Concrete Canoe

Riding a canoe that was at times little more than inches from submersion, two professors at St. Louis's Washington University paddled their school to its first victory in the annual American Concrete Institute boat race there

In taking the faculty division, the professors beat out contestants from the University of Illinois, the University of Missouri and the St Louis Concrete Mason Apprentice Program.

Student entrants from the University of II-linois swept the student division's three races

The winners said they spent more than eight weeks and required the labor of 15 students, all Civil Engineering majors, to build the $1400 canoe. The boat was 17 feet long and weighed 240 pounds, they said.

The average canoe weighs less than 50 pounds.

The top three finishers advance to Champaign, III, for the regional race. Washington U. Student Life