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Invisible raft

 skim along on the seat of your pants
 
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This is something that father & son actually made about 30 years ago:
1. Weigh yourself.
2. Get two long pieces of wood, say 4" square (depends on your weight)
3. Calculate how much wood would just about hold your weight, and cut to length.
4. Nail a couple of cross braces. One a little bigger to sit on at half way. Another close by to put your feet on.
5. Cut a slight angle on the leading edge to make sure the raft doesn't nose-dive.
6. Get on carefully, and paddle away.

The raft barely breaks the surface, and from a distance, it appears that you are sitting on water. It is also incredibly fast.
—Ling, Mar 21 2004

According to GenYus - it's baked http://www.halfbake...ea/Invisible_20raft
Is this a first for the hb? [Ling, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

not an advisable activity today I am afraid. http://news.scotsma...uk.cfm?id=328962004
[po]

Raft problem http://www.ac-rouen.../romanti/medus.html [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Raft problem http://www.ac-rouen.../romanti/medus.html
[Fussass, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       //This is something that father & son actually made about 30 years ago://   

       So it is baked and should be [m-f-d]ed.
—GenYus, Mar 21 2004
   

       //widely known to exist - (formerly "baked")//
hardly applies to this!		   

       Ling, whats the link all about?
—po, Mar 21 2004
   

       If Genyus is correct, then I can prove my idea is baked by linking back to this idea. Sort of.
—Ling, Mar 21 2004
   

       what kind of weird logic is that? you may have *baked* it in the real world by building it yourself but its still your original idea.   

       the link just makes people dizzy.
—po, Mar 21 2004
   

       Just my weird humour. Sorry.
—Ling, Mar 21 2004
   

       I'm having trouble with the "It is also incredibly fast" bit. How so?   

       The relative speed of your boat (for the same amount of horsepower pushing you along) mostly has to do with your draft, i.e., how much of the boat is underwater. Since you're using solid wood to support you, this contraption will not go as fast as a hollow-shell canoe or kayak.   

       It probably would look like you were sitting on the water, so I'll withhold my "bad science" fishbone. Though I did think the whole point of rafts and boats and things was to avoid getting wet.
—DrCurry, Mar 21 2004
   

       Genyus, 'baked' is not grounds for deletion. See my "Prior Art MFD" idea if you want clarity on this point.
—waugsqueke, Mar 21 2004
   

       Once the excess buoyancy is down to zero there is nothing to keep it from sinking the rest of the way to the bottom. You have reinvented the Overloaded Raft widely know to raft builders everywhere, and replicated unintentionally innumerable times over the millennia.   

       “Conditions on the overloaded raft were terrible to start with and worsened fast. Over a two-week period, drowning, starvation, burning heat, violent mutiny, and widespread cannibalism reduced the original complement to 15”   

       Linked.
—Fussass, Mar 21 2004
   

       [DrCurry], theory aside, you seem to be forgetting that I have actually built one.
How can it be "bad science", even slightly?
If you check things out, you will also see that the length of vessel has an impact on speed/power.
—Ling, Mar 21 2004
   

       All noted, but fast to a lad may not be quite so fast to an adult, and I'd like to see that speed test against a kayak.
—DrCurry, Mar 22 2004
   

       [DrCurry] I don't remember mentioning any kayaks. However, it is easy to build, so why don't you give it a go? I spent many days in an estuary in Kent, playing around on the water (lived on a boat for a few years). Getting wet on something free was no problem.
[Fussass], it did not sink. However, it was so marginal, that if I stood on it too hard, it would momentarily go down a few inches. But if it did sink slightly, the rider would sink also, and the displaced water volume would increase, therefore increasing bouyancy. So it wouldn't (and it didn't) go all the way to the bottom as you suggest.
—Ling, Mar 22 2004
   

       //Whether you use solid wood, or a hollowed out boat, the displacement is the same//   

       Thank you for your comment, however, please note that the above comment is not quite right.
An increase in weight, by using solid wood, will require the displacement of more water to retain bouyancy.
—Ling, Mar 25 2004
   

       How could you make up something like "30 years ago"?   

       I need drawings though.
—K-trein, Mar 26 2004
   

       Sounds suspisously like.. paddling a surf board...
—sirching, Mar 26 2004
   
      
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