BOATBUILDING - Part 1

Articles In This Section:

· At Water’s Edge

· DIVING

· BOATBUILDING - Part 1

· BOATBUILDING - Part 2

· BOATBUILDING - Part 3

· THE RULES OF THE SEA

· SAILING SHIPS

Have you ever dreamed of owning a boat of your own, so that you could explore around the bend of a river, or just float lazily along a lake ? Why not build the boat of your dreams ?

As far as the appearance of your vessel is concerned, you don't have to be too particular. The important thing is its absolute seaworthiness. Perhaps it's too much to call these crafts "boats"; for the most part, they're actually rafts or floats, but they all serve the purpose of carrying you on the water. For example, here is a tube-boat. This is made of old tire tubes which are first carefully patched, then pumped up, and finally bound together with boards and ropes as the illustration shows. The ropes should be as thick as possible so they will not cut into the tubes. You can make paddles out of small boards nailed to short poles.

The water-flea is a different model, and to make it you first need a tree trunk. Fasten a pole crosswise at each end of the trunk and bind a small log or block of wood to the ends of each pole. This provides you with four floats which prevent the tree trunk from spinning on its own axis. Fasten blocks to serve as foot supports on both sides at the middle of the trunk. In order to reduce water resistance, the blocks and the trunk are pointed.