craiyon logo

Two men row a blue homemade boat in a swimming pool, painted style.

Two men row a blue homemade boat in a swimming pool, painted style.

The goal of this project is to design and construct a small PVC pipe boat that can travel one lap of the St. Stephen’s pool, down and back, supporting two group members through the entire duration of the trip. The boat must be buoyant as well as stable in order to support the two people. The boat will feature a V-shaped hull, created with PVC elbow joints at the bottom. This design will increase the boat’s overall stability and reduce tipping imbalances as the boat’s center of gravity is lowered. The PVC frame will be made up of 6 of these rib-like structures, with each piece made up of two PVC pipes and a PVC elbow, forming a ninety-degree angle at the bottom. Typical boat designs will usually include this pointed hull shape for speed in order to travel and glide through water faster. Because this project essentially calls for a boat that can make it down to one end of the pool and back without sinking first, speed is very necessary to fulfill the project’s goal. In addition, canoes and kayaks both incorporate pointed sterns in order to easily turn and travel smoother, cutting through the water with ease. Because our main design objectives are buoyancy, stability, and waterproofing, both the V-shaped hull and the pointed stern are advantages in our boat design. These ribs connect to the boat’s top frame with T-connectors, which are then connected to each of the other ribs with PVC in the middle. The outer layer of the boat will be covered by a tarp which will be wrapped and See more