Wayne State University senior civil engineering student Knicko Mojica laughs when asked what makes concrete a good substance for a floating vessel.
“Honestly, it is really not good and that is part of the challenge of building a concrete canoe for racing,” said Mojica, who is a Warren resident and a graduate of Warren Mott High School.
Mojica is co-captain of WSU’s team that competed in Friday’s Eastern Great Lakes Concrete Canoe Regional Races at Lake St. Clair Metropark.
The elite competition is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and combines engineering, hydro dynamic design, and racing technique. WSU hosted the event for the first time in more than a decade and competed against 12 other college teams from Michigan and Ohio.
Ten canoes finished in the men’s division Friday: Youngstown State, 2:17.13; Michigan Tech, 2:30.15; Michigan, 3:17.65; Western Michigan, 3:40.12; Lawrence Tech, 4:17,71; Akron, 4:50.15; Wayne State, 4:52.15;Cincinnati, 5:23.04; Toledo, 5:45.55; and Ohio State, 11:21.80.
In the women’s division, nine canoe teams made it over the finish line: Youngstown State, 2:30.60; Michigan Tech; 2:40.12; Michigan, 4:01.11; Wayne State, 4:44.25; Akron, 5:03.22; Western Michigan, 7:30.18; Lawrence Tech, 9:26.99; Ohio State, 14:02.75; and Toledo, 14:38.55.
Schools form their teams in September and spend the next few months developing a canoe design, testing their materials and working to get sponsorship dollars to fund their project. Typically the civil engineering students spend two to three hours a day working to develop a winning canoe.
“When it comes to making concrete float, you have to make it less than the density of water,” said Mojica. “Water has a density of 60 pounds per cubic foot and concrete has a typical density of 150 pounds per cubic foot.
“So a lot of time is spent testing different concrete mixes and doing CAD drawings.”
The canoe has to be light enough to float, but strong enough to hold passengers and withstand the force of the lake water.
WSU’s canoe weighs just under 300 pounds and is 20 feet long. The maximum length allowed for canoes competing in the race is 22 feet.
“This was our first canoe since 2020 and it has been hard because we had no one to guide us so essentially, we had to just start from scratch,” said Mojica. “We are setting up a binder we can pass on to future teams so they can improve upon the baseline that we have set.”
While there may not be a big demand for concrete canoes, Mojica says being part of the team helped prepare participants for a career in civil engineering. Team members have different specialties – material testing, fundraising, aesthetics – just like there would be in a job outside of academia. The team does calculations and testing and develops a report of its activities.
“The whole point of the competition is to create a mock construction project,” said Mojica. “It helps with communication and teamwork and these are things we can apply to our future jobs.”
