raingutter regatta trimaran boat kit

Make an award winning Raingutter Regatta Trimaran Boat Kit.

Michael Spitler

MichaelSpitler

Are you ready to put some speed into your race boat? Sick of getting beaten each season?

Here are a few speed tips to put you in front of the pack.

First, what are the three main physics considerations in Raingutter Regatta racing? Weight, Hydrodynamics, and Aerodynamics. Second, keep in mind the rules of your organization, you may be limited by how much you can modify. Third, practice blowing before race day.

• Weight: Trim excess weight off everything and be careful how much you add like decorations and paint. The plastic hull can be trimmed quite a lot, cut the nose, sand off the bottom, cut out the cabin, cutoff as much of the outriggers as possible while remaining legal. Use a very light coat of paint. The metal screws may be cutoff some if rules allow. The balsa pontoons must be shaped and sanded, just be careful not to take too much off the top because the hull will sit too low and drag in the water (thus the vertical extensions added to our boat, lessons learned). Also, consider hollowing out the pontoons but this is very tricky and any holes will need to be covered with lightweight waterproof material. The mast diameter should be sanded thin as thin as possible except for the bottom part which fastens in the hole in the hull. The mast length cannot be shortened. The sail can be trimmed (more on that in Aerodynamics section) to save weight.
• Hydrodynamics: Contrary to popular belief, the balsa pontoons should not have a V-shaped keel. Instead, they should be flat on the bottom more like a waterski, rounded up bow of course. You want the boat to rise up out of the water and skim the surface. A knife like bow with a V-shaped keel will only plow through the water slowly. The stern of each pontoon should have a slight taper. After the pontoons are initially shaped, they are temporarily screwed to the hull to check fit. Be sure they are completely straight and parallel to each other. Place the boat on a smooth flat surface like a table top and gently see if it rocks side to side or fore and aft. It should not rock, but if it does, place sandpaper on the flat surface and gently sand the bottom to make it even. Next, remove the pontoons and use super fine sandpaper (400 grit at least) to smooth all the surfaces. Before removing note their position port or starboard so they will be relocated in the same place. In order to save weight, we used a light coat of stain instead of paint and then applied clear waterproof polyurethane finish. Once dry, use a synthetic car wax for the final finish. This will repel water. Then screw the pontoons back on the hull in the same position as when removed.
• Aerodynamics: The traditional sail design is out the window. It’s bulky and not very aerodynamic, it acts more like a brake. Try rolling up the sail to make a cone or rocket nozzle shape. Not only is this aerodynamic in the front, but all the air blown into it has to come directly out the back, no air is wasted out the sides. This will conserve energy and focus the reaction force forward. Roll the plastic sail material to make a cone and using a sharp hobby knife cut small X slots opposite each other where the mast will go through and using a pen, mark the excess plastic. Unroll the sail and cut the excess plastic. Roll up again and use tape to hold edges together. Insert the mast into the hull firmly, then instal the sail onto the mast with pointy end forward, adjust the sail so it is just a little bit above the hull. Use plastic glue to fasten sail to mast. Be sure the sail is held securely to the mast or the sail may spin and cause lots of frustration on race day.

When everything is set up correctly, your boat should literally jump out of the water and shoot down the raingutter in 2 or 3 breaths maximum!

Got questions? Email me: [email protected]

Written by Michael Spitler

Aircraft Mechanic by trade; Innovator at heart.

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Scout Raingutter Regatta Racing Trimaran Kit

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Raingutter Regatta Racing Trimaran Kit

SKU: 730176570198

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Description.

 It's the exciting next step in raingutter racing! The Trimaran Boat Kit  is an exclusive alternative to the original Raingutter Regatta  single-hull design. 

Built for stability and speed in the water,  the trimaran hull is specially designed to prevent your boat from  tipping over during the race. Kit includes exclusive BSA trimaran hull,  two balsa wood outriggers, sail, mast, screws, sanding stick, and  instructions.

Drilling,  sawing, sanding or machining wood products can expose you to wood dust,  a substance known to the State of California to cause cancer. Avoid  inhaling wood dust or use a dust mask or other safequards for personal  protection. For more information go to   www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/.    

Specifications

General information.

 Materials Balsa Wood   Tools No   Vehicle Yes   Wheels No   Accessories Yes   Event Type Raingutter Regatta   UPC 730176570198   Packaged Weight 0.15   Dropship No         

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How to Build your Trimaran Boat

Sand the two wooden outriggers to racing shape.

Start by sanding the ends with the sanding stick included in your kit.  Next round the bottom edges to glide through the water. You can vary the shape.

Paint the outriggers hull and the mast.

Apply several coats of water based paint.  Let dry.  Apply at least two coats of acrylic gloss enamel paint.  Paint mast if desired.  Apply decals, etc.

Attach outriggers to hull with wood screws

Center hull on outriggers.  Secure with screws that are supplied in the kit.  Do not press screws too hard or they will sink in the balsa wood.  Use Phillips head screwdriver to attach outriggers.

Design and color your Sail

It is best to use permanent colored markers to design and color your sail.  Use a pencil to outline your design first before applying permanent marker design on the sail.  Allow time to dry.

Assemble the Trimaran

Once you have completed painting and designing the sail, it is now time to assemble the entire boat.  It is best to use a little super glue to attach the mast to to hull of the boat.  Make sure the sail is free moving and it can not be attached to the boat.

Add a Crewman

A crewman to sit in the hull of the boat is optional.  The best crewmen are Lego figures with short, unbend-able legs.  You can choose to freely sit the crewman on the boat or superglue the figure into the seat designed in the hull of the boat.

Instructions that come with the kit

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Raingutter Regatta Boat Kit

• July 17, 2021

Raingutter Regatta Trimaran Boat Kit

Use this boat kit to build your boat to race at the upcoming Race!

(pay for the kit here, and we’ll deliver it to you)

• Raingutter Regatta

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CUB SCOUT PACK 24 - ELMHURST, ILLINOIS

Raingutter Regatta

G et ready for a night of excitement, action and a lot of hot air!

Race night is usually at the November Pack Meeting.

Boat kits are available from your Den Leader - usually distributed at the October Pack Meeting.

Each scout uses a balloon pump to blow his boat down a 10' gutter in head to head double elimination races.

Making a boat is very easy! Let your scout decorate the hull and sail, insert the mast, and attach the sail. Put your boat number on the sail, and you're done!  For best results, paint or otherwise seal the hulls of the boat that will be touching the water. Do not re-engineer the boat's design.

Each scout has an assigned boat number (printed on a label affixed to your boat kit). The boat numbers should be in the boat box with materials. If you cannot find your boat number contact your Den Leader.

We race with the "Trimaran" style boat kits. Each rank (Lions, Tigers, Wolves, Bears, Webelos) will race in separate double elimination divisions.

Scouts can not touch their boat during the race...they can only blow the sail using the balloon pump. 

Everyone must demonstrate good sportsmanship. 

Google "raingutter regatta" for boat ideas and construction tips.

Boat Building

Boats must be constructed from the official BSA trimaran kits distributed by the pack. If you have not received a kit, please contact your den leader. All parts provided in the kit must be used in the boat's construction. Please be sure to use the number stickers in your kit to place your assigned boat number (printed on a sticker on your kit box) on the front top of the sail.

The boat you build should look like the one pictured on the kit box. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, we ask that parents do not re-engineer the boat design .  However, decorative flourishes are highly encouraged. Paint, stickers, decorations, action figures, etc are all permitted but must be securely fastened to the boat and cannot alter the construction of the boat.

The outriggers/hull cannot be longer than 7 inches or shorter than 6.5 inches. The boat should be 3.25 inches wide.

The mast may not be higher than seven inches or shorter than six inches from the deck. The boat requires no keel or rudder and none will be permitted (they tend to rub the bottom of gutter and slow the boats). 

The sail provided in the kit must be used and may only be affixed to the mast (glue is advised). The sail should be used like the picture on the box. (The narrow end on top and the wide part on the bottom.) It may not be attached to the hull in any way (no cup or box sails will be permitted). The sail may be painted or decorated with stickers, etc.

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Look Wider Still

Great Big Adventures in Motherhood

Cub Scouts: Raingutter Regatta

2024 Cub Scout Program Updates: The Summertime Pack Award has been replaced with the Summertime Fun adventure. Links have been updated in the article below. As additional program changes are announced, further updates will be made and noted here.

I am “admiring” what’s left of a little ice on the back deck as I type this, making it a little odd to be considering a fun summertime event like the Raingutter Regatta , but I am willing to do just about anything to get into a warmer state of mind.

My sons have now participated in a total of 8 consecutive Regatta’s, and as leadership and technology has changed, so have the races. Try as I have to research the history of this fun family event, I am coming up with absolutely no record of when or where these races started. I like to daydream about Robert Baden-Powell thinking back fondly on his childhood, picnicking on the shores of the River Thames watching the Henley Royal Regatta with his family, and wanting to share that excitement with the young Scouts in his care. Having those 8 consecutive Regatta’s under our belt, I can attest that it truly is an exciting event that our Scouts look forward to each summer.

Where this isn’t necessarily just a summertime event, it certainly is more convenient to host your Regatta in the warmer months and outdoors. Water + Scouts = Wet Scouts and every other surface in the general vicinity. Not to mention, it makes for a great opportunity to get together on those off months and can help your Pack and Scouts earn the Summertime Fun adventure (previously the National Summertime Pack Award ).

We schedule our big Regatta for July, bookended by a Family Picnic in June and our big Scout Year Kickoff (with popcorn fundraiser details, the Game Truck, and Cubmobile Racing) in August.

Keep it simple, make it fun! Right? Right! The basics of a great Raingutter Regatta are tracks, boats, rules, straws, water, and awards . What I love about this event is that there aren’t a set of official rules out there, so it’s up to each unit to decide what works best for them and their own Scouts, and is fun for children of all abilities.

Traditionally, and as the name implies, the race takes place in water-filled raingutters . We found two very old and warped raingutters in our Pack shed the first year we coordinated the race, and at the 11th hour no less. It made for a difficult set-up, but eventually we found a way to balance the raingutters and fill them with water, the weight of which helped with the warping. If you choose to go with the traditional raingutters, I highly suggest a vinyl, flat-bottomed product that can be easily cut to length, then capped and sealed if necessary. You will need two to run a race for a smaller unit, 4 in total if you have a tremendous amount of Scouts.

Alternatively, and preferably, you can purchase official BSA Inflatable Raceways online or at your local Scout Shop. The raceways are about 10 feet long, requiring two 6 foot tables placed end-to-end for support. One track includes two lanes and is great for a smaller unit, but if you have a lot of Scouts I suggest picking up two for a total of 4 lanes. They hold about 4 gallons of water in each lane, but you’ll want to have extra water on hand in case a Scout leans against and collapses the vinyl. You will also want a pump of some sort; take it from me, you don’t want to manually fill one of these with your own two lungs.

There are two great options when it comes to building your boats for the big race. Traditionalists purchase the official Raingutter Regatta Racing Trimaran Kit online or from their local Scout Shop. These kits cost around $6 each and have everything a Scout needs to build a beautiful boat. They are built to fit a raingutter track lane and can be customized with cool decals like a Pinewood Derby car.

A fun and thrifty alternative is to make yours a Recycled Raingutter Regatta . Provide your Scout families with boat specs and encourage them to raid their recycling bin for fun boat materials. To suit the inflatable tracks, we require that our boats are no more than 3″ wide and 10″ long and that they are built to be powered entirely by the child’s own breath. We don’t allow the official kits to be raced along with the recycled boats.

Try to remember that the Regatta isn’t your annual Pinewood Derby. It’s definitely worthy of a lot of great planning, but it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Keep the rules simple and fair , saving yourself a lot of frustration on race day. Ours go a little something like this:

What are the rules?   Each boat will be powered by each child’s own breath.  Straws will be provided.  The only time hands can be used is to right an overturned vessel.  Captains who use their hands to move their boat along will be disqualified and the competing Captain will be declared the winner of that race.  Vessels will be sailed in pairs based on age.  Siblings will sail along with registered Scouts as part of the competition – there will not be a separate siblings race. Who builds the boat and what are the specs? This is a family project! Please give your child the opportunity to build their boat with your guidance and support. Boats need to fit in the racing lane, therefore they cannot be wider than 3″ or longer than 10″. Raid your recycling for materials – if it can float, it’s a boat. What isn’t allowed?   BSA Raingutter Regatta boat kits.  A Scout is thrifty – using recycled materials aligns with this point of the Scout Law and helps us to be conservation minded. We love recycling, but we don’t allow boats to be reused year-to-year. Please don’t make a craft from paper or styrofoam!

Yeah. That’s it.

Some units choose to make things a little more competitive , and that’s fine. You can Google “Raingutter Regatta Rules” and find page after page of PDFs and articles written about rules that get down to the tiniest of details.

Straws and Water

In the spirit of being conservation-minded and running a Recycled Regatta, we switched over to paper straws in the last year. We used plastic bendy straws in years past and where they work like a total charm, we wanted to be able to recycle what we could and lead by example. There are drawbacks to paper straws, of course, primarily that the Regatta involves lots and lots of water and paper straws fall apart after a while. We make sure each child has their own straw, we ask that they Do Their Best not to chew on them in between heats and that they don’t intentionally dip them into the water.

If you’re using the inflatable tracks, you will need 4 gallons of water for each lane, and again I suggest that you have plenty of water on hand to refill tracks when a racer inadvertently (or intentionally) presses on the side and empties a lane.

The best part, in my opinion, is the awards . Decide early what kind of awards you want to present to your winners.

Do you want certificates for appearances, first, second, and third place? I love and highly suggest visiting TheMormonHome.com and printing their beautiful, FREE certificates that cover everything from ranked placement to appearance awards like “Least Likely to Capsize” and “Most Ready to Sail the Seven Seas.”

Do you want official, engravable trophies for your rank placements? Crown Awards has great options for around $8 that your Scout (or their sibling) would be thrilled to display along with their boat.

What about medals that can be worn around their neck? The Scout Shop has beautiful options available for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place (around $4 each), and you can find a set of all three on the All Quality Amazon shop for a total of $11.00 (we use these for our Pinewood Derby appearance awards and are always impressed by the quality). You can also pick-up sweet participation ribbons from the Scout Shop, which come in packs of 10 for $7.00.

Perhaps you’re feeling creative and want to make your own ! Hit your local Dollar Store and find fun items you can put together to build interesting and fun awards, like the ones we made for our 2019 races. The wooden fleur de lis came from Michael’s Crafts, the ribbons were found in the hand-me-down stash of Scouting stuff I inherited from the leaders that came before me, and the rest was from the Dollar Store.

Look wide, and even when you think you are looking wide – look wider still. -Lord Robert Baden-Powell

So you have the basics all checked off (you’ve looked wide) and are ready to make this regatta a beloved Pack tradition (and want to look wider still)! There are a few things you can do that take this special race to the next level and make it a memorable event that brings families out of the woodwork on those beautiful summer evenings.

Entertainment

Pack 521 is proud to Scout alongside of countless wonderful local units. It’s a true joy for us to have a great relationship with one Pack in particular that we’ve fostered over several years of joint events and celebrations. We use our Raingutter Regatta as an opportunity to hang out with our friends in this other Pack, and they kicked off a friendly competition between us that ends with the winner taking home the Golden Gnome and a years worth of bragging rights.

This other unit knows exactly who they are, and if you guys are reading this, WE LOVE YOU!

Ours came from a local garden center, but you can find a cute, reasonably priced Gnome on Amazon . Simply spray paint him gold and you’re ready to challenge a neighboring Pack! Want to get a little crazy? You can offer up a coveted Big Foot “Schlepping Gnomes” garden statute for around $60… I simply couldn’t resist including him in the post because he screams Leave No Trace, is obviously Jewish, and I’m not sure how else he could ever be used. The backside view is just too much! Maybe your Pack has a tie to other creatures? A garden ornament of any kind would make for a truly Golden Opportunity. 🥁 Ba-dum-chh.

Another way to amp up your event is to make it a fun outdoor movie night ! A family in our Pack already has the gear for a great outdoor theater, from the sound system and projector to the dvd-player and screen . You can find a combo projector and screen combo (with lots of great ratings) on Amazon. Here’s a great article from HowToGeek.com about the tech behind an outdoor movie night.

Once you get all the tech stuff figured out, start thinking about the kind of movie you want to watch. We’ve played Muppet Treasure Island and Pirates of the Caribbean in the past, and both have gone over well. Other great options are Finding Nemo and Finding Dory , Shark Tale , and The Little Mermaid .

If you’re going for a movie night, it only makes sense to have popcorn and other concessions. Go online or ask around to see what businesses (oftentimes banks) have FREE popcorn machines available for use by nonprofits, charities, or civic organizations. Shout out to Village Bank !

Provide water and lemonade, but also put together a small concessions stand where kids can use tickets to “buy” boxes of candy or extra drinks. Maybe pull out the grills and serve up hotdogs and potato chips!

Invites and Brackets

I’ve talked in depth about how to use Sign-Up Genius and Evite to build and track your Pack events. The Raingutter Regatta is no exception, especially if you’re planning on co-hosting the event with another unit. Create an Evite invitation with your regatta rules and expectations, then create a link that you share via ScoutBook email or social media. This will help you to plan for the right amount of straws, treats, and other materials. Knowing the number of participants will also help you to prepare for your bracket building the day of the race.

We normally have upward of 60 children participating in our annual race, which includes both Scouts and their siblings from two different units, so we use a dual-sided bracket for our event. FreeBracketGenerator.com has an easy to use template that allows you to create and print a FREE blank bracket to your own specifications. This is what our 2019 bracket looked like.

Smaller units might opt for a round robin style race, which allows for each child to race every other child at least once. Challonge.com has several templates available for you to use, which can be used electronically OR printed and manually filled.

Running A Race

First and foremost, kick off your race with an opening ceremony. Invite Scouts from both units to work together to perform a flag ceremony. Remind everyone that this is a fun race built around the 12 Points of the Scout Law . Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

We run a bracket style race. I printed a blank copy of our bracket and brought it along to the race. We always start our race with a list of children who had RSVP’d through our Evite. We register our racers for the event by marking them off of the list, noting the name of their boat, taking down their age or Cub Scout rank, and providing them with their straw. We use the registration list to fill the far ends of the bracket, creating pairs of children based on age or rank, one from each unit. Each side of the bracket represents an inflatable track… we use two tracks because we have so many participants that it would take a significant amount of time for everyone to race on one single track. Make sure you balance your bracket as you go, keeping equal numbers of participants on each side so each track has boats racing on it.

Each of our tracks have two volunteers , one from each unit and at each end of the track, to ensure a fair race. As Cubmaster, I find that I’m automatically the event emcee, so having those extra eyes on the race will help keep kids in check. Those volunteers will also confirm with you who won each heat so you can maintain an accurate bracket.

At the end of your bracket races, hand out certificates and/or awards ! If you have a Golden Gnome , or something similar, award it to the Pack your first place racer belongs to. Scout handshakes all around, and of course, a group photo are a given. If your Pack doesn’t win the Golden Gnome, throw down a challenge and create an opportunity to win it and build upon your relationship with the other unit. This is, afterall, what a joint event is all about.

So, How’d It Go?

How do you run your Raingutter Regatta? What tips would you share with new coordinators about running a smooth race, or working with other local units? Did you try any of my suggestions or the products mentioned above? What did you think? Let me know everything in the comments, and please don’t forget to like and share this post, and follow me here on Look Wider Still.

Yours in Scouting, Rebekah

Look Wider Still is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising.

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Rebekah is the mother of two wonderful sons, Michael and Nate. She and her husband, Mike, married in 2002 and have built their family on a foundation of adventure. Between geocaching, camping, hiking, cooking, fishing, crafting, reading, and snuggling their Irish Terrier, Bentley, they enjoy a long and happy career in Scouting. The boys come from a long line of Scouters, including Eagles on all sides. Mike has served as assistant den leader, treasurer, and Pack Committee member, and Rebekah has served as den leader and Cubmaster for Pack 521 out of Mechanicsville, Virginia. [email protected] View more posts

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Raingutter Regatta - "Trimaran" kit

By 83Eagle , March 1, 2011 in Cub Scouts

Recommended Posts

Got notice of a new raingutter kit, a trimaran:

http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/ItemDetail.aspx?cat=01RTL&ctgy=PRODUCTS&c2=NEW&c3=&c4=&lv=2&item=612513&SRC=ET&ET_CID=ET_trimiran_03012011&Page=online&ET_RID={6b7fc908-a77f-4ca7-8c34-2a7db5b46b60}

The online specs say not to be raced in the same class as regular regatta boats but I haven't seen the box to see if this is printed on it. I can see this being an issue if some boys show up having built this kit that says "Raingutter Regatta" on the box though.

Link to post

Share on other sites, 5yearscouter 52.

It looks like it could be too wide to run down a raingutter,

I'm going to look at it next time I go to the scout shop.

Eagle92 110

Kinda like when BSA had the NASCAR PWD kits and the Big Rig kits. Older tracks could not race them and people were upset.

Twocubdad 665

Another example of Supply Division selling stuff when they should be supporting the programs. Yeah, this could be a problem and packs need to get out in front of it. Better make this very clear upfront.

When I was CM one year we had a Scout (dad) who had the idea of cutting the mast and sail into thirds to make a clipper ship. The lower profile was much more stable and the kid smoked everyone.

The next year we made that illegal, but a Scout (dad) came up with the idea of splitting the standard hull in half and making a catamaran. The added stability plus the standard height mast was even faster.

Finally, we declared the event to be a "one-design" regatta, meaning all boats would be identical. Paint them, decorate them, spiff them up any way you like, but the racing form of the boat should be as out of the box.

There is a bit of skill involved in sailing a Raingutter, and we wanted the race to be about that, not's whose dad could figure out how to game the system. But more importantly, we didn't want to get into another Pinewood Derby competition where the focus was on building a fast car, not having fun with it.

Eagle707 10

I haven't raced in the Raingutter Regatta but, as a former Sea Scout, I can tell you that "one-design" is the way to go here: multi-hulled boats have an advantage over mono-hulls every time. I don't know how many know of the 1988 America's Cup but that's a wonderful example of the mismatch (if a bit extreme).

If you have Scouts who really want to race the trimarans (it's about the kids, right?), run two different races. Otherwise, you'll be opening a can of worms.

sailingpj 18

This is why I normally race one designs, it is a true test of the skill of the skipper/crew. I have been racing (quite successfully) for 6 or 7 years now and I can tell you that the most fun and exciting racing is in one designs. I have done lots of PHRF racing and it just isn't as satisfying to win against a boat that never even had a chance to beat you, or to 'win' even though you finish minutes behind the other boat.

If you just consider hull speed, if the normal hull is 6 inches long you get a theoretical speed of .9 knots. The tri with three times as much waterline will have a theoretical hull speed of 1.6 knots. I am not positive of the ratios between monohulls and multihulls, and those calculations don't take into account weight, or any other factors, but the tri will definitely sail faster. Add in the extra stability there is no way a monohull could compete with a trimaran in a raingutter regatta, or in any other regatta for that matter.

The Catamarran started as a clever way to use the standard kit, better:

http://webpages.charter.net/cschott/boat/supercat.html

A diagram of how to cut the hull.

http://webpages.charter.net/cschott/boat/construction.html

There are lots of videos on Utube showing these boats waking the single hulls.

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