Ad Hoc Raingutter regatta or space derby or? for a regular pack meeting

[blw2]

I'm trying to be more active this year with our pack meetings. Want to get the boys up and doing stuff rather than sitting and listening.

I'm thinking of trying to pull together a Raingutter regatta ad-hoc. Am I crazy?

 

My thought is something where the boys have a few minutes to throw together a boat (or space ship or similar) and then run a race at the same meeting. I'm not looking to do a long formal thing like we do for pinewood, it's just about having fun for a regular pack meeting.... 1 hour to maybe 1:20 tops

 

I've never done either of these before

 

We have roughly 40 boys on the roster, but maybe only 25-35 max show up to any given meeting

 

What do you think.... how would you run something like this?

[Loomans]

We are doing a raingutter regatta next week. Our pack prefers using foam noodles as the basic boat with skewer masts and foam sheet sails. The scouts will build their boats, race them, and refine their design. We've also found that the scouts like racing against a stopwatch better than multiple heats.

[Bookemdano]

You could also look into doing a Cubmobile race. Even though we had some epic crashes the boys had a great time. Just make sure you have some helmets for them.

[Sidney Porter]

I don't understand the desire to have the boats built quickly rather than giving them some time. What I like about raingutter is if you are working with the basal wood even a tiger can shape it and use screws to attach the plastic parts. (I think rain gutter is more hands on for the younger cubs than when compared to pinewood) There can be some real teaching moments in coming up with the design and letting them do the work. I also think you need to paint them or they will suck up the water.

 

Our rain gutter doesn't take as long and there are not trophies like pinewood. So it is lower key but they still get the boat at the previous meeting.

 

I have never been part of the space derby. They few people I have talked to about it have complained about getting the "track" set up so it is fair in ever lane.

[Fehler]

On a short timespan, I'd go for a "paper airplane race". hand out paper, have scissors, staples, tape, crayons, markers, etc. available, and build/throw for distance. If you have the help/space, make some "events" out of it, like "best looking" for design, have a "boomerang" competition, or even a "throw and catch" relay. Raingutter regatta can be a mess to throw together, and with 30 scouts who can only race two at a time, it can be unreasonable.

 

[Sidney Porter]

I like the paper airplane idea. You could have a hula hoop and see who can get their plane threw the hoop. Start at 5 feet away then move to 10 then to 15 etc. Each time scout would get eliminated if they miss.

 

But to the OP you are right pack meetings should be fun they should not be boring for the boys.

[blw2]

I actually tried the paper airplane and hula hoop idea once at a den meeting. It was really just chaotic too hard to keep the order. Boys had fun but I doubt if it was in any way a memorable meeting. Tahnks for the idea though.... maybe with more control it could be a fun thing.

 

And thanks for the other thoughts too.

The only reason I wanted to do it all in one meeting is that I was just trying to keep it condensed. Now that I'm thinking it through though, I could make that work..... hummm.... a stopwatch you say?

 

Just let every boy make a run, or two, or three.... and take the best times? Seems like it could be a little chaotic with the boys having to wait a long time while the other boys are running..... how do you make it work?

[blw2]

Yeah, I'm really curious about the actual mechanics of how you folks run the regatta and keep the non racers reigned in so that they don't run wild.

and how long it takes

etc...

Maybe we could start the boats or give them the materials this coming meeting, and set to run in November..... but I have some other stuff to do in November too.

[blw2]

I don't understand the desire to have the boats built quickly rather than giving them some time. What I like about raingutter is if you are working with the basal wood even a tiger can shape it and use screws to attach the plastic parts. (I think rain gutter is more hands on for the younger cubs than when compared to pinewood) There can be some real teaching moments in coming up with the design and letting them do the work. I also think you need to paint them or they will suck up the water.

 

Our rain gutter doesn't take as long and there are not trophies like pinewood. So it is lower key but they still get the boat at the previous meeting.

 

I have never been part of the space derby. They few people I have talked to about it have complained about getting the "track" set up so it is fair in ever lane.

 

 

Thought I'd expand a bit..... The reason i was considering doing what I'll call a simplified version is.... well actually a few reasons

• We are stretched for volunteers in our pack. Not getting a lot of folks stepping up, so a little hard to get all the required harbormasters, and such and get everything arranged and organized. Thought just keeping it simple would work.
  
• Even though it is a great learning opportunity, my real goal is to have fun. Too much structure can sometimes squash the fun out of things. Not that there's anything wrong with a structured race.... just a different purpose.
  
• I would rather keep it about the boys and their design and fun. We have enough of the "teaching moments" with dads building the pinewood derby cars....
  
• keeping it simple keeps it cheap..... like you, I was thinking no big fanfare with trophies and such....
  

Again, I'm just thinking that keeping it simple would make it easier and also just make it a fun activity.....

I like the idea of a more organized thing as you described, giving the boys the opportunity to really study and design..... but that takes more volunteers and more time than I really have.

 

My current thought process is to do this;

• Give the boys each a piece of cut pool noodle, some sticks, and sail material
  
• Give them maybe 5-10 minutes to shape and assemble. Early finishers will race first
  
• maybe set up 2 or 4 pairs of gutters with a parent or leader at the end of each gutter with a stopwatch.
  
• Let the boys just line up and run at random.....
  
• maybe 3 runs each boy with time written on the sails or something with a marker.
  
• After, the boys could line up and run against friends or whoever they want..... for a while,
  
• then snacks or whatever and close the meeting
  

Your Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

[Loomans]

I've done it pretty much as you've outlined with a similar size group. It works and it is popular. There might be a few scouts who want to run around, but there always are. The races generally go fast, the track isn't that long. Sometimes we set up a wading pool so the scouts can test concepts before racing. I also like to have permanent markers for the artistic types to decorate their boats.

[jrdalys]

We had the 'cut down pool noodle' type raingutter regatta last week. We did it as a build then race type event at our first pack meeting of the school year, and also invited all the prospective new cubs to come to the meeting.

 

It was a FANTASTIC meeting. The boys had a great time, the new parents saw how much fun everyone had and felt good about signing up with us...heck, the ONLY bad thing is that our follow on meetings are going to get judged against this one!

 

I'd highly recommend it, even if (especially if?) your group doesnt normally do the traditional regatta.

[Sidney Porter]

It might be messy (and more expensive than a pool noodle), but you should do it with Ivory soap. Most kids probably have not seen floating soap.

[blw2]

 

We had the 'cut down pool noodle' type raingutter regatta last week. We did it as a build then race type event at our first pack meeting of the school year, and also invited all the prospective new cubs to come to the meeting.

 

It was a FANTASTIC meeting. The boys had a great time, the new parents saw how much fun everyone had and felt good about signing up with us...heck, the ONLY bad thing is that our follow on meetings are going to get judged against this one!

 

I'd highly recommend it, even if (especially if?) your group doesnt normally do the traditional regatta.

 

great!

How many boys and how long did it take to run?

Did you just do a timed thing as I described, elimination ladder, or just a free-for-all?

[jrdalys]

We are a smaller pack - we started the year with only 8 boys and had another 8 come to the meeting plus some siblings...maybe 20 or 25 total kids participated. We did it as more of a 'fun' event than our pinewood derby tends to be (the kids have fun there too, but its taken much more seriously) and just allowed the kids to race whoever they wanted. No eliminations, no recording of results, just races for fun.

 

We also had another cool water oriented item also set up (a bit harder to explain...two old fashioned hand pumps set up on barrels full of water, pumping water through sloped gutters into the other barrel). The kids tended to rotate between racing/modifying their boats and playing with the pumps.

 

I spent most of the event talking to prospective scouts/parents and helping get registration done...but there were 4 adults who set up the whole thing and ran it (mostly helping kids assemble boats, preventing absolute mayhem), and they seemed to have had fun with it too.

 

With a larger group I'd suggest more 'lanes' than the two we had, in order to keep the kids from losing interest.

 

have fun!

[Eagledad]

Do a search on Coke Bottle Rockets. Cheap and easy. It is an outdoor activity, but I did it in one meeting with my Webelos. It is a much fun to watch as it is to participate and you can shoot off as many rockets at the same time as you have launchers. BArry