Weirdest way to build a boat yet?

I was randomly browsing the web Sunday, looking at the possibilities of different boat building methods when I came upon this:

http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/coracle/coracle.htm

If you read the part about how to construct the coracle, it is just cloth on plywood frame construction. I was thinking of how expensive canvas cloth is, and how you have to waterproof it with bitumen emulsion. Why can't you just build the frame for a cloth skinned boat, and instead of using cloth for skin, use thin plastic? It seems more practical to do this, since you can stretch the plastic over the frame, staple it on, paint it to give it some rigidity, then your done! Yeah, it wouldn't be very durable unless you put several layers of plastic sheeting over it, but It would be as tough as a rubber raft!

 

Been done already for many years, and you should use the heat shrink plastic shipping wrap because of it's toughness. Google up "geodesic airolite boats". They use a heat shrink dacron cloth, but the idea is the same.

Edit: FWIW, i think the weirdest way to build a boat that I have heard of is to go to a beach and build a male plug out of wet sand, cover it with saran wrap, lay the wet out glass cloth and roving over the mould, drink beer until it cures, paint it, pop it off the mould, install the inwales, thwarts and a transom pad.... sure beats using waxed carboard to build a punt.

 

This is probably the biggest breakthrough in boat building I have ever seen...

Thanks 1000 times, because I have researched every type of building method there is, including aluminum, RIB, wood planks, plywood, fiberglass, ferrocement, steel, and the coracle building method, where you put cloth on frame.

This boatbuilding method suits all of my needs, and it seems to be perfect for the amount of building space I have, and not to mention that I have only RESEARCHED the other boat building methods. These airolite boats seem to be made for carrying over rapids on the small rivers out here in Colorado, and for cartopping to the large lakes out here.

Also, if I were to use plastic shipping wrap instead of dacron, it would be cheaper (maybe, I wouldn't know) and easier to work with.

Thanks man!

 

It looks to me like just a variation of the skin-on-frame construction method that's been used for ages by Eskimos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umiak

 

Well, this method looks like something to try in the future, when I get bored with the aluminum fishing boat I am going to buy soon, within next week. It is the same dimensions as my fiberglass boat, but it is aluminum, and in good condition. Hope to take it on the local lakes on weekends, maybe catch a few largemouth bass and a walleye or two.

Speaking of fish, I am going to go fishing today.

Thanks for your help.

 

A coracle is essentially an over-sized garbage can lid scaled up about x2 - the one shown is actually one of the largest single seaters I have seen.

The real challenge with a coracle is paddling it. If you've ever tried rowing those cheap department store inflatable boats that are only about 50% longer than they are wide and mostly seem to spin around in circles you have merely touched on the problem. If you build one, please post your first efforts at getting in and propelling it, preferably in the Boat Jokes thread! Best tried in a small swimming pool I think: by the time you get to the other end you will have had enough I suspect. Remember that they are meant for small bodies of water not big lakes!

 

Actually it's nothing new. Coracles or coracle type boats have been around for several thousand years in all parts of the world. Supposedly Saint Brendan of Ireland sailed to the The Isle of the Blessed (supposedly North America) around about 520 AD in a Coracle. See The Voyage of Saint Brendan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan. At the 2009 Wooden Boat Fest in Port Townsend the had several asian basket boats, just small coracles. So if you are good at basket weaving, go for it.


PS my vote for weird is the boat that is currently traveling around the world, that is made out of plastic bottles, although I once saw a boat made out of beer cans, so it's up for grabs.

 

The boat that Saint Brendan of Ireland is reputed to have sailed across the Atlantic would not have been a coracle although it is often reported as such. A coracle could not have carried a sail and is in any case a one man boat, far too small for such a journey. It would have been a curragh, which is a larger, leather skin over wood frame boat, which is usually rowed but can carry a sail. I believe one was featured in a fairly recent issue of the Wooden Boat Magazine.

 

We talked about curraghs on the forum a while ago:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/projects-proposals/challenge-100-boat-12176-3.html#post92748
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/projects-proposals/challenge-100-boat-12176-3.html#post92768

 

Well I just found out that I am definitely going to get that aluminum fishing boat (for 100$ ) and I am waiting for the owner to get the title to the trailer so I can register it (the trailer) at DMV and it will be street legal. Not a bad deal for a 12 foot aluminum boat that comes with the trailer.

I am going to buy a ridiculously powerful outboard motor for my aluminum boat, like 40-60 hp BTW. I want to leave all of those annoying jet skis in my wake...

Speaking of a 100$ boat, I would use the method of construction I mentioned above, using a cheap ply frame and shrink wrap plastic shipping wrap for the skin.

 

Good idea. Even better, mount a large-bore duck gun on the bow and give chase!

It works: for a while, anyway. Post an image of it in http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/projects-proposals/challenge-100-boat-12176-new-post.html - it needs some fresh blood

 

TO Baboon slayer .....give you a race ....

Crazyest boat I made was to take 4 sheets of 3m x1m small square section galvo sheet ..screw them into 6m x2m cut the front stitch and glue style and fix with sheet metal screws ..put in a ply transom..spread it with some timber ...seal with parcel tape ....spray with cooking oil and glass the inside and it made a brilliant 5 m x 1m indian style canoe and popped out the tin mould easy .....

 

Okay pistnbroke, I'll race if you live in Colorado and you don't mind driving to Boyd lake state park. (Australia? I can't race you if you live in Australia!)

I haven't even gotten the boat yet, I am expecting to get the title soon though. I am still waiting on the owner. I haven't paid him yet so as soon as he's ready I will pay and pick up the boat...

Like I said I need to register the trailer so it will be street legal, and the boat needs to be registered at Boyd lake state park. I also need to get an outboard that is local.

Ancient kayaker, yeah, I'll post a link, not a picture of a similar building process that uses Dacron instead of plastic shipping wrap. http://gaboats.com/

NVM ancient, I can't post on that thread it's too old, and BTW when you say large bore duck gun, do you mean punt gun? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7FeeamC4qk

 

I built this last month for the World Cardboard Canoe Competition and made it twice through the rapids.

 

What do you mean gonzo?