There are no restrictions on the type of construction material. The skipper of the boat must weigh 154 pounds or ballast will be added to make up the difference. The craft must also pass a series of safety and stability inspections and tests. The sprint Event is run as several heats of a drag race leading up to the finals. The main powering for this event comes from a set of three 12-volt car batteries.
All competitors use the same type of batteries.
The primary heats are double elimination. The length of the course is 300 meters and there are four competitors in each heat. The first restriction is that you are only two sets of batteries for the entire event. This is fine if you win your first heat and advance to the finals. In that case you only need two sets of batteries, one for the preliminary heat and one for the final race.