The smurf, as Mechanical Engineering group 18 calls its amphibeer vehicle, did not get very far. It went straight off the rails at Gemini, continued through the air for a bit and then landed on the water with the right side up. That was good enough for a score of 8.

Jury members Jordy Keldermans and Fercan Molenaar are quite clear about it. “We award a 7 when the contraption ends in the water on its back, an 8 when the ‘landing’ takes place correctly. A 9 for the planes that make it almost to the end of the cistern and a 10 for those that do so with flying colors. There is the occasional 5 which is awarded to groups that do not even manage to get the beer crate as far as the cistern.”

Two groups score ten points and receive an appropriate prize: a waterskiing lesson. Congratulations to groups 30 and 35!

In order to compete for the originality prize, notably a pair of socks with the sponsor’s logo (now who wouldn’t want that?), group 18 has stuck a paper beard onto the front and a crossword onto the side of their plane. Or was this intended, as group member Ate Hempenius suggests, to give the jury members something to do? Ate is wearing blue make-up today because he has forgotten his smurf’s hat, but that is just by the way.

The delta flyer of group 29 does not win that originality prize. The simple execution of a triangular sail on top of the packed beer crate is not good enough. The one that is good enough is Papebo: the shark of group 3. According to the jury’s judgment, it looks most like a water-plane and the paper shark’s teeth appear to be very convincing.

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