Hijinks on the high seas

By Judy Ross

Not your average boat races: try our novel games to add to your regatta roster. Less athletic competition and more circus sideshow, these wacky water games will give all the cottagers on your lake an opportunity to show off their silly side.

1. Hurry-Scurry Fours

For a slight twist on the standard canoe race, this wacky event features four people paddling a canoe using only their hands, trying to reach the finish line with all passengers on board. Ensuing hijinks include, but are not limited to, canoe dumping and bumper canoes.

2. Sink the Boat

To submerge victorious from this event, teams must fill their opponents’ canoes with water before their own boat gets sunk. Pushing down on the gunwales to facilitate the process is not allowed.

3. Diaper Race: Rear Admiral Award

To participate in this wacky event, all contestants must wear their lifejackets upside down, in a fashion one might call diaper-style, as they swim towards the finish bottoms up.

4.  Grandmother’s Cup: Golden Bathing Cap

This event is a standard mile-long swim, but it takes more than just an able body and endurance skills to participate. To qualify for this race, contestants must be grandmothers. Head-up breaststroke is optional.

5. Canoe Tilting Medieval Style

In this cottage-country jousting match, one team member controls the canoe from the stern while the other stands with one foot on each gunwale, attempting to prod an opposing player from the same position into the drink, using only a long stick and expert balancing skills.

6. Pedal-Pusher Pennant

At the cottage, don’t we all like to take things at a slower, more relaxed pace? So this race, just for the kids, is the perfect complement to a lakeside lifestyle. To win, entrants must master the art of the slow pedal, using their powers of patience as they bike towards the finish line attempting to come in...last place.

For more tips on hosting a great regatta day at your lake, see the feature article "A Day at the Races" in the July/August 2005 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Published in the July/August 2005 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Copyright © 2005 by Cottage Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork, for other than personal use, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.