Sailing Tips for a Raingutter Regatta

Racing their own custom-made Raingutter Regatta boat is an experience shared by many Cub Scouts. The Raingutter Regatta encourages scouts and their parents to work together to build a model sailing boat that is put to the test against other entries in a "regatta" held in raingutters filled with water. Scouts have many options when designing and building a boat. Scouts should also keep a few tips in mind when racing, or sailing, a regatta racer to achieve maximum speeds.

  1. Breathing Techniques

    • Scouts should have a calm and steady approach to propelling a Raingutter Regatta racer down the length of the course. Frantic, uneven and flustered puffing into the sails is not only inefficient for moving a boat, it can lead to dizziness and fainting. Slow, steady breaths that provide a steady stream of air hitting the racer's sail are a better option for quickly moving the boat than mad and blustery blowing.

    Maximizing Wind Angle

    • The position a scout takes while propelling his Raingutter Regatta racer is critical in determining how fast the boat will move. Ideally, the stream of wind a scout expels from his lungs should hit the boat's sail directly behind it, and at a spot just below the center of the sail. The angle of the wind is key because a downward blowing wind will push the boat lower into the water thereby slowing its progress. Scouts should blow from behind the boat at a slightly upward angle in slow, steady breaths.

    Weighting the Boat

    • As in sailing an actual, life-sized boat, weight distribution throughout a Raingutter Regatta racer is critical to achieving top speeds. A Raingutter Regatta racer weighted more heavily towards the aft is able to move faster than one weighted at the bow. This is because when a scout blows into the sail of an aft-weighted racer, the force of the wind forces the bow down a bit causing the racer to run fairly flat in the water. A bow-weighted design, when blown, will dip deeper into the water in front and slow the boat.

    Choosing an Edge

    • Raingutter Regatta racers seem to race faster when they are blown down one edge of the raingutter or another. Excessive bumping or dragging along the edge will slow the boat down, of course, but trying to keep a racer going straight down the middle of the gutter by tacking to one side and then the other is inefficient. If a racer slides to one side or the other scouts shouldn't worry, but just keep blowing.