Raingutter Regatta

Jacob and Ethan have decided to join Cub Scouts. Ethan will be a Tiger Cub in the fall and Jacob will be a first-year Webelo. The den doesn't do much in the summer, but they did host the third annual Raingutter Regatta today. Each boy creates a boat from a balsa wood kit, similar to the Pinewood Derby. There are three gutters, filled with water, and each boy races his boat with self-supplied wind power.

As expected, there were all kinds of boats. Some made by the kids, and some obviously made by the dads. My kids didn't get their boats started until the night before, so all the instructions about sanding with multiple grits, painting, clear coats of acrylic and rubber cementing the parts together went out the window. My kids' boats were briefly sanded once, colored with markers and parts were attached with Elmer's wood glue.

Ethan getting ready to race.


The orange marker on the bottom of Ethan's boat immediately started to turn the water in the raingutter orange!


Jacob's turn.


While some boys were racing boats, others were playing games with water balloons and doing relay races to squeeze water from a giant sponge into buckets.


After the racing was over, one gutter was lined with aluminum foil and four gallons of ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce and lots of whipped cream for a giant sundae! Hilarious and somewhat gross in the Texas heat.




Overall, Ethan's hastily-assembled, bleeding orange boat took first place in the Tiger division and fourth place overall for the day. Jacob's boat didn't do so well, but they had a lot of fun. It was a great event!