The World's Fastest Raingutter Regatta Boat
Page 2
Race day was supposed to be Thursday — initially scheduled for after lunch. At the leaders' meeting that morning, the Camp Director asked if anyone was entering a boat in the race. I raised a hand for Troop 53 and a lady from another Troop also raised hers. The Camp Director then announced that the race would be in the evening around 7 or 7:30. I came back to camp with the news. We decided that a test firing was necessary just to see if the thing actually worked. 
Although we didn't have a way to test it on water we mounted the guide string in the air between a pole of one of our shelters and a wood post in the next campsite (we were using 2 campsites) about 80-90 feet away. We mounted a blast shield of aluminum to our shelter to keep it from burning; a fire extinguisher was also at hand. After warning the few boys in the campsite to back off, our pilot John Mackin counted down, pressed the launch button and.... nothing. We waited a little, John pushed the launch button again and nothing. The directions say to not approach the engine for at least a minute so we kind of took our attention away from the boat and all of a sudden it took off. We figured the engine had absorbed some moisture from the rain the night before, so we opened a new package of engines, put one in the boat and tried it again. This time all went as planned. Video of the flight showed that the boat did a barrel-roll around the string due to the wing being not quite level but other than that no problems were incurred. According to the video, our boat covered the distance in less than a second. So for a 10 foot gutter we ought to be right around 0.25 to 0.33 seconds — beat that! (See video of a second test launch [boys will be boys :)] from a different angle.) We were as race-ready as we could be, although variables outside our control could still throw us for a loop. For one thing, we didn't know if we were even running in a gutter. If we were, how would we keep our boat from slamming into the end of the gutter and disintegrating? It would make for a great show, but if there were more than one heat we were out of it. But then again, no one said your boat had to actually touch the water, so we thought that if we angled the string to make the boat just clear the end-cap of the gutter we would be safe. Another problem to overcome was how to keep our string tensioned correctly and at a correct angle. The younger Scouts had built a tripod for a "doorbell" to our campsite as their useful camp gadget for Second Class so Jim and I attached another vertical pole to that which we hoped would give us the height we needed.
Nothing was announced at supper about the race, but we showed up anyway. While wandering around the camp office area the Camp Director asked about the tripod Jim was carrying. Jim said it was part of our race kit. The Director said he was going to postpone the race until Friday after lunch since no other boats were there. I was carrying the tray with our "pit kit" and the boat. Doug (Camp Director) asked to see it. I said, while shielding it with my body, "If you see it you'll disqualify it." He said he wouldn't so I gingerly held out the tray. Doug looked at it and asked, "Is that rocket powered?" I said, "Ummmm... yes?" as I cringed, waiting for the hand of discipline to come down. But he just asked about the safety aspect. We said we had it covered. I asked if he wanted to look at the video of our test shot as proof of the safety aspects. He said, "You've got video? Sure!" So I showed him the video from my camera. He just walked away shaking his head. I grinned and said, "See? You're going to disqualify us." He said, "No, this is no holds barred." On our way back to camp, Jim and I agreed that they'll never say "no holds barred" again — especially around Troop 53!
Friday actually worked better for us from a personel standpoint. Both John and Craig had to take sons to Belleville for band practice and baseball game respectively and couldn't make the race Thursday evening which left it to Jim and me to run the whole thing. I have never launched a rocket and wasn't real comfortable having this race being my initiation into the skill. Jim said he would hold the tripod to keep the string tensioned but that left no one to shoot pictures and/or video. Having the whole team together was really a plus. The Camp Program Director dropped by our campsite in the morning and asked if we would be willing to set up the course. That would really help us as we would be able to make at least one gutter fit our needs, so we said yes. He also said that he was told he "must see" the video of the test shot so it was shown to him. His reaction was similar to Doug's...
So, now we got to choose the race location and setup so that we could eliminate some of the unknown variables. We chose a spot on the lawn outside the Dining Hall right next to a pine tree. We aligned the gutter we planned to use with another pine tree about 70 feet away. A safe area was cordoned off around and between the two trees; the gutters were leveled and filled with water. We stretched the string between the trees and angled it so that the boat was barely touching the water at the end of the gutter. It was our best attempt at having the boat in the water all the way down the gutter. However, we didn't count on aerodynamics....
At lunch, Doug announced the Raingutter Regatta with the comment, "You don't want to miss this. You will be telling your grandchildren of the day you saw this race." After the meal, we finalized the setup, filling the gutters rim-full to hopefully have our boat just skim the endcap of the gutter on its way out. About 40 spectators showed up. The lady who indicated at the leaders' meeting that she had a boat showed up with a standard Raingutter Regatta boat. She looked at our boat and just started laughing, saying, "Well, I guess I've already lost!" A gentleman from another Troop also showed up with a standard boat, looked at our setup and immediately started jawing about how our boat was illegal since it used "fireworks" to power it and fireworks were not allowed at a Scout camp. Craig just said, "Hey buddy, they said 'no-holds-barred' and that means no rules." Craig also told him about the Space Exploration merit badge. Said gentleman just looked back disgustedly. Amazing how mad people can get when they realize they haven't been thinking.
Run no. 1: The boat was in the water, John started the countdown and at zero, the boat took off — literally took off. The video showed that it left the water within 3' of the start and was airborne from there. As mentioned above, we didn't count on aerodynamics. The wing forced the bow up and the rocket propelled the boat into the air. Said gentleman started jawing again about how, if this was a "real race", we would be disqualified because our boat was not in the water at the end of the course. Something about him having seen drag boats become airborne or flipping over at the end of the run and, even though they crossed the finish line first, were not the winner because they weren't in the water. So the string was adjusted downward in an attempt to keep the boat in the water.
Run no. 2: Pretty much the same as the first run. The boat was airborne after a few feet. So we started thinking about how to keep it on the water. In the meantime the two "amateurs" ran a race between themselves, to which little attention was paid.
Run no. 3: The Program Director said he would hold the string down so that it was touching the end of the gutter. 
Supposedly that would keep the boat in the water. Craig looked at me and said, "I think this may be the end of the boat. It's going to smash itself to pieces on the end of the gutter." Well, it was pretty spectacular. Video shows that the boat actually came out of the water, came back down and hit the end of the gutter whereupon the hulls separated from the body. The body kind of just bounced on the string for a while and the hulls flew about 20' downrange. So, that was the end of our competition, our boat having crossed the finish line "on the water."
Inspection of the remains of our craft showed that no great harm was done. The hulls and body were glued back together, allowed to dry and we were able to have a couple of exhibition shots at our family night Pig Roast meal. All who beheld it were impressed...
Although we didn't have a way to test it on water we mounted the guide string in the air between a pole of one of our shelters and a wood post in the next campsite (we were using 2 campsites) about 80-90 feet away. We mounted a blast shield of aluminum to our shelter to keep it from burning; a fire extinguisher was also at hand. After warning the few boys in the campsite to back off, our pilot John Mackin counted down, pressed the launch button and.... nothing. We waited a little, John pushed the launch button again and nothing. The directions say to not approach the engine for at least a minute so we kind of took our attention away from the boat and all of a sudden it took off. We figured the engine had absorbed some moisture from the rain the night before, so we opened a new package of engines, put one in the boat and tried it again. This time all went as planned. Video of the flight showed that the boat did a barrel-roll around the string due to the wing being not quite level but other than that no problems were incurred. According to the video, our boat covered the distance in less than a second. So for a 10 foot gutter we ought to be right around 0.25 to 0.33 seconds — beat that! (See video of a second test launch [boys will be boys :)] from a different angle.) We were as race-ready as we could be, although variables outside our control could still throw us for a loop. For one thing, we didn't know if we were even running in a gutter. If we were, how would we keep our boat from slamming into the end of the gutter and disintegrating? It would make for a great show, but if there were more than one heat we were out of it. But then again, no one said your boat had to actually touch the water, so we thought that if we angled the string to make the boat just clear the end-cap of the gutter we would be safe. Another problem to overcome was how to keep our string tensioned correctly and at a correct angle. The younger Scouts had built a tripod for a "doorbell" to our campsite as their useful camp gadget for Second Class so Jim and I attached another vertical pole to that which we hoped would give us the height we needed.