Ideas Wanted For Raft Race

[TheDetailDoctor]

I am part of a team entering a raft race in Chippenham & I'm looking for "novel" designs of raft.

The obvious choice is to use barrels, but we'd like to do something different

[DrTre]

TheDetailDoctor said:

The obvious choice is to use barrels, but we'd like to do something different

Ducks.

[DavesFlaps]

If it's only for a short while, then there's always bloated corpses.

[sherman]

Depending on how far the course is ask at your local carpet emporium for the cardboard tubes that go through the big rolls and lash several of them together in about two stacks and make a raft. Paint them all and block up the ends with gaffer tape and the boat will float and be nice and water tight.

This design worked for our local cardboard boat race and the course was about 200m up and back down a canal.

[SeeFive]

I was looking on Youtube to find a clip of where Rico Daniels built a boat out of a transit roof. No luck there, but found this.

Sort of safe for work I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0AbGR7b_Rs

[ZOLLAR]

Cut the Roof off the top of a transit van? (preferably not your own )

Or if you need more room the top of a bus, there are loads of roofless buses in london so there's bound to be loads of bus roofs lying around somewhere!

[Goochie]

Are you allowed to use "bits of boats"?

We did that once and tied two "parts" of a catamaran together (the hulls) with lengths of wood and cable ties. Won the race by miles over those who used barrels.

[tonyvid]

You don't need that many barrels but you do need stability so design for that. A 100L barrel will support 100kg, give or take a bit.

[JRM]

TheDetailDoctor said:

I'm looking for "novel" designs of raft.

The obvious choice is to use barrels, but we'd like to do something different

Books?

[Simpo Two]

Any aircraft drop tanks around?

[Tsippy]

Could you use plastic bottles?

There's a plastic bottle yacht sailing the seas at the moment

[WorAl]

TheDetailDoctor said:

The obvious choice is to use barrels, but we'd like to do something different

[Tsippy]

WorAl said:

TheDetailDoctor said:

The obvious choice is to use barrels, but we'd like to do something different

With a V8 attached?

[tegwin]

Styrofoam penuts held inside flexible netting/webbing?

Would be hilariuos to watch you try and control the resultant ameba like craft... and even more amusing when it splits open coating the area with giant snowflakes

[JB!]

2x bathtubs as a catamaran?

[AJS-]

TheDetailDoctor said:

I am part of a team entering a raft race in Chippenham & I'm looking for "novel" designs of raft.

The obvious choice is to use barrels, but we'd like to do something different

Stones?

[Monkeylegend]

Balsa wood is good apparantly.

[snotrag]

I like the carbboard tubes idea - i would get some, use them to build a 'traditional' style raft, log style.

Trick here is, I reckon - Paint the lot in a PVA glue 'varnish' which should dry to a shell and keep them really watertight, Et voila, light, rigid, very bouyant.

Winner"

[Custard Test]

DavesFlaps said:

If it's only for a short while, then there's always bloated corpses.

What movie was that in? That rings a bell.

[Ayahuasca]

Wheelie bin submarine.

Get a wheelie bin, ballast it with rocks so that it floats upright with a crew member.

Will look like the conning tower of a submarine.

Even has a hatch to play with.

Winner.