Cuban group makes Chevy boat

Desperate times call for desperate measures - but sometimes ingenuity gets you a lot farther.

But not far enough in the case of 12 Cuban refugees, who fashioned a 1951 Chevy into a makeshift boat.

The group, desperate to reach the comparative wealth of the US, made it to within 40 miles of the Florida coast.

Here, they were spotted by US coastguards. Their craft, powered by a propeller strapped to the exhaust and kept afloat by empty oil drums, had a top speed of just 8mph, leaving them in no position to make a dash for it.

Awarding zero points for effort, the officials returned the group to their homeland and sunk the Chevy, fearing it could become a shipping hazard.

'We haven't come across any vehicles like that before,' admitted Petty Officer Ryan Doss. And that's saying something. Previous efforts by Cubans to cross the 90-mile-wide Straits of Florida have included setting sail in converted baths, fridges and surfboards.

It may sound comical, but escaping the abject poverty of their communistruled-island is no laughing matter for the 3,000 Cubans who attempt it each year.

Afurther, unintentional carrot for the refugees is that those who make it to American shores often get to stay.

One of the most famous, and tragic cases, was that of Elian Gonzalez. The six-year-old survived when the rickety boat carrying his mother and nine others sank. He went to live with relatives in Miami but a judge ruled he should be returned home to his father.