Here’s a video of our co-ed sprint heat from the canoe races at PSWC 2014, courtesy of captain Jake’s parents. This was the first heat we’ve won in years! Our team took advantage of DiSCovery II’s straight speed and their extensive preparation on their way to qualify for the small final. The coed race consists of two down-and-back laps for a total distance of 400 meters.
Videos
25-pound Concrete Bowling/Soccer Ball
So, it turns out that there’s a weight limit for the concrete bowling ball competition (ours was clearly way too heavy to use anyway). Fortunately, being engineers, we we able to find an alternate use for it as a soccer ball, kicking it around campus on our way to the Geotech competition. Note that a 25-pound sphere can pick up a lot of momentum…
It Floats!
Our canoe’s in the water and it’s floating well—too well. We actually had trouble submerging it for the swamp test (where we have to prove that it’ll float). Here’re some clips of SC Traveler in the water (as we bail the water from the swamp test).
The buoyancy is a result of our massive air-and-foam-filled bulkheads.
What Happens When Foam-Release Agent Fails
Yeah, that happened. Lesson learned: test the setup small-scale before attempting on a 400-pound concrete canoe. Because in our case, the concrete ended up bonding to our foam mold, resulting in some headaches. (Video is 4-8x natural speed).