Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Anything related to Raingutter Regatta racing and event coordination.
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Husker
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Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by Husker »

We've never done a regatta and none of us have seen one in action. With that in mind...

We are having a Cub Scout Round up this fall. We were thinking of having a Regatta as a drawing card. It looks like a boat could be built in minutes and be able to race right away (I suppose a pinewood derby car looks like you can just push the wheels on it and race to someone that hasn't built one before).

Is it possible to build boats in ten minutes and race them?

If not, maybe we will have a Regatta that allows the Cubs to build them and ask them to donate or lend their boats for following year's Round up.
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Re: Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by MaxV »

It does take much less time to build a regatta boat than to build a pwd car. However, 10 minutes is a bit short. Here are two reasons why:

- The rudder and keel need to be glued into groove in the bottom of the bottom, so glue dry time is required.

- If the boat is not painted/sealed in some way, the balsa wood will absorb water. I haven't experimented to know the ramifications of this.

I recommend a longer build time, or possibly build in one session, and then race the next session.
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Re: Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by gpraceman »

It all depends on what materials you want to use for the boats. If you use the kits, then it does require a longer build time as MaxV pointed out.

At our first pack, they provided a precut 1x3 and we used a dowel and part of a plastic milk bottle for the mast and sail. There was no rudder.

At our new pack, this year they provided a milk box for the boat body and we used bamboo skewers for the masts and construction paper for the sails. Again, no rudder. You can also add some stickers for decoration.

With simple materials as these, you can quickly build a boat on the day of the race. If for a pack race, you could also give out the materials at den meetings and have the kids bring their completed or semi-completed boats to the race. Some come with nothing built so there should be materials handy.

At both packs the raingutter regatta was a very low key event, which is a nice change from how seriously eveyone takes the Pinewood Derby. There were no prizes (except ice cream sundays for all). Just boys lining up and having fun blowing their boats down the line.
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Re: Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by Teeeman »

we had a "wacky water olympics" day, and due to technical difficulties, the Raingutter Regatta was canceled (they forgot the nails in the kits).

The intent was to build minutes prior to racing... I had imagined milk cartons... (never knew what Raingutter was until the day of the event 2 weeks ago)...

what I believe they had were chunks of styrofoam.

I thought that was pretty simple material to work with, pretty cool.

Anybody else use styrofoam for "day of event" constructing of boats?

Terry
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Re: Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by rdeis »

My nephew's pack used soap for day-of building.
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Re: Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by quadad »

This is exactly the thread I was looking for !!! :D

We want a easy and non-competitive Raingutter Regatta event that would allow maybe 20 - 30 minutes for the scouts (and siblings maybe) to work on their boats prior to the race.

Any other materials or methods suggestions ? I don't want to bother the dens with any advance work other than maybe getting their materials together.

Keep 'em coming ! :thumbup:
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Re: Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by derbyspeed »

Husker wrote:We've never done a regatta and none of us have seen one in action. With that in mind...

We are having a Cub Scout Round up this fall. We were thinking of having a Regatta as a drawing card. It looks like a boat could be built in minutes and be able to race right away (I suppose a pinewood derby car looks like you can just push the wheels on it and race to someone that hasn't built one before).

Is it possible to build boats in ten minutes and race them?

If not, maybe we will have a Regatta that allows the Cubs to build them and ask them to donate or lend their boats for following year's Round up.
We actually did this at our picnic one year, it took us about two hours but we had a small group also. The biggest thing is getting the paint and glue to dry.

Go here to my website and you can actually see start to finish, building and racing. I pre-painted all the boats several different colors, had the boys put them together at one pack meeting, then took them home to put decor on them and we raced at the next pack meeting, worked out great!

Here is the website link: http://www.cubscoutpack118.com/2.html" target="_blank

2007 was when we did it during the picnic, you'll see those pics at the bottom of the website.
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Re: Can boats be built just prior to the race?

Post by Mr. Slick »

For several years we used to make a day of the RR. The kids were given the kits at 10am. by 10:15 they were on their way to building their own boats. The parents started the annual planning meeting. Around noon the parents took a break and handed out the spray paint for the kids to use. We used sticks in the ground as holders for the boats. The side yard had lots of interesting colored grass for a few weeks. ;)

After the paint ran out it was time for lunch, picnic in the park next door.

After lunch, the water was turned on for the tracks set up on the basketball court and the kids lined up to start THEIR races. no records, no times, no trophies, just lots of racing and fun! The adults finished the planning meeting and around 4pm when the kids were all tired of racing we took the rain gutters down and called it a day.
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