I have to make a boat I need help?

Question

its for my little girl, its a ceremony where lots of children let their boats out to sea, just as it going dark. I need an idea that will keep it afloat as previous years I have seen many flop and sink. I want to decorate the top with birthday candles , the ones that go out and re light again, any idea for making a boat

many thanks in advance

Answer 1

the dense cardboard that is used for soda pop 12 packs Will work great.. use water proof glue.then put several coats of water proof paint on it...if you make a  catamaran style boat  it can not flop  over and sink.use small strips of wood to connect the two hulls..if you don't know what a catamaran is just google it..could also make the hulls of styrofoam or any light mat`l that floats

Answer 2

Find 2 small stones that will go through the opening in the bottle top.

Take a plastic bottle, put glue on a small stone, drop it into the bottle. Tilt the bottle so the stone drys on the bottom of the bottle and against the side of the bottle.  

After the stone sticks to the bottle, put glue on a second small stone and drop into the bottle, Tilt the bottle so the stone drys near the top of the bottle on the same side as the first stone. The weight of the stones will make them the bottom of the boat so one side only floats out of the water.

Put the cap on the bottle. Paint the bottle to look like a ship, glue your candles on top that sticks out of the water.

Answer 3

I find that foam is a great idea if you can craft a boat out of that!

Makesure the boat meets equilibrium though or else it will go under.

Answer 4

It depends whether you need a boat or just something that floats. As it is going out to sea, it will need to be fairly high to avoid the waves splashing the candles. I guess it also depends on what other people use for boats.

Anything open can fill with water, so I guess you are looking at a raft rather than a traditional boat. Bear in mind that anything you send out to sea may stay there, so try not to pollute if possible.

Here's a fairly 'green' suggestion:

Take a piece of wood or a length of branch and some nails - choose the size of wood and nails to match the size of boat you need.

Knock a few nails in a line underneath along the middle of the wood and tie a stone to the bottom end of each one (with string rather than plastic twine). These stones should be heavy enough to stop the wood rolling over but not so heavy that it sinks! You could sew a few stones in a cloth tube and tie that on instead, at the end of the nails - the lower the better, depending on how deep the water will be.

Knock a few long nails in a line along the top of the wood and tie a candle to the end of each one. You could make this big enough for household candles quite easily.

Decorate the top of the wood with flowers or leaves to hide the nails.

An easy alternative:

Take two or three empty rectangular cardboard cartons that hold fruit juice, those with a s***w on plastic cap. Tape them together (with waterproof tape) jamming the candles between them to make a flat raft. You could puncture the cartons to put the candles in, but you would need to glue them in with waterproof glue that stuck to the cartons.

Hope these suggestions help.

Answer 5

if your in england, try hobby craft, they do some good craft tools and wood to get you started.