Catamaran With Duct Tape and Bamboo

I recently looked through the instructables site and found a page where people made a lot of cool things with duct tape. As I scrolled through I noticed that there are several boat projects in addition to purses. Often there were videos which looked cool. Still, I thought there must be a more stable way to build a boat out of duct tape. And this catamaran is the solution my friends and I came up with...

In this Instructable I describe the project as accurately as I think is necessary so that it can be easily replicated, because a couple of friends and I had a lot of fun with this boat.

• 5 rolls of duct tape
• 7 bamboo sticks

The first thing you need to cut the bamboo. Since we made the hull of the boat pointed at the bottom, we first had to make a rectangle of bamboo. The important sizes here are: smaller sticks 40 cm, larger sticks 170 cm. These we then put on top of each other, so that we can relatively easily wrap duct tape around. Next, attach the third stick, which is only about 150 cm long. All the sticks that support/connect the three shapers are 40 cm long. In the end it should look like in the picture above.

This structure is made twice, because it is a catamaran...

In this step we are going to fill the faces out with duct tape. Clean work is essential here, as the water will later press on the boat and the duct tape will quickly deflate in unclean places. If, like us, you only wrap the layer around the outside with duct tape, then there is a risk that the inner sides will stick together. You can then only get them apart very badly or not at all. A possible successful procedure is to stick the duct tape to one bamboo pole and then pull the tape to the other bamboo pole, take it off there and repeat the procedure so that the overlap is about 10% to 20%. With your hand you still have to stick the two tape strips together and make sure that they hold well and that no water gets through. The tape on the edges you can simply stick to the other side, because it should not be much. You can go over the criticals again later. We also taped the openings at the beginning and end of the bamboo stick because my bamboo sticks got a little splintery when we cut them and we didn't want the water to get in that way. To test, we first left an opening at the top, but quickly realized that it must also be closed, because otherwise the pressure of the water is too great and the sides stick together. That's why you should just tape everything up. For us, one layer of tape was enough. But you may also put a second one over or counter-tape the inside (the latter is not a bad idea).

You can't build a catamaran without a middle piece. Therefore, this step is dedicated to this piece. Basically, you have to decide for yourself how big it should be. For us it was about 120 cm by 50 cm. Here, too, the bamboo poles were wound together as in the first step. It is recommended to use many poles here, because the weight can be distributed better and the poles can withstand a higher load. Here we wrapped the duct tape around on both sides, since both are outside and shouldn't be sticky. Here, multiple layers of tape are good, as it should be very stable to hold your weight.

Now you've come this far. The only thing missing is the assembly of the individual parts. And what a surprise, we made this with duct tape... :)

In the picture above you can see which parts you should have made all now. You then place them on top of each other as shown in the other picture above and use as much duct tape as you think is necessary to hold them in place. Be sure to tape not only the outside, but also the inside. If this step is not done carefully, there is a risk that the two side pieces will suddenly find themselves next to you in the water.