Everything was awesome at KonTiki 2017

KonTiki 2017 took place recently, and was the coldest  and one of the stormiest KonTiki weekends in some time. In spite of the rain, wind, hail and frost, 55 teams arrived to camp, taking part on this year's theme of "Let's Play!"

 Friday afternoon saw a hail storm that sent many teams running for shelter, but by the time I was on site in the vening, construction was going ahead under lights along most of the shore.

This year, many teams had LEGO-themed decorations in their camp sites, from bricks and blocks to minifigs.

The poor weather continued on Saturday, and in the end about a dozen teams spent the hwole night on the water through the wind and rain - here they are the next morning, when the sun came out for a beautiful sunrise and morning.

Congratulations to the over all winners, 1st Eagles. The full, detailed resulsts scoresheet is available here.

I'll be taking a closer look at some of the campsite details from this weekend in the next few weeks.

Kontiki 2016 timelapse videos

The KonTiki organisers have launched the website for the 2017 competition, and along with it, a series of timelapse videos from last year's event. These videos give you an idea of the work that goes into the weekend (and also of the unseasonal rain we had last year).

 

56m suspension bridge at Manjedal Activity Centre, Western Australia

Greg from West Australian Scout Pioneering wrote in with photos and a description of the awesome bridge, supported by A frames on each end and a raft in the centre. Here's Gregs description:

Photo courtesy Greg Barbera

Project : Build a Rope bridge for the West Australian Cub Scout event – Enduro 

Location: Manjedal Activities Centre (M.A.C) – Lake Jones 

Depth: Varies from 4 meters to 15 meters Span: 56 m (40m over water) 

Water Temp: Very cold 

Weather: everything except snow 

Duration: 16 hrs to build

Photos courtesy Greg Barbera

To help celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Cubs, the Organizing team decided to go with a “Back to the Future” theme. They also want to surprise the cubs by having an activity based around the traditional methods of pioneering that have been with the movement for over 100yrs. The West Australian Scout Pioneering Crew (WASP) were asked to build a bridge across Lake Jones that would be sturdy enough to withstand a very large number of Cubs and Leaders using it.

Over the two days of Enduro approximately 800 Cubs and a small number of leaders made the crossing. To ensure the build met the requirements of pioneering in Australia, the walk rope was set at a height of 1.8m from the ground so that helmet & harness would not be required (anything over 2m). This meant that we had to install some form of support in the middle of the arc to keep the ropes & cubs out of the water. Several suggestions where made of a tower, but owing to the erratic shape of the bottom of the lake there would be no guarantee that a level section could be found. It was decided that a pontoon would work providing it could be securely moored and be able to support the bridge as it pass over it. It was decided that a 4m x 4 m pontoon made out 100mm dia. pine logs with 4 x 200ltr blue plastic drums and 6 x 140ltr white drums would both support it and stabilize the middle section. In addition 2 vertical poles where fitted so the bridge ropes could be attached to the pontoon using Carabiners, this would still allow the ropes to be tensioned without moving the pontoon from its moored position. 

We also fitted an arrival and departure deck which only covered the area under the bridge, a walkway was also fitted for a leader to use to assist those passing through the middle section. On the trial build of the pontoon we fitted guy ropes to the vertical posts but found that caused problems and a trip hazard for the leader, so this time we used 3 spars on each vertical and lashed them in place, to reduce the amount of rope required we made the first lashing a figure 8 and pulled the side poles out to create the angle brace. Then fitted one on the outside and lashed a horizontal spar in place so the walk rope could also be clipped onto the pontoon. For this span we fitted each line with 2:2 rope block combination and used the pontoon as a means to keep the lines tensioned as the combined weight totalled approx 350 kg. The main ropes where 20mm dia. sisal and to assist the hand rails to support the walk rope we fitted short lengths of rope which we refer to as stringers. Normally when we fit pulleys on to the main ropes to take up the tension, we used the prussic loop to attach the block, for this one we used the “Dog & Tail hitch”. This hitch does the job well and is easier to move when it is not under load. 

On the shore we used “A” frame assemblies that are self supported by guy ropes and thus allowed the main ropes to be tensioned freely. Carabiners were also tied to the frames to support the hand lines. To stop the main line travelling along the horizontal bar, we used a short length or rope and tied a clove hitch on both sides. Normally we would use a log & picket anchorage for our rope bridges, but in this case the ground on both sides was too soft to get a good footing. On one side the soil was too moist and on the other side there was a very large ant hill, which meant we had to contend with hollow ground owing to the nest. We therefore bound the trees with hessian to reduce any damage to them. 

To reduce the risk of the Cubs endangering themselves if they fell off, each person making the crossing was required to wear a life jacket and we had a rescue craft on standby (canoe). Out of the 800 cubs only 2 ended up in the water and 7 were rescued by the safety vessel as they held onto the hand rails.

Two-tent raft in Malta

 Sean from Mosta Scout Group in Malta shared these photographs with me- of a raft sitting in this stunning location against the cliffs in the Mediterranean.

Sean says:

"With 100 lashings, 40 staves, 30 barrels and 10 Marine Ply, a massive Double Floating Raft Camp served as our home for the past weekend. This is just a glimpse, from what Scouting is all about 😉"

(previously- pioneering from Mosta Venture Crew)

Cardboard box rafts- Akela 2016

At the recent Akela 2016 camp, I was involved in running outdoor activities for the Pack Scouters, alongside the community service and crafts bases that were run. Alongside a tensegrity cube, I ran this challenge- to build a raft using staves, light cord, cardboard boxes and dustbin bags, and float a member of their team across a swimming pool (around 10 metres/ 30 feet).

Photographs courtesy Marissa Rakic

The idea is to build the cardboard boxes up, then seal them in plastic bags, and use these boouyancy 'blocks' tp build a raft. In practice, of the three teams who attempted it, only one got their 'sailor' safely across the pool. Here are the two unsuccessful teams at their moment of immersion:

The first team built a raft that had good, solid boxes, well tied together. However, they built a narrow raft which had very poor stability, and despite a few attempts, the raft was unable to remain upright.

The second team distributed the bouyancy more evenly, but one of their boxes failed around halfway through:

 The third team, pictured at the top of the post, managed to get across without any incident. I allocated 45 minutes for this, and all three teams had sufficient time, even allowing for around half the team being unfamiliar with raft building. I can recommend this as a patrol challenge if the weather is good. I would suggest having a full set of boxes for each team- in the event that a box gets wet, it is almost impossible to re-use.

Kontiki 2016 Roundup and videos

KonTiki 2016 came to a close yesterday morning, after 60mm of unseasonal rain left the campsite waterlogged. The majority of rafts spent the night on the water, and the competition went ahead- congratulations to 1st Morningside who were all the overall winners!

Hennie Hamman, from Arrowe Park, has produced a series of videos summarising the weekend:
Friday night:

Saturday:

Sunday:

I'll be blogging some more about KonTiki once the full results spreadsheets are out, and once the organisers relsease some more photographs- there were a few timelapse cameras running over the weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing them.

KonTiki 2016: Saturday- Rafts and Land activities

Saturday is the busiest day at KonTiki- rafts are completed, and after being checked for sea-worthiness, are launched and begin their competitions on the water. Meanwhile, on land, the Beaver Challenge competition has run for the Cubs and junior Scouts, campsites are being judged, and meals are competition meals are cooked.

Here are some of the rafts preparing for launch. Because of space limitations at the venue, rafts are built three rows deep from the shore. The theme for Kontiki 2016 is 'Jedi Knights', and you can see how some of the rafts have been decorated to match the theme.

Once the rafts launched,the weather (raining for most of the morning) improved briefly and I managed to get this photo of a rainbow. The organisers arranged for live GPS tracking of all the rafts this year, and this screen in the main tent shows the current location of all the rafts.

The Beaver Challenge is a series of challenge bases hosted for the Cubs and junior Scouts who visit Kontiki. Above are some of the bases from the challenge.

KonTiki 2016: Friday night raft construction

KonTiki 2016 is under way, with most teams well into building their rafts. Here are some photos of then shorefront. Teams build three rafts deep in most places, and once ready tomorrow, will help each other launch.

Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria: Rafts in architecture

Image courtesy of NLE via their Makoko Floating School press kit.

Makoko is a floating slum neighbourhood in Lagos, Nigeria, built on stilts and rafts across the Lagos Lagoon. NLÉ is a Nigerian architecture firm who designed this floating school in 2013, to provide a teaching and learning space in this very crowded area. The solution wouldn't look out of place at KonTiki.

All images courtesy of NLE via their Makoko Floating School press kit.

While this project doesn't use lashings, it does make use of round laths, plastic drums and plywood, like a Kontiki raft. Here's some information from their press kit:

 The 220sq.m A-­‐frame or pyramid building is 10m high with a 10m x 10m base. It is an ideal shape for a floating object on water due to its relatively low center of gravity, which provides stability and balance even in heavy winds. It also has a total capacity to safely support a hundred adults, even in extreme weather conditions.

The building has three levels. The 1st level is an open play area for school breaks and assembly, which also serves as a community space during after hours. The 2nd level is an enclosed space for two to four classrooms, providing enough space for sixty to a hundred pupils. A staircase on the side connects the open play area, the classrooms and a semi enclosed workshop space on the 3rd level.

The simple yet innovative structure adheres to ideal standards of sustainable development with its inclusive technologies for renewable energy, waste reduction, water and sewage treatment as well as the promotion of low-­‐carbon transport. Furthermore a team of eight Makoko based builders constructed it using eco-­‐ friendly, locally sourced bamboo and wood procured from a local sawmill.

Construction began in September 2012 with floatation mock-­‐ups and testing. Recycled empty plastic barrels found abundantly in Lagos were used for the building’s buoyancy system, which consists of 16 wooden modules, each containing 16 barrels. The modules were assembled on the water, creating the platform that provides buoyancy for the building and its users. Once this was assembled, construction of the A-­‐frame followed and was completed by March 2013. Makoko Floating School is now in regular use by the community as a social, cultural and economic center and recently welcomed its first pupils who now use it as a primary school.

All images courtesy of NLE via their Makoko Floating School press kit.

Kontiki raft mass calculator

Gauteng KonTiki is coming up next weekend, and the Gauteng Scout Water Activities Advisory  Council, along with Puddle Pirates Rover Crew, has developed this Excel spreadsheet which helps calculate the mass of a raft, and ultimately calculate how deep a raft sits in the water. It takes into account the weight of poles, ropes, barrels, decking boards, equipment and crew to arrive at the total load which it then compares against the buoyancy provided by the barrels.

This tool is being offered for download at the KonTiki website for use by entrants to KonTiki, but hsould be useful to any Scout raft designers. Note that KonTiki is held on sheltered, still, inland waters, so the buoyancy is calculated with that in mind.

The tool is metric, but for rough estimation purposes for Imperial units, 1kg = approximately 2 pounds, and 100mm = almost exactly 4 inches.

Release notes from the website:

Alan Ford has arranged this tool as a safety measure to ensure that the raft being built will have sufficient buoyancy provided for by barrels, before being launched. This will aid you and also ensure that the raft is sufficiently manoeuvrable should you need to be towed by a rescue vessel.  
If you have any questions or would like Alan to review it, please e-mail it to alanford@global.co.za when you have populated the final version or bring it to Kontiki on a memory stick, Alan will go through it at the event.

Raft Barrel Lashings

Kontiki season is picking up here in Southern Africa, with Windhoek, Namibia hosting their event this weekend, and the Western Cape hosting theirs next weekend.

The diagram above shows one way of fastening barrels that worked well for my troop. You can double up with a second rope starting at the opposite corners to make it really secure. Apart from the ropes, the spacing of your poles is really important to make sure that the barrel sits securely on the raft base.

 drawn on iPad Mini using Paper app and Just-Mobile AluPen

Kontiki 2014 Videos

Hennie Hamman, the manager at Arrowe Park, has compiled three videos from hours of footage taken at KonTiki 2014. Here they are- firstly, site preparation and raft construction, followed by the rafts seen by helicopter and from Arrowe Park, and finally the closing ceremony. Altogether, this is three-quarters of an hour of video, and gives a good feeling of what being at KonTiki is like.

Preparation and construction:

KonTiki seen from the air and on the ground:

Closing ceremony and awards:

KonTiki 2014 wrapup

KonTiki 2014 is over, and 1st Horison won both the raft competition and the overall competition - congratulations! 9th Benoni (my former group) won the overall supporter's (land) competition. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some details about some of the rafts, gadgets and techniques I saw over the weekend. In the mean time, here are the results as an Excel spreadsheet. For groups who attended, this spreadsheet is useful to figure out where you can pick up points next year to improve your position. But leaving the competitions aside, the most exciting thing about KonTiki this year for me, was seeing 4500 Cubs, Brownies, Scouts, Guides, Rovers and adult leaders camping side by side and really enjoying each other's company- like a World Jamboree on a smaller scale.

Here is a stitched 3d composite, made with Microsoft's Photosynth software, that gives a feel for the size of the campsite and the event. You can click around the edges of the photographs to zoom and pan around. The photos give a good view of the rafts on the water, and also the campsites on land. Jenny Hamman took these photos from a Robinson R44 helicopter (with video to follow later in the week)
 

Kontiki 2014 - Saturday

Kontiki 2014 is running at Arrowe Park this weekend, and while I'll post some detail later about some pioneering projects I've seen here, I wanted to share these pictures tonight. Firstly, the pictures above were taken by Jenny Hamman from a Robinson R44 helicopter that got permission to do some flyovers. Today has been a busy day, with over 4500 people in camp, as you can see from some of the above photos. Below are some long exposure photographs taken of the rafts after the crews settled in for the night. They'll come off the water at 11:00 tomorrow, having spent 24 hours on the water.

Kontiki 2014 - raft construction

Kontiki 2014 is under way. This year, the theme is 'Going Green', and so far teams are getting in to the spirit of things,with most teams using LEDs instead of halogen floodlights,and recycling bins for the sorting of waste during raft construction. More photos to follow when the sun rises tomorrow.

Kon-Tiki's debt to B-P

(Many Scout rafting competitions were inspired by Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 Pacific raft expedition. This article, published in The Scout on 17 April 1952, reveals the link between the Kon-Tiki expedition and Scouting. Although Heyerdahl's theories of South American colonisation of the Pacific are generally discounted today, the expedition itself is still an inspiring story.)

Roy Burnham interviews Thor Heyerdahl - an old Scout and proud of it

"Man Overboard!"

If you heard that ominous cry when your Patrol were on a 45 foot balsa wood raft in shark-infest waters of the Pacific somewhere between South America and the South Sea Islands, what would you do?

A gale has sprung up, lashing the sea into giant waves and sending the raft scudding along faster than any man can swim. In that fleeting second you realise that, struggling in the water, is the fellow who, a moment before, was standing near the rubber dinghy with the anemometer. Before he can swim back to the side of the raft he has fallen astern.
What would you do?
It is life or death! A grim moment requiring quick though and resourceful action - a situation which only a good scout, well trained, can meet before it is too late.That was just one of the situations which Thor Heyerdahl and his five companions faced during their historic post-war voyage across the Pacific on the raft the "Kon-Tiki". It is described in his book Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft , one of the greatest true adventure storied, an epic of courage, comradeship -and Scouting.

If B-P had been alive to-day I think nothing would have given him greater pleasure than to meet Thor Heyerdahl, as I did the other day. This stocky, fair-haired Norwegian ethnologist knows what Scouting really means. One often hears it said that we Scouts of the younger generation miss much of the magic which our older brothers found in the early days of our great Movement. Then Patrols met under lamp posts, or in Tom's shed, or in Farmer Brown's outhouse before venturing forth into the open air. Now, we are told, there are too many clubroom Scouts; there is too much provided on tap for modern youth; the Patrol system has become a mere easy framework for a game of dog and bone.
I wonder!
That wasn't B-P's way. It isn't the good Scout's way - not a Scout like thor Heyerdahl, at least.
There were cinemas, radio and all the other attractions when he joined the Eagle Patrol of the 1st Larvick Troop, Norway, not very long before the last war. But the Eagles spent the week-ends and evenings out in the open where the forest swept down to a lake and they had built their own log cabin. There they were pioneering, camping, cooking,studying signs, getting ot know the ways of Nature which never change though the ways of cities are never constant. They were a patrol, each member with his own jobs, going out on expeditions, using their own initiative, playing the game of Scouting as B-P shows us in Scouting For Boys.
"It was this that gave me a love for the outdoors, and for exploration and pathfinding," Thor Heyerdahl told me. And so while at College and the University he spent every vacation camping and hiking. "It helped me to become practical and appreciate Nature," he said. "You have to get out and live with Nature to understand it.You have to get out into the open where you learn to use your eyes and your senses to read Nature's signs and interpret their meanings."As I listened to him talking so earnestly, I though of all the stories which B-P has told -those little signsm which the ordinary person does not see, but which have saved many a life or brought water to the parched and food to the hungry.
And that was how the voyage of the "Kon-Tiki" all began. While out on a lonely Pacific island, collecting animal specimens for Oslo University, Thor Heyerdahl saw carvings so similar to those in South America that he was convinced that somehow the two peoples must be in some way connected. Then he became conscious of the trade winds and the equatorial currents sweeping ever westwards to the islands, all the way from the American continent.He devoted his energies to a study of the history of these primitive people.

After war service, when he was convinced that the earliest Polynesians did, in fact, emigrate from South America, he put forward his theories.The professors and historians laughed at his ideas.It was all very well, they said, but the Incas could never have crossed the Pacific Ocean. They had nothing but small balsa wood rafts on which to sail the seas! It was ridiculous.So Thor Heyerdahl, trusting to the many natural signs he had seen both in the South Sea Islands and South America, determined to show that it could be done. Thor formed what amounted to a patrol of six, with himself as leader. Captain Knut Haugland, Erik Hesselberg, Torstein Raaby and Herman Watzinger were all Scouts. Only Bengt Danielsson was not, although as an explorer he had much practicala Scouting experience.
They built their raft, an exact replica of the ancient Inca craft, lashing the balsa logs together and building a plaited bamboo cabin, roofed with banana leaves, aft of a square sail slung between two masts lashed together.
Examining it before the sailed from Callao experts and sailors condemned their craft. It was so small, they said it would founder in a big sea, yet it was long enough to be lifted up by two lines of waves at the same time and would break under the strain. They should have used wire ropes, they were told, the sail was wrong, the bows wrong. In fact the experts found a reason in every knot, piece of wood and measurement to prove that they would founder.
But always Thor Heyerdahl had a tremendous faith, a faith springing from his understaning of Nature. Just as B-P showed us that we, who consider ourselves civilised and educated, can learn much from primitive people, so Thor Heyerdahl knew that primitive man understood Nature even better than we of this modern word, for he lived by Nature. The Incas built their rafts in this style becuase they knew and understood the Pacific and he was content to copy in exact detail the vessel of A.D. 500.
They set out, and the story of the voyage is there for all to read. But Thor Heyerdahl told me much that was not written in his book. "We were organised like a floating Patrol camp. A good Scout never roughs it in camp, and we were always comfortable even in the worst storm. It was natural that we should put Scouting in to daily practice throughout hte expedition, much of it as pure habit," he said. "So much depended on having the right men, each with his particular responsibilities, and able to see them through."

The Navigator was Erik Hesselberg, who first studied the stars on camping trops with Thor Heyerdahl when a boy. Bengt Danielsson was Q.M Herman Watzinger was weather man. Knut Haugland and Torstein Raaby looked after the radio and maintained contact with the United States.
As in all good camps there was a daily programme. "It varied because circumstances varied," Thor Heyerdahl explained, "but each day every man had two houra steering watch day and night, and we took our turn to cook. There was the log book to keep, fish to catch, the radio messages to get through, and various tests wer were carrying out for Services and organisations. We were very busy all the time except in the evening. Then we did the obvious thing, we had a camp fire- without the fire. Erik would get out his guitar and there would be singing and music before we went to bed."

When I have spoken to people about the "Kon-Tiki" expedition they have seemed surprised that six strangers could spend four months together on a small raft, and face danger and death -and boredom- without quarrels and temperamental outbursts. The answer is in a single prhase known throughout the Scouting world; " The law of this camp is the Scout Law"
"We had no rules or regulations except for one or two necessary safety precautions," Thor Heyerdahl told me. "The expedition began with our being strangers; we came out as firm friends. The spirit and comradeship was wonderful."
So it is easy to imagine the chill of fear which gripped all of them when Herman Watzinger fell overboard when they were more than half-way across the Pacific. Knut Haugland threw out a lifebelt but the fierce wind blew it straight back on to the raft. Thor Heyerdahl and Bengt Danielsson began to launch the rubber dinghy. They would have to discard the line to reach the swimming man, and the chances of regaining the raft were small; but even as they got the dinghy into the water, they saw Knut Haugland dive in, a lifebelt in on hand, and heave himself through the heavy seas, Herman Watzinger swam desperately to meet him, and, when they met, the four on board hauled on the life line for dear life, and brought them both to safety.

"That incident," said Thor Heyerdahl, " and the time the 'Kon-Tiki' landed on the reef in the South Sea, were the only two serious moments when lives were at stake. The landing was as tough as any man could experience, but we hung on through it all and the raft held."
Yes, the raft held. It confounded the experts whose advice, experience proved, would have sent it to the bottom long before the Pacific had been crossed.The six adventurers built it with their own hands. They had learned knots and lashings, they had plaited boughs and shelters when they were Scouts - and in the moment of crisis under the tremendous force of the mighty seas piling up on a coral reef, their knots and lashings held. Their bamboo cabin, though sadly bent, withstood the tremendous strain and saved them from death. They had succeeded.

"When the tow rope was cut outside Callao, we knew there was no turning back," Thor Heyerdahl said. "We had to go on to the bitter end. If we had not been confident it would have been hopeless. I never doubted for a moment that it would work out successfully. The moment you start to wonder then events begin to beat you. It is the human mind which is stronger than the human body. If you make up your mind to see a thing through you will do it. It is the mind which decides how you will use your muscles and strength and agility - and until a time of crisis you may never realise just how much your body can really tackle."

I said goodbye to Thor Heyerdahl and walked out into the bustle of the city. I looked up at the night sky as constant as the trade winds and equatorial currents.

I wished B-P could have been with me. I thought that if our Founder had never given us this great game of Scouting and shown us how to understand Nature; if he had not created the Patrol system and all it implies, and shown us hot to be prepared and keep alert in mind and fit in body - then there might not have been a "Kon-Tiki" expedition and the world would have been poorer.

For Thor Heyerdahl set out, not to seek notoriety with a hare-brained stunt, but to add a new chapter to the world's knowledge and the understanding of its peoples. And Scouting had much to do with his success.

Western Cape Kontiki 2014

This weekend is a long weekend in South Africa, and the organizers of Western Cape Kontiki have taken advantage by extending the competition, giving the Scouts two nights on the water. I'll post photos if I come across any, but here are three resources that are likely to be posting photographs this weekend:

South African Rover Facebook page - Western Cape Rovers are putting a team onto the water for the first time this year.

Scouts South Africa Twitter account - the social media team have already posted a few pics this weekend.

First Claremont Twitter account - First Claremont is the oldest continuously operating Scout a Troop in South Africa, and have an active Twitter account.

If you've taken some photos of your group at Kontiki, feel free to share them with me.

Floating 'Scouts SA' Billboard at Gilwell, Johannesburg

All photos courtesy Terence Vrugtman

Gilwell, Florida, is the home of Scout training in Johannesburg, and also home to the Orion Rover Crew, who led 160 Scouts from 8 troops in the West Rand District in building this raft spelling out 'Scouts SA' at Florida Lake for BP Sunday this year. Orion's Isengard Tower was featured on this blog before, and this time around Terence Vrugtman and Byron Van Gool enlisted Discovery Scouts, Protea Ridge, 1st Horison, 1st Eagles, Florida Lake Sea Scouts, 1st Strubens Valley, and Kagiso Scouts to put this project together in 7 hours.

This project acted as the annual pioneering competition for the district, and is a great example of how groups can work together to create something visually striking in a short time. Each of the eight rafts was constructed independently, with the letters being assembled once ready. Modular projects like this can be put together with simple co-ordination.

Here are the instructions that were issued to the troops:

• The Project! To, as a troop build a standing single letter of the “SCOUTS SA” Logo that can float on water to form part of the District Project. 

• The Concept What are we doing? As a troop, you need to build a floating, self-standing letter of the “SCOUTS SA” Logo. You will be marked on: Project accuracy, general pioneering skill, on-spot knot testing, uniformity, spirit, model building and the final product. Use the below diagrams, rules and guidelines to build your letter (Troop Scouter has it) as best as possible to make this awesome project come to life. 
•  Base Guidelines and Rules Build a floating base that: 

1. Must have 4 drums, 
2.  Must be as close to 2.5m Wide as possible (Don’t destroy your troop equipment), 
3. Must be 3m Long, 
4. Must be a rectangular frame, 
5. Must have diagonal supports, 
6. Can have additional supports, 
7. Can have decking, not needed, 
8. Must have the ability to support your letter, 
9. Will have lashings necessary to support the structure, Letter Guidelines and Rules Construct a letter that: 

Must be made from ropes and poles/staves
Must be 3m High/long
Must be as close to 2.5m Wide as possible (Don’t destroy your troop equipment)
Must be 3D and have a depth of .05m (Measured from inside pole to inside pole)
Should be as close to the font as above in the concept image
Must have a hessian front to support the letter features
Should be as close to “letter shape” as possible (Hessian might be the key)

• General

1.    All aspects of the project must be built on the day
2. Only Scouts (11yrs – 18yrs) may build. Adults may support and guide
3. You must follow and stick to the times provided in the programme
4. Judging will be done by the Scouters and Rovers of the West Rand District
5. Scores will be vetted by the DC