigger and more exciting every year and gets kids excited when science, technology and innovation come together with the thrill of the race. Students used the experience of their tutelage at the ship-building Webb Institute, and paired that with their own creativity and available materials to capture the grand prizes in the School and Open Challenge categories. They salvaged anything that would float from their homes’ garages and recycling bins to construct their vessels, but were prohibited from using rubber, foam or any type of mechanical propulsion. 

Their craft consisted of some leftover plywood, duct tape, buckets, water jugs and good old ingenuity, and was constructed by Thomas Ryan, Patrick Edell, Meghan Connelly, Christopher Connelly, Alex Rosser, Mathew Aliotta, David Slone, Justin Silverman, Adam Moss, Thomas Keady and Connor Bogue. Nobody stayed dry as everyone gave their teammates a big push from the starting line. 

As school starts this fall, the Engineering Club is looking for new members. Check the school schedule for meeting times.