Kinetic Skulpture

Last weekend was the 37th Annual Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Skulpture Race, a great opportunity to have the kind of goofy fun that seems suited to a community that’s home to a good many artists, builders, creatives, and tinkerers. The Skulpture Race draws on many of these talents. Say hello to Barnacle Babes, above.

This is a fun, anti-competitive, and completely whimsical series of events that celebrate the creation of unique, uhm, vehicles that are designed to conquer a series of obstacles which no sane single unit should be expected to endure. Here you see Precarious Aquarius.

But first, as with any self-respecting event, there’s a parade. The competing teams drove along Port Townsend’s Water Street to cheering crowds, showing off their creations. Above is the Naval Oranges team.

Take a look at Screws Loose, above. The white rectangles at the back of the vehicle are for flotation. The orange panels on the wheels? Paddles. There are four people in this unit, all of whom have pedals that they are using for propulsion. Have a look at the other teams I’ve shown you here. You will likely see various forms of flotation and propulsion.

The Skulpture Race is a series of challenges designed to test out the homegrown engineering of these inventions. After parading through the street, their brakes are tested on a nearby hill. Next they plunge into the waters of Port Townsend Bay where, all hope, they move across the water to a nearby pier, return, and then propel themselves back out of the water using only their vehicle’s propulsion mechanisms.

Those are the events we witnessed on Saturday. On Sunday the teams took on further challenges, racing to a course through sand and then traveling to and through a mud course. We only took in Saturday’s events. Tomorrow I’ll show you some of what we saw.