Tag Archives: human power

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Wheels and gears

Ah, wheels! These photographs are from the Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Festival, from October 2023. All of the machines are human powered and have to go on land, up a big hill, be able to brake, go through water (the Port Townsend Bay is COLD) and through a mud bog at the fair grounds! They have to have a theme, bribes for the judges, support teams (usually on bikes), a teddy bear on board and I think duct tape is required too.

It is three days of costumes, physical work pedaling the human powered machines, a parade, a dance, a Kinetic Kween, a brake test and the challenging trip through the water, the race itself (most mediocre wins) and the mud bog. There are many wheels involved and quite a lot of fabric and glitter. Some machines are thoroughly engineered and others involve more duct tape and improvised floatation attachments.

It is the Pacific Northwest, so there might be giant slugs too. Are there wheels involved in this tail or not?

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: wheel.

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Kudos to Kops

The Kinetic Kops do krowd kontrol for the Kinetic Sculpture Race. Mostly to keep spectators, especially spectators with cameras, from being run over. Some of these machines are large and heavy and may not stop on a dime. Some of them went down to the water fast, gathering momentum, with spectators lining the way. People get distracted by the costumes and glitter and forget that these are built to climb hills, go through mud, go on water, human powered.

So Kudos to Kinetic Kops for protecting us all!

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varnish

Varnish makes me think of boats. Wooden boats. We have one group that does not use much varnish: our Kinetic Sculpture racers. Human powered, on land, on sea and through the mud bog. All sizes and shapes and themes. Wonderful!

We have helpers for the teams in the water, and here two kinetic sculptures are making their way to land. The water is a few degrees above 50 and they have to take turns exiting on the ramp. We have Kinetic Kops to protect the public and the racers.

For the Daily Prompt: varnish.