Andy Warhull 2
“This is the best one I’ve ever seen,” said Charles “Scooter” Hager, CEE Structures / Materials Technician at Pitt. He works in the Benedum Hall sub-basement and, as Cook said, “helps with literally everything we need, even teaching us how to row.”
The Andy War-Hull
Beyond questions of design and mix are the canoe’s name and its theme. At meetings, students share ideas, most with a nod to Pittsburgh, until one or two take hold. Last year, the team settled on the alliterative Monongahela Megalodon. Before that it was the Three Rivers Safari.
This year, they turned to one of Pittsburgh’s favorite sons: pop artist Andy Warhol. Punny names ensued, and the Andy War-Hull stuck. For artistic inspiration, team members took a guided tour of the Warhol Museum on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
“After the canoe cured and we sanded it, the aesthetics team set to work, drawing designs in pencil before staining them into the concrete,” said Kayley Dorfman, an aesthetics co-lead and next year’s project management captain. “The team did everything by hand.”
The boat is adorned with pickles, Heinz condiments, a banana, Marilyn Monroe lips, Dippy the Dinosaur, a panther paw, and the Cathedral of Learning.
Rowing a concrete canoe
Constructing the canoe is a remarkable feat. Rowing in it isn’t particularly easy either. At 215 pounds and 17.5 feet long, the Andy War-Hull requires stamina and skill to weave through buoys in the slalom or to sprint 200 meters.
In previous years, the teams did little in the way of actual rowing practice. Experience was spotty, and the results weren’t always great.
Hager has set out to change that. He has a canoe and lives near the Ohio River. For the past 17 years, he has encouraged students to come and practice, and two years ago, they took him up on the offer. “That first practice, we just sent them out,” Hager said. “They got a lot of time on the water, just figuring out how to work together.”
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