Model Boat Building Classes in School

[P. Tritle]

A friend from California dropped a note the other day asking if I had plans suitable for a beginners model boat building class for 12 - 15 year olds in their local school system. What I had done a couple years ago turned out to be too rudimentary for their needs, so I offered to whip up a new design specifically for the class.
I put a quick layout together and sent it over for his approval. He thought the design would work well for the age group, so I finished the plans to "copy ready". The 18" boat can be built for Static Display, Free Running, or R/C using an S-280 or S-400 for power.
Now here's the offer. If anyone out there is doing model boat building classes and needs a design to work with, I'll be happy to send the plans over. They are not intended to be "sold" or "kitted", beyond the class in which they would be used, but I would like nothing more then to see a bunch of kids building and running them.
The plans were done in AutoCAD, in DWG format, and can be e-mailed if there is ACAD capability on the recieving end. Otherwise, I'll be happy to send over a hard copy for the cost of copy and mailing. Anyone interested can contact me at patscustommodels@aol.com

PAT

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

The Seattle "Wooden Boat Center", on the South end of Lake Union, has an outreach program with the city schools. I got to see a bunch of the RC wooden sailboats that the kids built and then raced down on the lake. They have several other programs also that take kids out of the schools, and put them on the water.

They might prove a useful source of ideas, or outlet for those plans.
http://www.cwb.org/InspireKids.htm

:)
Umi

[P. Tritle]

Umi, Thanks for the link, I dropped them an e-mail, will sit back and see what comes of it. Looks like a pretty worthwile program.
PAT

[ropanach]

P.Tritle: I would love to have a set, I have an old set of plans I used with the cub scouts when I was the master. it's a rubber band wind up that can be converted to r/c. it's 20" long with a 5 1/2" beam flat bottom with a keel insert. the plans even shows you how to bulid the prop and set the pitch. I don't even remember where i got them. It's called rubber-band run-a- bout. I remember these plans in a 2002 better homes and garden mag. the wife showed them to me and asked if I remembered them, how could I forget helping 18 cub scouts build ther very first boat, but the most fun was when the faters of the kids got into it. We had about 5 or 6 rubber band boat durbys just after or pine wood derby races. we all had a blast. even the dads that retrived them as they ran of corse. I do have 2002 CAD. please send them along if you wish thanks. I tried to send a copy of the plans but rc group will not take tiff pics from my scanner, I don't have a program to change it.

[P. Tritle]

Ropanach, Drop me an email at the address in post #1 and I'll shoot a set right over.
PAT

[spiffy_spaceguy]

Model boat building for school? Like marks? Wish they had that at my school.

[Aerominded]

Neat Pat! Classic lines, very nice! :)

What a great thing to do for kids! Keep up the great work! :)

[ropanach]

Pat: let's try this again, I changed the pic to jpeg. there is more instructions and prints, if you would like I can make a copy and mail them out or you could get a copy of the Better homes and gardens april 2001, let me know

Roger

[P. Tritle]

Ropanach, The rubber band boat is just way too cool! And a great looking hull -- perfect for a conversion to "modern" electric power systems.
PAT

[ropanach]

I dug up some of the old scout stuff and found the papper work on this Rubber band boat, I donaited around $ 280.00 for the project, some where around $ 16.00 a boat not counting the time to precut some of the parts to make it a shorter project. It was worth the time & money to me, it'll cost more than that now days.

[Ron Olson]

Here are some that were made at the 2003 IMPBA Internats. The drive was from a cheap balsa plane kit. It was fun watching some of the best racers in the country trying to build these and tweaking them for performance. Mine is the one on the far right. The offset sponsons are because I broke the dowel but it was the fastest. Ernie LaFleur beat me in distance though. The rules were simple enough, you could use anything that was in the bag, including the bag if you wished. Any glue and you could personalize it with markers. No other parts could be used. The wood and plastic could be modified and/or moved. These were just a few of the entries.

[ropanach]

Pat T.
I gave a copy of you drawing to a area boy scout troup #107, the master said he would take pics, and I will post them under a new thread, as I get them, If they go with a class program witch I volunteered to do for them, he said he would let me know.