Soggy Paper

[SemperParatus]

Our PLC is talking about having cardboard box boat races during one of our summer trips.

 

Any advice on application of G2SS (treat as a canoe?)? Anyone done this before? Any tips for hot boat setups? Other suggestions?

 

Thanks.

[ScoutNerd]

Wow, you PLC has a lot of cool ideas, don't they. Well, the water safety rules are more my area of expertise than hobo railway campouts :-D. For starters, I don't think you an assume cardboard boats to be anything besides something like pool toys. For example, canoes (like you asked) keep themselves afloat even when completely swamped, and cardboard can barely make such a claim, epsecially when soggy :-D. I'd say the best way to make sure you're within the rules is find some still water (lake or pool - though I doubt a pool would let cardboard in) and form an extra large swimming area, following the G2SS and safe swim defense rules. As long as they were playing with such "toys" (forgive the term) in water that they'd be allowed to swim in (given swim checks and all) I'd say you wouldn't even need PFD's because you could count it as swimming, and not boating. Don't take my word as gospel or anything, since I've never officially went to camp school, but after 4 years of being the second in command at a boy scout pool, I'm pretty good on the rules (as of last summer at least). I'm going to camp school in mid-may for being a aquatics instructor, and I'll ask them out of curiosity, and if I"m wrong, I'll write you a really huge "i'm sorry to mislead you" post :-D

-Curtis :-D