Chariots of water

Before you begin

• If you’re not confident with knots and lashing, it’s a good idea to practice before leading this activity so you can help everyone else learn.
• We’ve included some resources to help you learn.

Practice your knots and lashing 

1. The person leading the game should give everyone shoe laces and cardboard tubes, so they can practice their knots and lashing with smaller items.
2. Everyone should practice tying a timber hitch and clove hitch knot. The person leading the game may demonstrate, give everyone sheets, or play a video.
3. Everyone should practice square and diagonal lashings. Again, the person leading the game could choose from a few ways to show everyone how.

Build your chariot  

1. Split into groups of four. Give each group a labelled image of a chariot, so everyone knows what they’re aiming for.
2. Lay two poles parallel to each other. These are the trestle legs of the frame – the left and the right hand side of the square frame if viewed from above.
3. Place a pole on top of the trestle legs, so just a little bit of each trestle leg sticks out from under the top of the pole. This pole is called a ledger – the top of the square if viewed from above.
4. Repeat step three, putting a pole on top of the trestle legs just slightly above the bottom, so a little bit of each trestle leg sticks out from underneath. This pole is another ledger.
5. Use four of the shorter lashing ropes to lash the trestle legs to the ledgers with four tight square lashings. You should have one square lashing at each point where a trestle leg meets a ledger (each corner of your square frame).
6. Turn the square frame over, so the ledgers are on the bottom.
7. Place a pole diagonally across on top of the square frame, from the top of the right trestle leg to the bottom of the left trestle leg. This pole is now called an x-brace. Where the x-brace touches the two trestle legs, lash them together with two square lashings.
8. Place the last pole on the other diagonal – from the top of the left trestle leg to the bottom of the right trestle leg. The pole should go underneath the top of the left trestle leg, and on top of the right trestle leg. This pole is now the second x-brace. Attach this x-brace to the trestle legs with two square lashings.
9. Stand the structure up.
10. There should be a gap between the two x-braces where they cross in the middle. Use the ten-foot lashing rope to spring the x-braces together with a tight diagonal lashing.
11. Adapt the chariot to carry items, by placing two more poles from trestle leg to trestle leg, the correct width apart for the item you want to carry. Attach both of the extra poles to each trestle leg using four more square lashings.
12. The final chariot should be sturdy enough to be lifted and shaken with falling apart.
13. Attach four extra ropes to the chariot, one for each team member to carry. They should attach to the trestle legs and ledgers, and teams should space the ropes evenly around the chariot so it’s balanced.

Race  

1. Everyone should take their chariots outside.
2. The person leading the race should mark a start and a finish line. Each team should stand with their chariot behind the start line.
3. The person leading the race should place a washing up bowl on each chariot, and fill each washing up bowl with the same amount of water.
4. Everyone should take hold of one of their team’s ropes.
5. The person leading the game should count down from three. When they say go, teams should lift their chariot so it isn’t touching the floor, and race across to the finish line.
6. The team that arrives at the finish line with the most amount of water left is the winner. If two teams have the same amount of water left, the faster team wins.