Helena teens Tucker Colvin and Maverick Mansfield tested the age-old question Saturday morning - does a cardboard banana float?

Unfortunately, the answer was no.

Their cardboard creation collapsed into itself soon after it hit the water at Spring Meadow Lake during the 10th annual Cardboard Cup Regatta.

But, banana boat in hand, they swam the length of the lake and crossed the finish line.

"Quitting is for squares," Colvin explained after the race.

Mansfield said the driving force that kept them in the competition was "intestinal fortitude" otherwise known as guts.

The duo, who floated on a large wedge of cardboard cheese last year, said they are already planning for next year's event and will stray from their food theme.

"We might do a minivan. It'd be easy and fun," Colvin said.

The banana was one of about a dozen boats in the water Saturday morning for the regatta. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Spring Meadow Resources, which provides services to the developmentally disabled, sponsored the event.

Matt Wintersteen, 9, was the first in his boat and subsequently the first to spill into the water.

"I knew it would crash," said a soaking and shivering Wintersteen, the only competitor in the race for kids ages 5 to 10 years old.

With the crowd cheering him on, Wintersteen dragged Night Boat, the black kayak he and his dad worked on for about 10 days, across the water.

The crews of Old Blue, who won most enthusiastic, and Disqualifier, who took home most spectacular sinking, also got soaked.

Some remained dry, including brother-and-sister team Taran and Brie Denning, whose pirate ship, The Brown Pearl, garnered the grand championship trophy and most creative boat theme.

Although Brianne Dewitt and her boyfriend, Steve Weber, were in a cardboard bathtub, neither got wet in the race but they were prepared for it, complete with shower caps.

The tub was originally going to be a hand but at about 10 p.m. the night before the race, Weber decided that fingers would be too challenging to create, so he transformed the hand into a bathtub.

"I didn't get too much sleep last night," he said.

Dewitt's father, Greg, wasn't as lucky in the race or as dry at the end.

His double-decked boat's paddle would not cooperate during the race.

"I tried to get too intricate," he said about his Lake Hopper, which took him about 100 hours to create.

He bailed out of his boat when "it was taking too long" and pulled the vessel the rest of the way to the finish line.

"I won my heat but I was the only one in it," he said with a laugh.

Greg Dewitt also went home with the paddle for most attractive boat.

He said he will use the same hull next year and convert it into something else. So far he has created a set of dentures, a tennis shoe, a tea cup, a rubber duck, a dragon and the Titanic out of cardboard for the event.

While some spent weeks if not months concocting their boats, 11-year-old Chace Bingham started the night before. He saw the event in the newspaper and decided to give it a shot with La Duckie.

His boat, which he too carried across to the end, came in third.

Bingham was not disappointed that his duck did not float because he said the best part of the whole process was bailing out into the lake.

Reporter Angela Brandt:447-4078 or angela.brandt@helenair.com