Challenge: Building a Yacht with the Detritus of Modern Civilization

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by unbusted67

What's a Chookhouse?

Am I really crazy? Am I the only one that has seen a solar panel on the side of the road and thought, "man when the apocalypse comes that's going to look great hanging off the back of my boat". This, of course, is all in good fun. I did buy a boat, built from fiberglass, by a manufacturer, it is not one of those hulks waiting to sink in your harbor. It is actually extremely nice. Which isn't to say that I don't have a couple of pilfered railroad spikes on there that I will use as shore-anchors.

Unbusted...If we ever meet...lets do so on your boat...

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Unbusted...If we ever meet...lets do so on your boat...

You wanna get a look at those spikes?

[Boracay]

A short article on chookhouses may be found here.

[hummingway]

If you wallabees spoke english you'd know that's a hen house!

[s/v Beth]

I am intrigued by the idea, unbusted. Could you make a yacht from scrap? Up in Northern Washington, I think the answer would be yes. There are a few boats every year, that after years of sitting in the boatyard, are recycled for whatever is useful off of them, usually the bronze fittings. I have seen a ton of good fittings go in the trash, often attached to old teakwood. I would find a boat about ready to go- get it for free and start scrounging.
Would be a great project if I had the time....

[unbusted67]

Yeah I just think it would be an interesting experiment. I am always really impressed at the ingenuity of sailors and I think that would be the ultimate test of one's craftiness. I love the story of how Robin Knox Johnson made it around the world with a jury rigged gooseneck that proved to be stronger than the original, or, I believe it was, Moitesierre making a mast out of old an old telephone pole and sailing around the world with it. I think that says something about one's spirit and will. When other people would be frustrated these guy made lemonade from lemons.

[szymk]

Originally Posted by Kordie

What about CGI? Corrugated Galvanised Iron? Used a lot for roofing material here in Australia. We made canoes of it as kids - fold in half length ways and fold the ends inwards a few times to make them pointy and watertight (I use that term loosely). Some timber crosspieces to keep the top open and you are off!

Hey, this idea is not bad, it actually crossed my head recently! It's got some excellent strenght to weight ratio, at least in one direction. In the end, they were building aircraft like this (famous "Auntie Ju", Junkers 52). You'd need a smart design to exploit it's directional strength, something to keep it in shape - the timber crosspieces plus a little bit more, something to coat it with, or otherwise it would rust in a couple of days, and you have a light and strong boat! If you fill in the grooves with foam, it can also be unsinkable

Anybody with some spare garden space..?

[pressuredrop]

not exactly a yacht but check out spiral island... Spiral Island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the guy collected old fishnets and filled them with plastic bottles collected from the ocean, then he dumped heaps of sand on the mess, planted mangroves, and taadaa, you have your own island

[PieRatPeat]

Okay, if you're going to do it, do it right!

Cork Boat


Yup, the guy built a boat entirely out of wine corks (165,321 corks according to his count), then sailed it down the Douro river in Portugal. He started out collecting the corks from hotels & restaurants, but eventually persuaded a Portuguese porto distributor to sponsor the trip with a donation of the remaining needed corks (IIRC, the Douro river was chosen because it was the port from which his sponsor shipped their products).

The book chronicling his adventure isn't bad, although by the end of it he did come across as something of an irritating prig who used up some friendships to get the job done. Still, I'll give him credit - the boat floated and he completed his voyage.

The good news is that he didn't go out on the ocean, so that milestone is still available. It doesn't have to look like the Kon-Tiki, I'd suggest using the same cellular wine cork construction technique used on the original, coating the whole thing with epoxy to add some strength and durability.

To tie to another thread, we could then add a new-born baby and a goat, and kill three records in one throw. If the goat's female, it solves the problem of feeding the baby - although I'm not yet sure how we'll stop the goat from eating the boat...

[Morganministry]

You could save up those Ice cream sticks and build a boat like this.


I think there is over 1 million sticks in it.
Google Ice cream stick Vicking boat to see more pics.

Scott

[sailstoo]

Originally Posted by Kordie

I built a chookhouse recently from found materials - used a few pallets.

Again, What is a "Chookhouse"?

[sailstoo]

OK... I Googled "Chookhouse". Seems it's an Australian house for "Chooks"... a chicken coop. Ah yes...two cultures separated by a common language.

[Weyalan]

For what it is worth, the local tip-shop (a shop associated with a municipal rubbish dump, that sells things scavenged from the tip) can be an awesome source of good quality materials. We buy lots of timber from the various tip-shops in our area... anything from 6" x 6" sections downwards, for a tiny, tiny fraction of what a lumber yard would charge. The timber often looks pretty shabby, but pull out the nails and run it through a thicknesser and you can end up with absolutely beautiful hardwood planks, beams, battens, etc. Our engine box is built from ply and batters from this source, for example, and we just built a large double berth up forward for a freind's boat from this source.