Cardboard Boat Races!

[Dog--]

A few kids get selected for the cardboard boat races in London, Ontario each year and guess what! I got selected!

You have to take a tech course, and I took manufacturing, and I'm one of the top in my class (apperently, says the teacher), and me and 4 other kids got selected to do this cardboard boat race.

We get:

2x 4x8ft Peices of Cardboard
2x Rolls of Duct Tape
1 500ml Tube of Contact Cement
25ft of String
One Large Paper Clip (I don't know what use this is..)
Two Pairs of Vinyl Gloves
One Paint Brush


Last year my school came in 14th place out of like 30 or something.


There are two things we got to do:

1) Weight test - we have to fit a bunch of people in this cardboard boat and not have it sink

2) Racing - we have to race, and the paddles/oars have to be also out of cardboard (if we choose to make paddles/oars, we COULD use our hands)


So my team and I have from now (October 2nd) to November 16th to build a floating machine of death! We get time out of class to build it, and my tech teacher is eventually going to take us the the YMCA to test out different prototypes, so we can see if it'll float.

I don't want to copy last years designs from the other team.. it landed them 14th.. So my team and I have to come up with a whole new boat, and I have no idea what to do!

Guide Lines

 

[Que-Ever]

Copy the design the team in first used.

Also, that doesn't sound like a whole lotta cardboard they gave you. Can you use more?

 

[Dog--]

Nope, no more.. It is actually pretty big if you measure it out with a tape measure, and we are allowed to cut it, bend it, use tape to cover the seams, etc.

Also - they don't release the blueprints for the other teams

, which sucks nuts.

 

[Puzzlemaker]

Um... can you wax the cardboard?

 

[Dog--]

lol, I asked the same thing, but we can only use the materials provided for us..

 

[Dan]

I did this in 2nd year mechanical engineering. The lesson I learned is that cardboard is useless the second it touches water. So the bottom has to be air tight with tape. Also, flat cardboard has close to zero structural integrity. I think the best design would be to roll or cut and bend the cardboard into a stiff frame of tubes and then make a skin out of tape with a square of cardboard on the bottom to sit on.

Also helpful is to learn to steer canoe. Most people just switch back and forth which is a slow way to paddle and unbalances the boat. A proper J stroke will make you faster. And lastly, find really tiny Asian girls to be in your boat.

How many people do you have to fit?

Also do a test to see if contact cement can waterproof cardboard

 

[hungryduck]

sounds like fun, good luck!

 

[Stigmata]

Make sure you maximize the HELL out of the volume of your boat. It'll float better. i.e. don't make it really narrow, or really tall. Think of how the area of a rectangle changes as you increase the length of x and decrease that of y. The biggest area is when x and y are equal. It's the same with volume, only with a third dimension.

That being said, you do want the boat to... well, move, so it's a careful balance between narrowness and volume. If you make it too narrow, you'll have no volume and you'll sink, and if you make it too voluminous, you'll have a veritable assload of drag to contend with.

What I would do is plan out how you can take those two 4x8' pieces, cut them into the fewest number of pieces possible, while having those pieces create a boat of great volume. Once you've cut it, you can use the leftover pieces to create oars of sorts.

Cement the cardboard pieces together, making absolutely sure the pieces do not move or detach while cementing. Then, seal every edge and corner with duct tape, on both sides. Seal open edges as well, to keep the cardboard dry. If possible, cover the outside surface with duct tape as well (If this is possible, make sure to seal the edges last, so that the tape used to seal the edges also seals the seam between the cardboard and the tape used to cover the cardboard... convoluted, I know )

I have no ****ing idea what to use the paperclip for. Although you could tie the string to it, fashion the clip into a hook, and fire the hook onto an object at the finish line just before the race starts, and pull yourself to a win

[edit] Crap, Dan's right, you have to consider the integrity of flat cardboard. You'll have to either cut out some support struts, or roll each side into a repeating S-pattern, sealed with tape. The latter is probably more ideal, as it'll be less prone to hilarious breakage, but you'll lose a great deal of volume in the process.

 

[Dan]

flat pieces of cardboard won't hold any weight. It will crumple like a plastic bag as soon as anyone sits in it. Its got to be rigidized

 

[CyberPitz]

Why is it whenever I imagine ME doing something like this, Me and the 3 others get in, and it sinks STRAIGHT to the bottom...\=

GL on your boat though hope you get better than 14th!

 

[pvtbones]

whoa I don't live too far from london, woodstock infact. I wish you the best of luck man.

 

[15357]

What type of cardboard is it? Is it Type A (has spaces between the covers and is therfore soft) or Type B (compact; no space inside, hard, bendable) or Type C (almost like wood)?

 

[Raziaar]

Why the **** do they make boats out of fiberglass and other hi tech materials, when they could cut costs and make them out of cardboard and contact cement!?

 

[lePobz]

...Wait .... There's a London in Ontario?

 

[Que-Ever]

No, the canadians just stole it.

 

[Danimal]

Call it the Greased Danimal for eternal love.

 

[Stigmata]

Whoa whoa whoa, slow down.

Since when am I not the only forum member from southern Ontario?

 

[Dog--]

Niagara Falls (JUST outside Welland), Bitch!

 

[Reginald]

Some guys making an origami boat out of card. They are normally pretty good water-tight wise.

 

[Dog--]

No one except Japanese people can make origami..



I'M JOKING, ALL YOU HATERS!