Cardboard Boat Basic Race Info

Article By Shorty

Introduction
I have been a girlscout leader for the past couple of years, and when we recently moved to Phoenix Arizona, I started up another troop here. There is a local organization that hosts a yearly cardboard boat regatta, and each year the Girl Scouts have entered a boat. The boat did OK, it came in a resonable time but no where near the front of the pack.

I responded to the email that Margaret (the program director) sent to all of the leaders looking for people interested in participating in this years boat building. I showed her my website and tried to sell her on my skills, even though I have never built a cardboard boat before (have built a lot of wooden ones though). She gave me the job to be in charge of organizing and building the cardboard boat for this year, and expressed a strong interest in making a fast boat, and doing our best to win one of the classes.

Being a Puddle Ducker, my mind started to race with all sorts of neat possible rule benders and loop holes like using fabric and Titebond II glue as the skin, sort of like a poor man's fiberglass. I called up the Rotary River people to request a full set of carboard boat race rules and also pick their brain about what was allowed and not, and what works. There are several classes, and the one I felt best to go after was the "Class 1, Youth" which requires that:
All boats must have 14 yrs or younger people in it, be made entirely from corrugated cardboard, and propelled by only kayak paddles, canoe paddles, or oars. Single part glues and paints are allowed, but no 2 part glues.

Not Allowed:
fabric (was going to impregnate with TB2)
rope
paper (thinking paper machet & TB2)
plastic
cardboard pre-coated with wax or other coating

Is Allowed:
tear apart cardboard, and smash it, glue it however
any type of tape, if used on seams only
caulk / PL Premium
polyurethane
elastomeric roofing paint
up to 40' length overall
up to 10 paddlers in the boat

Things that are allowed, but don't work:
Oil based paints and coatings

Suggested Construction From Their Tutorial:
Glue cardboard together using elmers yellow construction glue (mose use TB2), caulk the edges, paint heavily with polyurethane, then paint with latex exterior. Now that I have run a race, I see the basic construction is more than adequate and there is no need to bend rules or come up with more exotic solutions. The boats are only in the water for about 10 minutes, even a plain box taped together with duct tape and one or two coats of latex paint could last that long.

Pre-Race Inspection:
When you arrive early that morning, everyone finds a place on the side of the hill or on the lawn just East of the Mill bridge. The boat are layed out, the teams sit around them and inbetween the teams is where the spectators sit. You register at the table and get a flag, which is attached to your boat. Then the judges wander around and find you, they inspect your boat and then take a photo of it. This polaroid is stapled to your race card and used by the judges organize and run the race, and for announcing info about you during the race.

The Course:
The course is approx 200 yards long. It starts off going straight across the lake, goes about 50 yards and then makes a 90 degree left turn. Then it goes about 100 yards and makes almost a complete U turn around the last bouy, and a 25 yard straight shot to the finish line. Directly after the finish line is the boat ramp at the tempe beach park, and they have a bunch of volunteers that lift your boat out of the water and carry it back to your spot on the lawn.

Races / Heats:
There are 3 heats. Everyone runs in the first heat, and each race consists of 4 boats. The boats seem to be grouped in a very smart way, they put an obvously fast boat with 2 medium boats, and a slow one. This helps to get the boats around the first bouy without a major conjestion, which is a big problem. If boats are equal in speed, they seem to get tangled up and that hurts everyone's time. Each boat's time is recorded individually, and the fastest of the boats go to the next heat. There is no specific percentage or number of boats to progress, it is all a matter of what they feel like that day. Later it was explained that they look at all the times run of each class, and there is a natural gap between the fast boats and the rest of the fleet. They take everyone above the gap and let them run again. This makes a lot of sense, and for this type of race, it seems like the right thing to do. Sportsmanship is strongly encouraged, but there are no rules against fouling or purposely interfering with another boat. This is an aggrevating point, and after having watched the races, getting tangled up with the other boats is a major factor in what your performance will be. I didn't see any instances of people fouling people on purpose. The fastest boats complete the course in just under 2 minutes, making it around 3.5 mph. I heard that in Heber Springs AR, a 14.5' solo kayak did the 200 yd course in 45 seconds.


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