The World's Fastest Raingutter Regatta Boat

Also the world's first rocket-powered Raingutter Regatta boat

Warning and Disclaimer:
Any attempts to repeat or replicate the experience detailed on this and following pages should only be done by adults or under strict adult supervision! All such attempts are your responsibility and we are not responsible for any maimings or killings resulting from your ineptness or stupidity!

This story starts at the Sunday leader meeting of Summer Camp, 2004. Our Camp Director announced that there would be a "no holds barred" (fatal mistake) adult leader Raingutter Regatta during our week at camp. He announced that there would be "Official" boat kits available in the trading post.

Now, Troop 53 leaders are known for (ahem) creative solutions to challenges and thinking "outside the box." In this case way, way, way outside the box. The box wasn't even in the same county. On Monday afternoon we started thinking and brainstorming on what kind of boat to build. It was mentioned that catamaran-style (2 hull) boats smoke single hulls in standard Raingutter Regatta races so that was our starting point. We talked about sails and decided that, if wind powered, the "stock" sail was just too flimsy. I mentioned that I had some aluminum coil stock at home and that, since I had to go back home for a few hours on Tuesday, I could bring some back to make a stiffer sail. But then someone mentioned how neat it would be to mount a rocket engine on the boat and that is where this tale of insanity truly begins.

Jim Maule and I went to the Trading Post to buy a Raingutter Regatta Boat kit. While there we ran into the Camp Director and asked again if it was truly a no holds barred race. He confirmed that it was (insert evil laugh here) and that he was happy someone was interested in actually running a boat in the race. We took the boat back to our campsite and began planning on how to mount a rocket engine. Several ideas were thrown around but nothing was decided upon. We also figured that we would need some sort of "guidance system" to keep the boat in some semblance of control for the safety of spectators. So a list was made of materials we would need and I would bring them back with me on Tuesday. They included dowels, a roll of suspended ceiling wire, spray paint, sand paper, a sheet of Troop 53 logos to glue on the boat, epoxy, the smallest rocket motors we could find, and anything else I thought would come in handy.

That evening, Craig Brethauer took his youngest son back home to play in a baseball game. About 11PM he called me. He said he was in WalMart and had found the perfect solution to a lot of design problems. He had found a rocket-powered drag car made by Estes that ran on a string guide. He said "I'm buying it!" He also bought a few extra engines for experimenting/exhibition purposes, and brought back an old rocket that his sons had used several years ago thinking that we may be able to scavenge a few parts from it.

Tuesday morning I brought all the stuff on my list back to camp except for the rocket motors. I also couldn't find any epoxy at home but did find a tube of Marine Goop and figured that would be just as good. So design and assembly started. We cut the boat hull in half lengthwise (bow to stern), sanded the two halves to the same profile and turned them on their sides (curved side down). Someone asked about pointing the bows, but we thought that keeping a "planing" hull would be advantageous in terms of keeping the rocket from burying the bow in the water and possibly turning our boat into a submarine. The rear axle of the car was turned into a brace between the two hulls. The nose of the car was cut off because the car was longer than the hulls and to cut down on weight. We figured that we would use the rear axle struts to mount the rear of the car to the boat, and the axle/brace would be the mount for the front of the car. Jim, Craig, and I then painted the hulls and decided to let them dry overnight.

The next morning, Wednesday, we painted the undersides of the hulls and let them dry. This was more difficult than you might think at first because masking the interior faces is not easy. Some touch-up was required. After the paint dried it was time for a trial mating of car and boat to determine balance and final weight. We got out a frying pan, filled it with water, set the hulls on the water, then the car on top of the hulls. To make the weight even closer to race weight we even installed a rocket engine. It was found that we had too much weight for the hulls. The waterline was at the top of the hulls and we were worried that the force of the rocket may push them further underwater. So our plastic surgeon Jim started hacking at the rear struts of the car until we lost enough weight. The car was then glued to the hulls. After a half-hour or so of drying time we installed the string guide, picked up the boat and.... it flipped over — we were top-heavy.

We carefully separated the car from the hulls and our plastic surgeon got to work again. We cut the car right behind the cockpit. The removable rocket mount was turned over so the string guide was on top. After a couple of careful cuts to the mount, it was inserted and glued into the back of the cockpit. A side benefit to turning the mount upside down was that it moved the axis of force from the rocket closer to the hulls, lessening the worry of burying the bows in the water. This is actually the most questionable design decision we made. No one knew what would happen to this cobbled together joint when the rocket actually fired. Craig cut the wing off of the car and it was mounted to the motor mount clips but the angle of attack was wrong — it would have forced the bows down. So I made a little wing mount out of aluminum, glued it to the clips and then glued the wing to the wing mount. Now the wing's angle of attack would lift the bows out of the water. The wing was cocked a little to one side, but we figured that wouldn't hurt anything.

The front brace was kept, but we now needed a rear brace/engine mount. The dowel in the Raingutter Regatta kit that is supposed to be a mast was cut to the width of the hulls and glued to both them and the motor mount. A water/balance test showed that we were probably as good as we were going to get in that regard. We also decided that the stock launch system for the car wouldn't work for us. Out of the box the car's guide string is attached to an orange plastic box that has a metal "blast shield". The ignition wires come out of the box to be attached to the igniter wire. These wires are "permanently attached" to the box but it didn't take long to take them off. The launch box was discarded at that point. The guide string is mounted to a reel that is also the tensioning device. We only used that as a reel. A better solution might be to get a cheap chalk-line reel and use that but we didn't want to spend any more money.

While all this was going on, Christie Kwock had heard scuttle-butt that another adult who was a SCUBA diver planned on using his air tank to blow on the sail of his boat. Besides wondering how he would regulate the force from this we really didn't figure that it would be real competition — if our boat actually worked. We also tried to keep our boat somewhat secret since we thought that, if found out, we might get disqualified even though this was technically a no-rules race. At least some of our Scouts knew what was being built and we couldn't possibly keep them from talking about it. A couple of staff members caught wind of our design and we swore them to secrecy and no one actually called us "on the carpet" about the boat. After all, rocket engines border on fireworks which are not allowed at Boy Scout events. Our argument in that case was that the Space Exploration merit badge class would be launching rockets on Friday and rocket kits were available in the Trading Post, so...