Thursday, October 1, 2026
Ed Phalen’s first attempt at cardboard boat-building and racing in Baldwin ended about as well as expected — it was an outright failure.
The flimsily built boat was too narrow, and it capsized almost as soon as Phalen climbed aboard it in Milburn Creek. He got back in and managed to paddle a few yards before his creation began to sink, leaving a passing rowboat to tow him — and what remained of the boat — back to shore.
That might have been the end of cardboard boat racing in Baldwin. But Phalen figured out how to build a better boat.
Nearly three decades later, Freeport and Baldwin residents have kept the tradition alive. The annual cardboard boat race will return to Milburn Creek on Sunday, continuing the event created by Phalen, now 94, that has spanned three generations of his family and drawn hundreds to the waterfront.
Phalen, then the president of the Cross Island Motorcycle Club and a member of the Freeport-Baldwin Elks, was initially asked by the Elks to organize a motorcycle event. He didn’t think the club could compete with established motorcycle events, so he looked toward the canal near the Elks Lodge for another idea.
“I said, 'We can go right over the bridge, and we can go into a cardboard boat race,'” Phalen recalled.
Cardboard made sense because Phalen wanted the competition to be accessible.
“It was a poor man’s sport,” he said, explaining that a wooden boat required a workshop, equipment and experience, while a cardboard boat needed little more than boxes and duct tape.
The first race was hosted at the Elks in 1998, according to Phalen’s daughter, Sonrisa Pastore, a Baldwin native and longtime competitor.
“I just remember the whole, entire community coming together, and the excitement of building the boats to see who would float,” Pastore said.
Phalen, who sculpted metal as a hobby and made trophies for the race, continued organizing the event for close to 20 years. Along the way, the event became as much a Phalen family tradition as a community one. Pastore competed alongside her brothers and cousins, and later raced with her children.
Phalen, meanwhile, became a much better boat builder. “My father was an expert cardboard boat builder,” Pastore said. “He just knew from memory how to cut, construct, tape the boat so that it was structurally sound.”
The tradition eventually reached a third generation, with all 11 of Phalen’s grandchildren competing over the years, he said. He remained a competitor himself well into his 80s. In what Pastore remembered as his final race before he moved to South Carolina in 2021, Phalen found himself competing against one of his grandsons.
“I basically competed against my grandson for a trophy,” Phalen recounted. “And I beat him by inches.”
John Cools, the commissioner of Nassau County Sanitation District Two, became a familiar face at the race. His children competed, and Cools helped with cleanup. When Phalen stepped away, Cools decided to take over.
“I said, you know what, it’s a fun event. Let me see what I can do to pick this up,” he recalled.
Baldwin’s Irish Pub now sponsors the race, covering the cost of trophies so competitors can participate for free and hosting a pre-race breakfast.
Cools estimated that 200 to 300 spectators line the waterfront each year, with four to six boats typically competing in the children’s division and a dozen or more in the adult division. The race is open to anyone who wants to give it a try.
The rules have remained simple, inviting cardboard, duct tape and creativity while prohibiting wood and flotation devices. Cools has seen the homemade craft transformed into Viking ships, spaceships, a UFO and even a floating tiki bar, often accompanied by costumes.
One longtime member of Pastore family’s racing crew will be missing this year. One of Pastore’s sons, Ryan, who began competing when he was 7 in 2015, recently entered the Coast Guard Academy. His mother said this would be the first race he has missed since he started participating.
Sonrisa Pastore, who now lives in South Huntington, said that race day has become an annual reunion of sorts. “You see generations of people that you haven’t seen in years when you go down to that event,” she said. “And it’s also brought different communities together.”
Since he moved to South Carolina, Phalen no longer gets to watch from the banks of Milburn Creek, but his daughter said he still looks forward to seeing photos and videos of the tradition he started.
“His face lights up, and he looks forward to us competing every year,” she said. “And I feel like it’s a tradition that is important to my family to just carry on and be there.”
