Need to make a boat from 4 6' pcs of cardboard and duct tape to float a person across a pool. HELP!!?

Question

Need to make a boat from 4 6' pcs of cardboard and duct tape to float a person across a pool. HELP!!?

Answer 1

Yes, I have been there and done that!  What a blast of fun!

I went to a Corporate sponsored boat builders "team building" seminar... and that is exactly what we did...

I can't even begin to tell you exactly what we did... it is just too lengthy and would probably be very confusing...

But I can tell you this, and maybe it will help enough, so that you can fill in the pieces...

First of all... the only "boats" to make it across the pool were constructed using 3 of the four pieces to make one flat structural piece... ie: we put two pieces together that over lapped about a foot - and we taped that on both sides.  We cut the third piece in half, and used half on both side of this center seam to reinforce and better seal the seam... by taping both ends on both sides of our "splice".  So our single flat piece ended up being one foot shorter then the length of  two pieces layed out end to end... (get it?)

So, now you have one long piece.  We then folded this piece in half, and then folded both ends "inward" to form something that looked like a boat hull... we layed this folded over piece on the ground and stepped on the ends (to mash them together, and taped the ends so that you ended up with what looked very much like the bow of a boat on both ends... We then cut the fourth piece into 4" strips, and then cut the strips into 2' and 2 1/2 ' and 3' lengths... then we taped 6 pieces of these strips together to make "boards".  and taped them evenly spread on the floor level, using these 2' pieces as cross beams, and the majority of them went where the skippers butt was going to be... the rest, we used as cross beams at just above the mid way point on the sides, where we projected the water line would be.  On these, we made a "sandwich" using six 2 1/2' pieces as the bread, (3 on each side) and one 3' piece (centered lengthwise) in the middle.  On the side hulls, we made a slit where by we stuct the middle of our sandwich boards thru, and folded the ends that protruded through the hull over and taped it.  

In the end, no one could tell who actually won the race across the pool... (the competition was fierce) So they declared all the ones that made it all the way - as winners... (it was 5 out of 23 boats... it didn't help any in our case that the "lightest" skipper we had was a 200 pounder... but he not only made it, he was still pretty dry at the other end. lol

Have fun, hope you can understand enough of this to give you an edge.  it's a blast!

Answer 2

This sounds like a project for the strong hearted, if that's all your allowed to use maybe try and get your hand on some waxed cardboard to help repel the water. Try and keep all seams above the water-line if possible. Also make sure your test pilot can swim and of a light build.

Answer 3

Cut 1 1/2 inch wide strips 6 feet long and tape them together side by side to make your 1x2 beams for framing. Build a boat frame to attach your outside sheets. Look at a row boat for a traditional shape and ribbed frame design.