a punt or a pirogue would be quick and easy.
I've built small boats out of 4' wide plywood by making the bottom 2' wide
and the two sides 1' high.
take a look at the 11x2x1 Jock River punt on my website below. click on
"Boats"

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned

Dave Allyn ) writes:
Ah.. the plot thickens. I asked the lady in charge how long the
plastic is. She then asked me why? how big of a boat are you
biulding? I said "Probably 12-14 feet long" She smirked. "You know
the cardboard is only 8 feet long, right?"

plastic can be taped too, not just cardboard.

what's really important is how much duct tape you get. with enough duct
tape you can cover the whole boat and forget about the plastic. they
should give you a complete list of material in the contest rules.

if you have to double up on the cardboard there is a one sheet boat on my
website with a 7.75 ft waterline called the Loonie.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned

On 2 Sep 2005 23:10:23 GMT, (William R.
Watt) wrote:


Dave Allyn ) writes:
Ah.. the plot thickens. I asked the lady in charge how long the
plastic is. She then asked me why? how big of a boat are you
biulding? I said "Probably 12-14 feet long" She smirked. "You know
the cardboard is only 8 feet long, right?"

plastic can be taped too, not just cardboard.

what's really important is how much duct tape you get. with enough duct
tape you can cover the whole boat and forget about the plastic. they
should give you a complete list of material in the contest rules.

if you have to double up on the cardboard there is a one sheet boat on my
website with a 7.75 ft waterline called the Loonie.


Checked out both boats. Thanks for the pointers. The boat I ended up
using is going to be about 8' long, Max Beam is about 32" It looks
like the front half of a canoe, but with a v-hull. The floor will be
doubled, and will be flat, to assist in the stability. I will be
useing the 2' triangles on bothe sides for stability, and will create
a kind of corregation between the layers of the floor for even more
support, especially where I will be kneeling. The Transom will be
doubled, with a 1 inch spacer in the middle to make it bow out a bit.
this should make it more stable as well. I'll make some fillet type
structures out of the left over card board for where the sides meet
the bottom.

With the dimentiones I am putting into this boat, I should have almost
a complete sheet left over to make the stabalizer parts (triangles,
second floor, etc...)

I'll run some tests here ina bit to see how water proof Duct tape is.
It doesn't have to last long, but I don't want to not finnish either!



Thanks again!

dave


email: dallyn_spam at yahoo dot com
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

With a pointy ended hull, you'll have triangles of plastic left over that
might/could be "scarfed" to the body to accommodate a longer LOA.

Roger

http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm
"Dave Allyn" wrote in message
...
Ah.. the plot thickens. I asked the lady in charge how long the
plastic is. She then asked me why? how big of a boat are you
biulding? I said "Probably 12-14 feet long" She smirked. "You know
the cardboard is only 8 feet long, right?"

"Sure. Thats bigger than plywood, but I know people that have built
30' boats with 8 foot sheets of plywood. There is even a guy who
made a 19' canoe from only one 4x8 sheet!

"huh. well, you are going to want to triple the cardboard up anyway
to hold your wieght.

"I'm sorry, but the displacement is what will hold up my weight. I
just need to engineer the boat not to colapse. that's why I need to
know how big the plastic is.

"I don't know. I havn't cut it yet. Probably about 10 feet long."


There goes my 14' canoe!!!!


back to the drawing board. I chopped the back 4 feet off the canoe,
made it into a "V-hull" and widened it out a bit. Hulls gives me a
water depth of 5.6" and a swamp depth of 11.2" that gives me a
freeboard of 5.6", and that should be enough.

Cardboard can be doubled up on the floor, and set at an angle against
the V-Hull for added strength.

Thinking this out again now, 10' of plastic won't be able to come up
the sides very well on the ends. let me do some more thinking.

thanks
dave


email: dallyn_spam at yahoo dot com
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:44:08 GMT, Dave Allyn
wrote:

Checked out both boats. Thanks for the pointers. The boat I ended up
using is going to be about 8' long, Max Beam is about 32" It looks
like the front half of a canoe, but with a v-hull. The floor will be
doubled, and will be flat, to assist in the stability. I will be
useing the 2' triangles on bothe sides for stability, and will create
a kind of corregation between the layers of the floor for even more
support, especially where I will be kneeling. The Transom will be
doubled, with a 1 inch spacer in the middle to make it bow out a bit.
this should make it more stable as well. I'll make some fillet type
structures out of the left over card board for where the sides meet
the bottom.

With the dimentiones I am putting into this boat, I should have almost
a complete sheet left over to make the stabalizer parts (triangles,
second floor, etc...)

I'll run some tests here ina bit to see how water proof Duct tape is.
It doesn't have to last long, but I don't want to not finnish either!



Thanks again!

dave


I sure hope we get some pictures of this this so we can all see how
well you did...) . Hand someone a camera before you set sail.....


M Russon

Dave Allyn ) writes:

Checked out both boats. Thanks for the pointers. The boat I ended up
using is going to be about 8' long, Max Beam is about 32" It looks
like the front half of a canoe, but with a v-hull. The floor will be
doubled, and will be flat, to assist in the stability. I will be
useing the 2' triangles on bothe sides for stability, and will create
a kind of corregation between the layers of the floor for even more
support, especially where I will be kneeling. The Transom will be
doubled, with a 1 inch spacer in the middle to make it bow out a bit.
this should make it more stable as well. I'll make some fillet type
structures out of the left over card board for where the sides meet
the bottom.

Try to avoid drag at the transom. It can really slow a boat down. The
water should flow smoothly off the back of the boat, not create
turbulance. Two things to do are a) keep the transom narrow and b) make
the bottom of the transom above the surface of the water. You can do "b"
by cutting some off the bottom of the sides at the back. If folding the
sides up out of one sheet, then a "V" (dart) can be cut out along the fold
at the back. It's more important on low powered boats - paddles, oars, and
sails.

A flat bottom boat with a transom doesn't paddle very well. It won't go
straight. You can add a skeg to the bottom at the back but then paddling
on one side isn't very good. You really need oars on a skiff. However if
you turn the skiff around and paddle it backwards the pointy end is like
the tail on a kite, it keeps it going straight. That's how I paddle my 11
ft Dogskiff. A flat bottom canoe (pirogue) or punt shape paddles better.
You can sit to one side submerging one bottom edge (chine) which then
helps keep the boat going straight. An 8 ft long boat will not keep going
straight if you lift the paddle out of the water. If you're not an
experienced paddler you can practice the J-stroke in your living rom to
get used to it. I hope you won't be using a carboard paddle.

I'll run some tests here ina bit to see how water proof Duct tape is.

Will be fine. It's used to make temporary patches in boats.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned

I just read MRusson's brief instruction and feel I can add a comment. I
agree completely with the "Hand someone a camera" part, but I think the
"before" should have been emphasized .... ie "Hand someone a camera BEFORE
you set sail ..."

(sure sounds like fun - and you darn well better post some fotos - including
a shot or two of the "construction" phase ...)

chip in central florida


"MRusson" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:44:08 GMT, Dave Allyn
wrote:
I sure hope we get some pictures of this this so we can all see how
well you did...) . Hand someone a camera before you set sail.....
M Russon

been thinking about this while cleaning fruit to make preserves, a good
boring opportunity to think.

If water gets into a carboard boat it's mush. I'd tape the plastic right
over the top to keep out spray. Probably should be supported by some
"deck beam" framing which would also act as thwarts holding sides apart.

If there were time it would be interesting to design a carboard surfboard
with a small cockpit (like a board sailer) to kneel and paddle in. Open
top. Interior cross framing like PC's honeycomb framing. Entire structure,
including interior of cockpit, wrapped in plastic to keep it dry.

Maybe the race organizer will post photos on a website showing all boats.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned