Summers in Minnesota means taking the boat out on the lake, but this past weekend on Moonlight Bay, there were some unique boats that you wouldn’t expect to be out on the water.

In the 9th annual Cardboard Boat Races at Moonlight Bay, participants are required to make a boat only using just cardboard. The weekend event is for lake fun and also to raise money for an important organization.

“We raise money for the Whitefish Yacht Club, they’re the ones who put the buoys out, they put lights on the buoys and provide lake safety for the Whitefish chain,” said Cardboard Boat Races Committee President Chad Genereux.

People get very creative with boat names like “Dilly Dilly”, “Fortnite”, and this year’s People Choice award winner, “Ain’t No Laws”.

“Actually, our significant others helped make the boat together and came up with the theme jointly as a team, it’s a play off an internet meme and video that’s going around, a lot of people recognize it, they enjoy it, it’s a little bit more of a trend going around,” said “Ain’t No Laws” team member Corey Brenner.

The cardboard boat races even have its own halftime show.

“We just try and do something new and unique every year and we started calling around local people and we found this family, George, Gabe, and Nolan all live in Brainerd,” said Genereux. “Gabe and Nolan are 13 and 11, and obviously you guys saw what they did on a jet ski, it’s pretty remarkable.”

For the champions of the 2019 cardboard boat races, it’s been a long time coming.

“It’s a big thrill for us because we’ve been trying for six or seven years and we’ve never won it, it was just really awesome this year because we really do it for our dad, he loves it, he builds the boats, it’s just awesome to finally get a win and in front of all the people it’s pretty exciting, too,” said 2019 Cardboard Boat Champion Chad Pribyl.

Everyone wants to win the cardboard boat races, but what this event is all about is Minnesota lake fun.

“This is it, this is Minnesota, this is what it’s all about, this is what you live for, three months out of the year we live for this, nine months in the winter we suffer just for this,” said St. Cloud resident Mark Young.

“It’s a family event, you have the kids engaged, you have the middle-aged individuals like us engaged, and you have elderly individuals engaged too, just cheering on and it’s a great event for everyone to come to,” said Brenner.

Next year is the 10th annual Cardboard Boat Races, and plans are already being made to make it bigger and better than ever before.

By — Chaz Mootz