Build A Submarine

Carderock submarine race a family affair for Frederick team

Multimedia:

Click here to see the video

Some families bond over dinner, some plan trips to the beach or make a point to catch a ball game together. The Burtons build submarines.

Donald Burton and two of his children 26-year-old Meredith and 21-year-old Josh all of Frederick, prepared their most recent creation Thursday at a biennial submarine race held at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, in Bethesda.

The family has entered in the past six events, since Josh Burton, now a college senior, was in the third grade. The judges rib them when Donald Burton says this is their last competition he has been saying that for years, his son said.

“Yeah, they'll be back. No doubt in my mind,” said Kurt Yankaskas, a 10-year judge for the competition.

Josh Burton said the family began building submarines in a bet with themselves “I bet we can do this.”

“People start backing away when you say submarine race,” said Donald Burton, 60, dressed in a wet suit and standing by the family's vessel in Carderock's model basin.

“But this is it,” he said, gesturing to the other subs and participants. “This is what it's all about.”

The competition of man-made, man-powered submarines this year drew 25 high school, university and corporate teams from around the globe, for a total of 29 entries. The week-long event challenges participants to build and operate submarines, most between 9 and 12 feet long, that are raced in the 3,200-feet-long tank where the Navy tests its own vessels.

The week begins with time trials and relays, before each sub competes for a timed race. It concludes with an awards ceremony.

The event, sponsored by the International Submarine Races Organization, aims to promote math and science as enjoyable school subjects and to inspire youth to pursue careers in engineering and ship building, said Capt. Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, the division commander at Carderock. The race has been held every two years, since 1989.

The Burton team, the Scuba Sub-ers, was one of three independent entrants this year.

Without corporate sponsorship, the Burtons' approach to building a submarine is unconventional. They reused an early model as the base for this year's Scuba Sub and scoured scrap yards for materials. Instead of hiring professionals to bend and treat fiberglass, the Burtons bought sheets of the plastic used to make street signs and erected a makeshift oven to melt the material enough to shape it, Josh said.

CT Students Build Human-Powered Submarine | BoatingLocal.com

CTPost.com: The white hull of what will soon be a lipstick red, human-powered submarine doesn’t make it in the pool gracefully. But when it does, a group of Old Saybrook High School students and teachers cheer.

“All right!” woodshop teacher Fred Frese yells. “That’s it! Oh, it’s perfect, perfect. Look at that. Look at that. Right on the money.”

Frese turns to the submarine team’s captain, senior Shannon Jorgensen. “I love it! I love it.”

CT Post

Travel Connecticut

Please share your comments below.