Cardboard Boating?

[henryBsick]

Cardboard regatta, excellent; here is what I have done in the past for a similar competition. It only allowed cardboard and tape. The tape could only extend beyond a seam 1".

My method of choice was to obtain 3 large soda-syrup boxes and tape those together for a base. These boxes are very strong as they carry very heavy bags of syrup. Traditionally they are at least two layers thick in all stress points with a heavy application of glue to hold them together. With these three boxes taped together in line, I cut cross sections of the profile I wanted to achieve and taped them all down the length of the big, three box, center structure. This effectively produced the shape of the hull. From there some crafty taping and placement of 2 outer layers of cardboard around this ribbed structure gave the craft its final shape.

PROTIP: By scoring the entire outer layer of hull, I was allowed to tape the entire surface and still abide by the rules. The boat was perfectly waterproof. HOWEVER my first year I let the cardboard hull in the water 'naked' and it did fine for the duration of its journey: approximately 1 minute.

That's it in a nutshell. Hope it helps.