Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

Anything related to Raingutter Regatta racing and event coordination.
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PwEngineer
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Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

Post by PwEngineer »

As much as I like Pinewood Racing, I have to admit my favorite club race is Raingutter Regatta! In PW, it's all in the car. In RR, you have to train too. It's a contest of your piloting skill and your design/construction skill.

When we increased the speed of the boats in our club races from 20 seconds / 10 foot gutter to 2 seconds, the competition became much more interesting! It is not uncommon for little girls to out blow the big guys. Talk about fun!

Hope more of you experience this great derby sport too.

Let us know what you think.
Michael Lastufka
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

Post by Darin McGrew »

A few years ago, our church's Pioneer Girls leaders organized a Sailboat Race. I've still got a copy of their notes, and I hope to publish a page about such events on my web site one of these days. But in the meantime...

The "piloting" skill is easy to underestimate. It makes a huge difference, and it's important to let everyone practice beforehand.

It's also very helpful to support the sections of raingutter in such a way that the "pilots" can walk down either side. When two raingutters were side-by-side on the same table, some girls had a lot of trouble when they had to walk on the "wrong" side of the table. (How quickly can you write with your off hand?)

Finally, the logistics of scheduling races is different than it is for a derby. It takes longer to get both the "pilot" and the boat ready in each lane, and you need to leave plenty of time for "pilots" to catch their breath between races.
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Re: Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

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Michael, We have our Pack's Raingutter Regatta coming up on October 18th. I would like to hear all I can as far as boat building and race management. As far as running the races; to win a 'heat' and advance (we use double elimination), a racer must win on both the right and left lanes. I have noted over the last two years that most win in the left hand lane more esily than the right. I assume this is due to being right-handed as the few left-handed boys we've had race win more easily in the right lane [the gutters are placed on opposite sides of a table]. Even with all of that, it is usually the boy (or adult) that can blow the hardest over a longer period of time that wins. I heard just this week from a former Den Leader that a lot of boys did not race last year since "you and your boys always win all the races". Although this is not 100% accurate, it does indicate that we are a family of blow-hards! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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Re: Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

Post by PwEngineer »

Da Graphite Kid, I've posted all our 2 or 3 second boat tips at http://www.lastufka.net/lab/boats/ for free and wrote a booklet for Scouts and others who want more specific application of those principles to BSA-like kits.

There's no reason for any pilot to get winded! If you have QuickTime on your computer, watch this little 10-year old girl blow the "Enterprise" across a 10 foot gutter in 3 seconds real time, http://www.lastufka.net/lab/boats/movie.htm. Does she look out of breath? Note, her opponent was fast enough to win in most competitions, but she gave up in this race. The finals of that regatta were spectacular with two other pilots equal to the one shown here. We ended up runing a best out of N round-robin for the three. Each of the three beat the other two at least once! This girl missed 1st by a hair.

Darin is right, good blowing technique can make up for some errors in boat design, but not all. You won't get a fast boat following the BSA instructions.
Last edited by PwEngineer on Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Michael Lastufka
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Re: Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

Post by Da Graphite Kid »

Thanks guys, I've got Michael's book, "World Class Boats" on order and it should be here next Monday or Tuesday. Plenty of time to plan for a day of boat building for our 20 Cub Scouts.

At Roundtable last night, we discussed upcoming Pack events. I mentioned our Raingutter Regatta and had to explain what it was. If all go as planned, we will have a few leaders from Council and District as well as leaders from three surrounding Packs attending. Boy are they going to get a kick out of this! We also have an officer from the local Coast Guard station in to speak about boating and water safety - something that should be taught at all local schools since we are right next to a lake but isn't. This also helps some of our 'Cubs with advancement.

I also plan on reclaiming my title from another Parent who beat me last year! I also will be racing a 'grudge match' against my Boy Scout aged son - I can't wait!

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Re: Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

Post by TurtlePowered »

Da Graphite Kid wrote:Michael, We have our Pack's Raingutter Regatta coming up on October 18th. I would like to hear all I can as far as boat building and race management. As far as running the races; to win a 'heat' and advance (we use double elimination), a racer must win on both the right and left lanes. I have noted over the last two years that most win in the left hand lane more esily than the right. I assume this is due to being right-handed as the few left-handed boys we've had race win more easily in the right lane [the gutters are placed on opposite sides of a table]. Even with all of that, it is usually the boy (or adult) that can blow the hardest over a longer period of time that wins. I heard just this week from a former Den Leader that a lot of boys did not race last year since "you and your boys always win all the races". Although this is not 100% accurate, it does indicate that we are a family of blow-hards! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Da Graphite Kid
One thing you can watch out for is don't fill up the rain gutters too full. Otherwise boats will have a hard time getting out of the starting doc if you are using one.
Reggata races are pretty fun. One reason the right might win more than left is people might be right-necked. It might be more natural to lean right than left.
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Da Graphite Kid
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Re: Not Just Boat Design, It Tests the Pilot Too!

Post by Da Graphite Kid »

TurtlePowered,
The race went well and all had lots of fun. I dropped to third place in our All Comers class. I lost to both my older son and the parent who beat me last year! Seems it's true what they say about old sailors; they lose their wind when they get older!
By the way, we're in Alabama, so I don't know if that right-left necked thing would be true or not as we are all rednecks down here!

Da Graphite Kid
(aka: Third Place and Slowing Fast)
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