The Great Bottle Boat

Nice looking boat, seems to run well too, but I wonder how long the hot glue lasted once it got wet. It would be nice if the bottles could be thermally bonded together: huge structural improvement.

 

Unfortunately I can't see YouTube videos, but we're taking all advice into consideration. We found a roll of tape today so we're fiddling with the paddles a little and testing some other things. I can't believe how hard it is to find duct tape

When this is all done, I'll try to post pics/vids of our adventure.

Thanks for all the replies

 

what if I put a boat in a bottle does that count?

 

- only if you get in with it ...

 

thnks ancient kayaker

i'm done it..

 

What if there's alcohol in the bottle when you get in with your built boat?

 

My younger brother participated in one of the boat comp's. He cut the top off the bottles and nested them to make plastic bamboo. He spaced the bottoms every 5" in the nest and inverted the last nested bottle. 6' sticks of plastic bamboo bundled together. His paddles were were built the same way, the last 2 bottles were flattened to make the paddle end.

 

Thats very clever. What did he glue them together with ? I am sure there are any number of good 'goos' that would do the job.

 

He was also limited to duct tape.

He alcohol wiped each joint, and applied 4 wraps of tape. When a bamboo tube was completed he wrapped it tightly in an electric blanket for 20 minutes to set the tapes glue. After they cooled they were dam near indestructible. That 4 to 5" - 3 layer lap of plastic was incredibly strong.

We used 2 for pugil sticks, it lasted longer than this old man could swing it.

 

I would nest some bottles to form a basic shape, 2 off. Then flatten some bottels or if you may cut them in sheets and use them to cover the nested bottles for a smoothish finish like a skin. This way you could make a relative streamline two hulls and not too bad on drag. Same thing for the beams, nest and cover with flattened bottles.

You could also roll the flat pieces into each other to make an oar. Make sure it's very strong, you must be able to heave hard on it without it breaking.

Good luck. I'm so glad someone found fiberglass out. Which country's army are you working in ? Sounds very primitive there, and I'm from Africa