AQUARIUM BOAT

How could one not help little Katyusha see the fish swimming! During a boat trip with grandfather Viktor on the lake, she kept leaning over the side, trying to see the underwater inhabitants.

Grandfather, fearing that his granddaughter might accidentally fall into the water, asked her not to lean over the water anymore. And he promised that next time they would sail not on this boat, but on their own boat, in which he would definitely make a special window so that Katyusha could see the fish through it.

On the shore of Lake, at his dacha, he indeed has a homemade boat, which he once welded from several pieces of steel sheets 1 and 2 mm thick.

Structurally, the boat is simple, and Viktor Dmitrievich spent only a few hours making it.

First, he made cylindrical pontoons, for which he welded two pipes from a 1 mm thick steel sheet and closed them at the ends with wooden disk plugs. He used thick paint as a sealant and screws as fasteners.

Then from the same sheet he cut out and welded the boat hull with rounded sides and inclined wave deflector and transom. He reinforced the bends of the flat bottom near the wave deflector and transom with corner overlays made of 2 mm thick steel sheet.

He connected the pontoons to the hull using six hoops made of steel strips with a cross-section of 50×1 mm. The ends of the hoops that encircle the pontoons were welded butt-to-butt directly to the hull. Between the upper ends of the middle (oarlock) hoops and the hull, he welded semicircular inserts made of 1 mm thick steel sheet. Later, he tacked M12 nuts to these inserts, into which he screwed and secured the oarlock rods with lock nuts.

To prevent the pontoons from shifting, he connected them to the hoops with several welds. In addition, in front of the stern plugs, he drilled a 10 mm diameter hole in each pontoon from the top for water drainage (by the way, a little water should always be in the pontoons, otherwise the wooden plugs will dry out and lose their tightness).

It should be noted that the boat’s lines turned out to be not at all streamlined. But Viktor Dmitrievich was not striving for streamlining. He needed the simplest watercraft that would allow him to leisurely paddle somewhere into the lake reeds and fish there.

In the middle of the hull, he welded a crosspiece made of a steel Z-shaped profile, on which, after launching the boat into the water, he simply placed a seat (bank) — a piece of board with a cross-section of 120×15 mm. He did not fasten the seat to the crosspiece so it could be moved, as not all family members found the distance from this piece to the oarlocks suitable.

The boat comes with two homemade oars. Their blades are duralumin, made from a 2 mm thick sheet, the looms are wooden. The oarlocks are made of pieces of steel pipes 16×1.5 mm in diameter with bows welded to them made of 8 mm diameter rod. The oarlocks are connected to the oar looms with peened axes on both sides made of 5 mm diameter rod.

Tests showed that the boat easily holds two adult men on the water (Viktor Dmitrievich and his son Dmitry acted as testers). However, when moving, the wave splashed over the wave deflector or, when going in reverse, over the transom. He had to extend the wave deflector with a foam block, attaching it to the hull with three elements made of steel strip with a cross-section of 60×2 mm: two posts welded to the front corner overlay of the hull, and a belt, the ends of which (flaps) are inserted into slots in the foam block, slightly bent and welded to the sides and bow hoops. The belt also serves as a kind of bumper, protecting the foam from crushing during unsuccessful mooring.

In turn, the transom was extended with a «collar» made of conveyor belt, attached with eight M5 bolts. Four central bolts also hold a door handle, intended for the convenience of carrying the watercraft.

This is the boat that grandfather promised to equip with an «aquarium» window for his granddaughter. Fulfilling his promise, he cut out two L-shaped walls from a 1 mm thick steel sheet, welded a bottomless box from them, and bent the upper edges so the child would not injure her hands. Then he cut an opening measuring 272×132 mm in the stern part of the boat’s bottom and welded this box into it. It turned out to be a real «aquarium», looking into which one can see everything that happens directly under the boat. In sunny weather, algae and fish swimming among them are clearly visible in the water.

Granddaughter Katyusha participated in the boat’s refitting from the very beginning. She really participated, because she showed her grandfather what size of the viewing window would suit her. And she eagerly awaited the testing of the «aquarium», not forgetting, however, to repeatedly ask whether the boat would sink with such a hole?

Of course, it didn’t sink. There were so many childish delights that grandfather never regretted the time spent for a second.

A. NIKOLAYEV