PWD chair (reluctantly) takes over the Raingutter regatta
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 10:20 am
After several successful pinewood derbies, our CM has suckered our PWD to run the RGR this September (and guess who that is!).
One of the challenges that I'm running into is that contrary to the PWD, I need to squeeze this race into a single 2-hour window. Further complicating matters is that we're probably going to have around 60-65 racers, many of which will be Tigers racing for the first time. I want to avoid the double-elimination format for obvious reasons, but I'm worried that other approaches will make it difficult to complete in the allotted time. However, last year's RGR was the tear-filled single-elim format and the pack committee wants to make sure we don't have any quick exits this year.
Any suggestions are welcome -- here are the details:
- Only 2 hours from initial registration to final race
- Racing by rank only (no overall pack race)
- Breakdown is something like 20+ Tigers, 14 Wolves, 8 Bears, 12 Web I's, 5 Web II's
- Due to our "track", we're limited to 2 boats / heat (I think that's pretty standard for RGR -- just thought I'd state it)
- We do have two tracks, so we could run 2 heats at once (or at least in quick succession)
- We are only awarding first place for each rank, so determining 2nd and 3rd isn't needed (although we want to be pretty sure about first!)
We are using the trimaran boats, which seem to be faster and more stable than the old standard-hulled boats, so I'm thinking that the heats may run quicker, but I'm not sure how quick.
Thanks in advance for any and all comments!
One of the challenges that I'm running into is that contrary to the PWD, I need to squeeze this race into a single 2-hour window. Further complicating matters is that we're probably going to have around 60-65 racers, many of which will be Tigers racing for the first time. I want to avoid the double-elimination format for obvious reasons, but I'm worried that other approaches will make it difficult to complete in the allotted time. However, last year's RGR was the tear-filled single-elim format and the pack committee wants to make sure we don't have any quick exits this year.
Any suggestions are welcome -- here are the details:
- Only 2 hours from initial registration to final race
- Racing by rank only (no overall pack race)
- Breakdown is something like 20+ Tigers, 14 Wolves, 8 Bears, 12 Web I's, 5 Web II's
- Due to our "track", we're limited to 2 boats / heat (I think that's pretty standard for RGR -- just thought I'd state it)
- We do have two tracks, so we could run 2 heats at once (or at least in quick succession)
- We are only awarding first place for each rank, so determining 2nd and 3rd isn't needed (although we want to be pretty sure about first!)
We are using the trimaran boats, which seem to be faster and more stable than the old standard-hulled boats, so I'm thinking that the heats may run quicker, but I'm not sure how quick.
Thanks in advance for any and all comments!