UMass-Lowell Students Design Concrete Canoe

North Grafton is represented on a team of University of Massachusetts-Lowell students competing for a national concrete canoe contest.

The 20-member team leaves today for the annual Concrete Canoe Competition, set for June 20 to June 22 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UMass-Lowell officials said in a press release.

UMass-Lowell will hold a special "Truck Day" at 11 this morning. The students will "display the canoe, explain how they built it, why it floats and what it will take for them to win the national championship," according to the press release.

"The canoe, called 'Moswetuset' – a Native American word meaning 'shaped like an arrowhead' and the origin of the name' Massachusetts' – measures 19 feet, 8 inches, is 26 inches across at its widest point and is 13 inches deep. Weighing in at 132 pounds, it was molded from a lightweight concrete reinforced with fiberglass mesh."