Saturday, August 20, 2005 8:24 PM
Both of my boys are in Cub Scouts. Each year we have the Pinewood Derby (racing wooden cars), and the Raingutter Regatta (racing wooden boats). Both are great character-building activities whereby the parents try to cajole the kids into sanding, painting, or some other token effort so it's not just the parents' work. This year for the Raingutter Regatta we decided to see if we could find any neat ideas on the internet. We had done this with the Pinewood Derby and gotten some great ideas for cutting and decorating. Well, Google served us well, as usual, and we came across this link about a catamaran design (twin-hulled -- picture a pontoon).
Several hours later, while cutting, sanding, etc. it occurred to me that I should call our scoutmaster and clarify the size restrictions in effect in our district. It turns out size isn't an issue with our design, but there is one problem...
No twin hulled boats allowed!
Yeah. Great. It never even occurred to me that the basic design would be off-limits. It turns out that our older son had brought home a sheet with supplemental rules for us, but I never saw it. Sigh. Oh well, our scoutmaster says he's never seen one of these before -- he just knows that they are supposed to be "unfair competition" against the regular design! I can definitely believe it based on the page that we saw, and from past experience. Normally, the scout blows against the boat sail and it just either tips over or crashes into the side of the gutter. Not as much fun that way!
So live and learn, I guess. The boys are having fun doing the work anyway, and I'm sure that the other boys at the race night will be excited to see it. It just won't be legal to compete!