The Cardboard Boat Book is a step-by-step instruction manual that teaches you how to build a small kayak style boat with recyclable resources using readily available tools and materials and standard size sheets of corrugated paper cardboard.
A cardboard boat is a lightweight ‘environmentally-friendly’ boat constructed with 1/4-inch thick, 275-pound test, double-wall corrugated cardboard. The boats simply fold up from cardboard obtaining their strength from the geometry of the component parts. They are 8-feet long, weigh about 25-pounds, and can accommodate a 250-pound person without risking structural damage.
Each boat is constructed with 21 pieces of cardboard that are used to make 7 component parts. The 7 parts are assembled together with ‘environmentally-friendly’ contact cement and paper drywall tape. Once assembled the boats are sealed with an ‘environmentally-friendly’ water-based waterproof coating.
All of the materials used to build a boat can usually be found at ‘do-it-yourself’ home improvement stores. There are no special tools required and the boats are quite easy to build. People as young as 15 years old have built the boats, by themselves, to the specifications outlined in this book.
