Red Hook Regatta 2017
featuring Hope Floats

Pioneer Works presents the third annual Red Hook Regatta, where hundreds of spectators will gather on Valentino Pier to watch homemade boats navigate the rough seas of New York City’s shipping harbor. To kick off this year’s race is the launch of Hope Floats, a robotic raft that calls your Congressperson on your behalf around the clock, followed by food, music, and a kinetic boat race for kids to decorate their own vacuum-formed sail boats.

The Red Hook Regatta, comprised of a 3D-printed boat race and a DIY boat race, are free and open to the public to enter. The deadline to register your boat and pick up an electronics kit is Sunday, September 10, 2017.

The tides, the wind, the wakes from real container ships, and the technical challenge of the task makes the race an amazing event to participate in or watch.

3D-Printed Boat Race
The main event features 3D-printed, radio-controlled boats designed and built by members of the Red Hook Initiative’s Digital Stewards. Teams will compete to transport “cargo” (foam containers with metal plates) from “Stevedores” on the beach to designated “crane operators”, who will be receiving the cargo on the pier using fishing rods equipped with red magnetic hooks. Each cargo container picked up by a crane constitutes one point for that boat’s team, and the boat with the most points is the winner.

Materials: All boats must have a 3D-printed hull and must be majority 3D-printed. Parts that are not 3D-printed may be used when necessary (for example: water seals, mechanical parts).

Size Limit: Boats in all races must fit within a 2’x2’x2’ box

General DIY Boat Race
In the second annual Regatta, we introduced an entirely new category of competition: the General DIY Boat Race. This race allows teams to employ laser cutting in their boat fabrication process, opening up a whole new range of fabrication possibilities. We expect to see innovations like laser-cut hulls or laser-cut ribbing with vacuum-formed hulls.

Materials: All boats must be homemade but there is no restriction on materials used. This race allows boats using laser-cut components, 3D-printed components, plastic, foam, wood, and more.

Size Limit: Boats in all races must fit within a 2’x2’x2’ box

For inquiries, please email redhookregatta@pioneerworks.org.