How to Make a Plastic Flat-bottomed Boat

Making a flat-bottomed boat is a fun job and the result is both useful and gratifying. This boat made with plastic bottles is eco-friendly and can be used for sailing on slow water like lakes and ponds. By using bottles to make the boat, unused or useless plastic bottles are put to good use.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic crates
• Plaster of Paris
• Old plastic drinking water bottles or other bottles to cover the entire boat
• Epoxy glue
• Duct tape
• Spatula
• Tub of water
• Cardboard
• Utility Knife
• Can or cans of spray paint.

Instructions

1. Gather enough plastic crates to measure 12 feet in length. The best types of crate to use are square ones as they will cover the largest amount of area most effectively. Make sure that the sides of the plastic crates have enough height for a boat. A 1-foot to 1-1/2-foot high boat should suffice, but if you would prefer a higher or lower boat, you can choose the appropriate height. Make sure that the crates do not have holes. If you can find only plastic milk crates with one or two holes, glue a plastic bottle over the holes to prevent water from coming through. Glue the sides of the plastic crate together with epoxy glue. Secure glued sides of the rates with duct tape. Draw a triangle on the cardboard and glue the triangle on one crate edge to give a triangular extension or protrusion. Glue the cardboard to the edge of the crates with epoxy glue and secure with duct tape. Leave the crates overnight for the glue to harden.

2. Sift plaster of Paris into the tub of water and make a thick creamy mixture. Overturn the crates and spread the plaster of Paris mixture over the crates with the spatula and utility knife till it covers the crates evenly and has a smooth finish. Spread the plaster of Paris over the cardboard triangle evenly and smoothly and leave to dry.

3. Measure the boat and the drinking water bottle and figure out how many you may need to cover the boat. Try to find bottles all of the same size. Glue the bottles all over the upturned surface of the boat and to each other and secure with lengths of duct tape to hold it in place while you leave the glue to dry. You can stick a few more bottles to the sides of the boat above the edge of the crates to serve as handles. Leave overnight till the glue does its job.

4. Spray the paint over the boat. This is an option. Leaving the transparent plastic bottles without paint will also give you an attractive boat.

5. Make sure that all bottles are properly glued together and the crates feel firm inside the plaster of Paris case. Remove the duct tape and again check if any of the bottles wobble and need another overnight gluing. Once you are reassured that the boat will stay firm, you can take it to row it around a pond or a lake.

Tips & Warnings

• Bottles of the same size work best but you could glue bottles of assorted sizes all over the boat to make the boat even more eco-friendly

• This is no seafaring boat nor is it safe for rapid waters. This boat is ideal for use in the quiet and still waters of lakes and ponds.