Some may call it beginner’s luck — but on the high seas, there’s no such thing.

Though, the “high seas” might be a bit of a stretch to describe the waters of Logan Martin Lake, which served as the backdrop for the seventh-annual Float Yer Boat cardboard boat regatta, sponsored by the Pell City Civitans Club.

Despite being their first year in the competition, the Curtis White Company of Leeds took first place with “The White Pearl” which won both first place in the big boat competition, as well as the captain’s award, which recognizes costumes, team spirit and crowd response.

Joe White, Jr., said that prodding from his mother got him interested in making his maiden voyage this year.

“She said ‘y’all need to have a boat in the race,’ so this year, we collected the cardboard and got one built. It took first place, but we weren’t even sure if it would float,” White said. “We weren’t sure how it would come out, but fortunately, it stayed together.”

With refrigerator boxes and other pieces of cardboard in tow, White and some of the company’s employees invested about 40 hours into the wide-bottomed pirate ship’s construction.

“I got on the Internet and tried to look for some different pictures of them [boats] and really couldn’t find a lot as far as plans, so I basically just took a clip-art picture and said, ‘Let’s try to make it look like this,’” White said.

However, he said they took a lot of cues from the bends and creases that were present in the cardboard boxes they used. The wide bottom design, he said, was a cue from last year’s competition, where the flat-bottomed boats seemed less likely to tip over.

While the crew, made up mostly of the White family, was proud to win, they were more than happy to participate in an event which raises much-needed funds for Toys for Children in Pell City.

And while there are months to go before the next regatta, perhaps beginner’s luck will be replaced by experience in time for another voyage.

“This year, it was hard to get people to volunteer to paddle,” White said. “But after we had a good victory, I’ve got a list of people now that want to participate next year, so I’m sure we’ll be back.”