2012 Rain Gutter Regatta

Luke participated in his first Rain Gutter Regatta on Sunday. I was familiar with the Pinewood Derby from my brother's days in scouts, but the Rain Gutter Regatta was new to me. They have premade kits, similar to Pinewood Derby, that the kids then take and build and decorate themselves (well, we helped with the wood glue part). Luke drew his sail design on a piece of paper, then I transferred it to the sail, since the permanent markers were a bit difficult to handle on the slick plastic. (No, he hasn't seen Braveheart, for anyone wondering. Heck, I haven't seen Braveheart! No idea where the half blue face idea came from, except for maybe Pixar's Brave.)



Then they race their boats in gutters filled with water, or in our case, huge PVC pipes split in half, which I thought was genius! The boats are powered by the scouts themselves in the form of blowing on the sails. The kids had an absolute blast.



Because this was our first year doing it, there was some user error which caused him some problems. We forgot to glue the sail in place before we went, so when he blew on it, it would turn on the mast. That meant it wouldn't go straight for very long without readjustment. I don't think it mattered much with his first race; that kid just had him beat. But his second race was really close, and I think his loose sail cost him. :-(



Still, everyone had a grand time, and we learned quite a bit for next year. Looking forward to the next one!

Currently feeling: on the orinoco flow