Raingutter Regatta--Looking for Ideas on How to Do One

[IM_Kathy]

oh yeah, and I have to share my sons best design he ever came up with.

 

it was a "Pizza Boat"

 

he painted the bottom of his boat (milk carton) brown crusty looking... then took a piece of the milk carton and put in hole for the mast to go through. then he put on cheese and pepperonis - stuck in mircowave just a bit to melt it up and then covered with contact paper to make sure nothing fell off during his races. on his mast he did a Pizza Hut design but changed the words to say Pizza Boat.

 

turned out looking great... had to take several pictures of it because using food products that was the only keepsake he could keep for it because I wasn't going to grow any future science experiments

[gpraceman2]

Derby Talk has a discussion forum for Raingutter Regatta that you can check out.

 

http://derbytalk.com/viewforum.php?f=18

[Cubby's Cubmaster]

Thanks for the great advice!

 

We ran our raingutter regatta tonight. It went well. Here is what we did.

 

1. We didn't allow tricked out designed and I strongly encouraged that the kid make the boat. It worked. The boats were like designed from the box. The winners were the kids that kept there boat off the rail and blew steadily.

 

2. We borrowed gutters this year. The plastic ones are the best especially when mounted on a 10'x6"x1" piece of wood. We raced them on 2 tables with 4 gutters. We had a practice gutter in the pit area.

 

3. I determined that the double elimination format was too complicated. So we let each kid race 3 times against the clock and took the best time.

 

4. We did it indoors on a tile floor. We had no leaks. The tables were sturdy and the gutters stayed put. We had shop vacs ready but only needed them to empty the gutters.

 

5. We gave our trophies and certificates. We awarded by rank with a race-off at the end for pack champion.

 

6. As an activity, we had them make stands for their boats before the race.

 

Things I'd do different.

 

1. We published a time table with staggered racing by rank. We had many kids come early and were wondering around. We then ran races with the kids we had. We had issues as some kids came later and some parents came later. Next time, I'd make the staggers every 15 minuutes instead of every 30 minutes.

 

2. We needed more activities for kids that had finished racing. I'd set up stations for them next time.

 

That's all! Thanks for your advice!

 

Yours,

Cubby's Cubmaster

[sourmash]

Our pack does the regatta indoors with just the Tigers. The trick to avoiding a mess with plastic gutters, is to put a bucket under each end and let er drip. At the end of the race, use a mallet to knock the end cap off, and be ready to catch the water in an empty bucket.

 

To attach the keel and rudder easily, mark their position on bottom of the boat with a pencil, then use the pointy corner of the metal keel to make deep punctures along the lines. Do this on a table to avoid puncturing your hand. The parts will fit snugly into the new slots, and glue is often unnecessary.

 

For painting the boats, each scout gets a square of scrap wood with a drilled hole in the center. The boat's mast can be put into these block (upside down) while paint is applied and dries. We put a light coat of clear acrylic on each boat to prevent coloring the water.

 

To keep the sail out of the water, cut a short piece of plastic straw and place it on the mast before installing the sail. We let the scouts cut the sail with scissors, and find that reducing weight from the top makes the boat more stable.

 

 

[bear dad]

Cubby's Cubmaster,

 

You stated the gutters worked well when mount on wood, are meaning that gutters was screwed down like from inside onto a flat 1x6? thanks