Plastic bottles of various capacities from drinks and even plumbing polyethylene pipes are an excellent material for building a wide variety of swimming equipment. And not only scale models or toys, but full-size structures. Here are just a few ideas that are easy to repeat, or take as a basis and use them to come up with your own “bottle” ship.
Each float of this simple single-seater catamaran (photo 1) is assembled from a dozen 2-liter plastic bottles, fastened with tape, and longitudinal elements – stringers made of duralumin tubes (two on each side). The frame is made of boards and bars. The floats are attached to it using plywood supports. The rigidity of the frame is ensured by diagonal braces. In the walking version, a seat cut out of plywood and a footrest are sufficient. In the fishing version, the catamaran can be equipped with a small deck or trunk for gear and catch.
Fans of water tourism may be interested in the designs of homemade kayak boats (photo 2). They are assembled from pipes, in turn, from bottles. The main fastening material, as in the first case, is tape. By the way, it is better to use it not reinforced or decorative, which are easily torn by hand, but on a polyethylene base. This adhesive tape stretches but does not break – this is important for a watercraft from a safety point of view. The streamlined contours of the boats are formed by longitudinal tension nylon cords, or an internal frame made of flexible rods, made directly at the assembly site. The tightness of the passenger compartment is achieved by gluing a thick polyethylene film into it. Although, it is unlikely to be 100 percent, so waterproof bags for equipment will not be superfluous.
And it’s easy to even make a pedal boat using floats from large-capacity plastic bottles (video above, photo at the beginning of the article). It is driven by a paddle wheel mounted behind the standard one and equipped with a chain drive.
A promising material for floating homemade products is large-diameter polyethylene plumbing pipes. Boats like this raft, and even those equipped with an outboard motor, are common in Asian countries (photo 4) – really, cheap and simple!
The guys from the YouTube channel Garage 54 made a homemade boat from PVC sewer pipes; you can watch the assembly and testing on the water in the video below:
Important! Regardless of what idea you use to build your “ship,” always remember about safety precautions and means of rescue on the water. Life jackets are required!
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