Waterlogged

Marisa O’Neil

Physics student Scott Miller knew his boat was a deathtrap.

The wood and paper vessel -- we won’t call it seaworthy, because

it clearly wasn’t -- at first floated hopefully atop the waters of

Newport Harbor High School’s swimming pool. On its flat-black

surface, Miller had painted its fate: “Death Trap.”

A fully-clothed Miller, 18, gingerly lowered himself, bottom

first, from a specially constructed dock into the Deathtrap. He

promptly sat right through the bottom of the boat.

Undaunted, he walked the craft across the pool, adding a few

strokes with his kayak paddle for good measure.

“I should have made it smaller,” a wet Miller said on the other

side of the pool. “And with more support on the bottom.”

Nearly 100 physics and advanced-placement physics students set

sail -- or at least tried to -- during the school’s annual boat race

Thursday morning. Like the chicken who crossed the road, their goal

was simply to get to the other side.

Armed with nothing more than flimsy strips of wood, paper, glue,

paint and physics knowledge that may or may not have been applied,

students constructed their boats and set off on their epic journeys.

“They have equations, and they’re able to calculate what size to

make the boat,” teacher John Risse said. “But they don’t always use

them.”

Paint, he said, is key to the construction. It helps seal and

waterproof the boat.

But paint didn’t help 18-year-old Andre Pinesett and 16-year-old

Jackie Belida’s boat, “The Love Below.”

Their red and white two-seater with vintage Chris Craft styling

supported a nervous Jackie at first. But when Pinesett got in, the

boat broke apart.

“It’s about the effort and having a good time,” Pinesett reflected

afterward.

Ben Meredith and Reed McMillan, both 18, had a more successful

design. They got into trouble, however, when their adventurous spirit

took them off course.

The pair paddled their canoe safely across the pool, then made a

port-side turn and headed toward the middle of the pool. The boat

made a couple ominous-sounding popping noises, but stayed afloat.

When they attempted to paddle boldly over a floating lane marker,

however, the bottom fell out of their plan -- literally.

“We were just trying to go as far as we could,” Meredith said

after their voyage.

After the races, some boats sat, intact, by the pool. Out by the

trash, others sat in a soggy heap of wood and paper while the

engineers got a little free time to play in the pool before lunch.

“This is something they look forward to all year,” Risse said.

“This is the reason some of them take physics.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.