Women in Nuclear - WiN Canada

written by Linnea Catalan

McMaster University’s Engineering Department sends their first all-female team ricocheting down the slopes in the annual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race.

WiN-Canada caught up with team member Jackie Obermeyer for the lowdown on this bizarre sounding race.  Jackie explained that the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race is a Canada-wide competition between the schools of Engineering.  The concrete toboggan is our northern spin-off of the American Concrete Canoe race.  Of course the first question is- can you really build an entire toboggan out of concrete?  No, says Jackie- the rules state that any part of the toboggan that touches the snow must be concrete, but the rest is open to interpretation and engineering creativity.  The team poured concrete skis for their toboggan and then got to work on the rest of their sled, which included creating a platform and metal roll cage superstructure for safety.  Protective foam was added inside to cushion the riders.  This is not an event for the faint of heart- sleds are known to reach speeds up to 80km/hour, holding 5 riders at a time.

The project is fairly involved - competitors must design and build their toboggan in addition to preparing a technical report which must be approved, and then display their plans at the annual technical exhibit for judging.  The competition is actually a 4-day event that culminates with race day.  Teams are formed early in the year and many crews start their preliminary toboggan work in the summer.  In true ‘Outlaw’ form, the all-female team got a late start, not fully coming together as a team until early December, making their achievements all that much more impressive. 

The team says that race day was “an amazing time” and The Outlaws took home the award for fastest time, with an average speed of 62.4 km/hr.  They made it to the semi-finals on race day in the ‘King of the Hill’ tournament, winning their first race.  Unfortunately technical difficulties in the form of a broken ski interfered with the big win, but it was a close race!  The Outlaws are already working on the changes they’ll make to next year’s toboggan and are letting everyone know now that they “intend to win the King of the Hill tournament next time!”

The Outlaws team:
Mallory Lakins  Niki Rich Portelli
Laura Watkinson  Ellen Whitney
Jackie Obermeyer  Alexis Ambeault
Laurence Rivard  Katie Minor

Interested in seeing more?  The race was featured on the Discovery Channel’s ‘Daily Planet’:
http://watch.ctv.ca/daily-planet/season-15/daily-planet---february-04-2010/#clip263972
Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race official homepage:
http://www.gnctr2010.com/