This shot is from a uniquely Seattle event - the Milk Carton Derby which is part of SeaFair. Anybody can enter, the requirement is that your boat must be home-made and it must use only milk cartons for flotation. Half gallon wax cartons and gallon plastic jugs count. I think you can only use glue and duct tape to hold it together. You have to provide your own propulsion. Highly decorated is good but the boat is supposed to float...at least for a little while. The events include races but finishing with the boat in one piece is considered a big success. A few really build boats for speed; they get their own race. But most row their boats past the crowd just for spectacle's sake.
The witch in the highly decorated back boat really sets the scene. All of these boats are moving with purpose towards the finish. I don't see any serious sinking here. A disposal company contributes big trash bins at the finish line so boat owners can dispose of their sodden disintegrating milk cartons and duct tape.
My daughters' girl scout troop has entered the Milk Carton Derby for the last several years. The girls build the boat themselves with little adult supervision. Usually the boat is still a pile of milk cartons along with parts of a catamaran plywood structure in somebody's back yard until a very few days before the event. They always have a blast having a boat though it only lasts a very few voyages. I've also included a picture of the girls in last year's boat, Naomi is on the far right.
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