Derby Talk

I'm in charge of the Space Derby this year Last year was our first year doing the SD and, like others have stated here, this event seems to take longer than it should. The biggest schedule killer for us was broken rubber bands.

We run double elimination brackets. How do you guys handle broken bands? Do you give the rocket back to the child/parent for replacement bands or does the race committee/volunteer fix the rocket? If the rocket is not ready in time for the heat, does the rocket take a loss for that race or is the heat delayed or re-scheduled?

I'm contemplating a staging board so that rockets can be wound a few heats in advance, giving a little more time for repairs before a broken band impacts the schedule.

Any other thoughts of ways to make the races go faster?

Thanks

emaier,
if the rubber bands break, it should be fixed immediately with a combination of help form the parent/cub and race officials. Our pack has a couple of extra boxes of rubber bands for just this reason.

Also, before racing even starts, make sure during tech that the little rubber tube is wrapped around the eye of the wire where the rubber bands attach to it. Many of our scouts did not have this as it is an easy thing to miss on the directions. Without this, it is easy to cut the rubber bands when winding.

Also, there are a few posts here indicating the use of a winding system that winds 4 space derby vehilces at a time, I would recommend that.

The rubber bands can be fixed quickly, just make sure you have someone helping that has done it before. To help the parent and the scout, make sure the repair person has the long hook, bands and some small wire ties. This way they can remove the old bands (replace with the same number) place the wire tie around the bands and the rear dowel (this way when the bands stretch you don’t lose the dowel, after the run). This whole process should take about 30 seconds.

Most times if you lube the bands (and the rocket is assembled correctly) you shouldn’t have much trouble.

A winder helps alot.