When:
January 31, 2027
Timeline:
10:00 am — 4:00 pm
Location: Coney Island Beach at Stillwell Avenue
Upcoming
When: 01/29/2027
Upcoming
When: 01/31/2027
The Brooklyn Klondike Derby comes back to Coney Island Beach for 2027. Cub Scout packs and Scouts BSA patrols haul their sleds across the sand from one winter skill station to the next — first aid in the cold, a shelter built from what the sled carries, a compass course — and the day ends with sled races on the beach.
Troop 23 has not yet decided whether it will field a patrol this time; this page will say so once it has. Our patrol took third place in 2024. The full description of the 2026 stations, rules and scoring is on the 2026 Derby page.
The organizers' save-the-date flyer is under Documents below, and registration opens on the council's event page.
The same stretch of beach as every year, below the boardwalk at Stillwell Avenue. In 2026 units checked in on the boardwalk and lined their sleds up there for inspection before going down to the sand. The subway's Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue terminal is a few minutes' walk away.
The one thing a unit cannot do the week before is build a sled. Under the 2026 rules every pack, den, troop or patrol needed its own, built mainly of wood and big enough to carry a passenger with a blanket, pulled on 20 feet of rope. Store-bought sleds were allowed for the first time in 2026, but only to take part — they could not win the race or the best-sled awards. The 2027 rules are not out yet; plan on the 2026 ones.
The sled also has to carry its gear for the equipment check — a first aid kit, a blanket, the flags, a handbook and rope for everyone, and for Scouts BSA patrols poles, short ropes, a tarp and a shovel as well, because the shelter station is built from them. The 2026 page has the full list with the points for each item.
For a patrol, the best preparation is the skills themselves: lashings, the bowline, first aid for cold injuries and a map and compass. They are rank requirements, listed word for word on the Second Class and First Class pages, and our knot basics page is a place to start.
A Klondike Derby is a good picture of what Scouting looks like in winter: a team, a sled, a cold beach and skills that work. Troop 23 is a Scouts BSA troop for boys 11 to 17 in Bay Ridge, meeting Monday evenings at Our Lady of Angels — see how to join or the welcome page for new families. For kindergarten through fifth grade, Pack 23, our feeder pack, meets at Our Lady of Angels on Monday evenings as well, and the Derby has a full set of Cub Scout stations.