Dragon Boat Races
Now that you have created your Vietnamese Dragon Boat models, it is time to race them. Here are the instuctions for Dragon Boat racing.
Time: Total of 1 ½ hours
Dragon Boat Materials Needed
Two 10-foot long standard rain gutters with end caps
12 stakes
hammer
several pieces of wood, 1 inch thick, 3 inches wide and several inches long
to use to level gutters
water to fill rain gutters
Assembled boats
Spectators if you wish
NOTE: With a large number of campers, you may want to have more than two gutters so you can have several races at one time.)
Propeller Assembly (15 minutes)
1. Have each camper attach the plastic propeller hook and propeller
assembly to their boat's motorstick. (See Regatta Conversion kit instructions)
NOTE:
The hook on the back propeller assembly should go on the bottom.
2. Attach the big red rubber band. (See Regatta Conversion kit instructions)
The rubberband is put inside the wire loop near the back propeller and hooked
around the front plastic propeller hook. The rubberband should be on the right
side of the motorstick.
3. Cut ½ inch off each propeller tip so it will fit in the gutters.
4. Wind propeller COUNTERCLOCKWISE 50 turns for first run. If you wind the
propeller clockwise, the boat goes backwards
MAXIMUM WINDS - 300 TURNS
Dragonboat Gutter Set Up Procedure
(15 minutes)1. PRIOR TO CAMP Place end caps on rain gutters. You may wish to squirt silicone
around them to make sure they are watertight. We did not do this, and they did
have slow leaks and we had to re-fill the gutters.
2. Day of Races Find a level place outside, preferably in the shade, and place
rain gutters on ground there.
3. Hammer the stakes into the ground on either side of the rain gutters so the
gutters will not tip over when filled. Place two stakes near the front, two
in the middle and two at the end.
4. Partially fill gutters and see if they are level. If they are not, prop the
lower end up with a piece of wood to make the gutter level. (If the gutter is
not level, more water will flow go to the lower end and the boat will not have
enough water on the higher end to go.)
5. After leveling the gutters, finish filling them with water.
Dragonboat Race Procedure
(Race takes between 30-45 minutes depending upon number of campers)
1. Have the campers wind their boats.
2. Divide the campers into pairs and have each pair race. Then have the winners
race each other until you have one final winner.
3. Campers place their boat in the gutter and hold the propeller until the referee
says "go".
4. No touching the boats after the race begins.
5. The boat that reaches the end of the gutter first or the boat that goes the
farthest in the gutter wins.
