Can you build a canal boat using empty plastic bottles?

[Dockeroo]

23 hours ago, Annie cariad said:

What the hell for.......

As a liveboard costs allot of money, multiple or many thousands even a cheap one, for someone who wants to legitimately have the benefits of living on a boat in the canal with no money they might be able to this way, not that I would want loads of bottle boats just wondering, hopefully I havent highlighted a loop hole 😂

[Momac]

Pontoon boats do exist but not a lot of use on a canal. I expect they are very difficult to control in wind.

By the time the 'pontoons are sheathed in something durable the use of bottles would seem a little pointless

 

 

 

[magnetman]

Someone did build a shed on a raft a number of yars ago on Limehouse cut. I think the raft section was made using plastic oil or chemical drums. Top was nailed together old pallet wood. 

 

It was actually quite an interesting item but unpowered. I imagine it attracted the attention of the CRT. Don't know if it survived or ended up being broken. 

 

The problem is the bloke didn't live on it so it rapidly degraded. 

 

A shanty boat like that really needs to be lived on full time. 

 

 

[PeterF]

Around 10-15 years ago there was a boat where the hull was made from plastic drinks bottles tied together with 2 converted bicycles driving propellers for motive power. From memory it had some form of tent like superstructure. It was moored in Brighouse Basin for a while. It may have been a project to highlight plastic waste but my memory fades. I can not find amy old photos either.

Found a picture, not really bicycles but still pedal powered. "Orbis".

 

[Francis Herne]

The mat of plastic bottles in the GKN factory arm tunnel (parallel to the Cape Arm one) is thick enough to walk on. I don't know whether that makes it count as a boat.

 

Here's me demonstrating that it can be walked on. I then proved that it's still a floating mat by putting my foot through it! Blech.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Francis Herne

[Machpoint005]

On 16/07/2023 at 13:47, Mike Todd said:

That is presumably because you don't use lead anymore but do have posh accents.

 

I've met a few plumbers with polish(ed) accents.