Steam 9 Boat Race
The process of us creating our boat was quite simple, we began with two sheets of cardboard, we cut them into 2 halves and made the walls for our boat. We kept the cardboard as one whole piece on order to have a strong bottom. The first 3 photos are of our boat and the 4th on is our team on the water. Our boat was quite large so it took 2 people to operate. For structural support we put everything together using duct tape. Once we finished constructing our boat, we waterproofed it with clear tape and we made sure the structure was strong.
I think the main factor that contributed to our failure is that the boat was too big. It was difficult to control and when we had to add another person, we were at a disadvantage because we already had 2 people in the boat, we now had to add a 3rd instead of a second if we only started with 1 person we would have only 2 people. I think if we made the boat smaller we would have succeeded and have remained on the water for much longer.
If I could improve on my boat design, i would make it smaller and i would have put even more waterproof tape on the bottom of my boat because we started to leak while we where on the boat in the water. Overall i would improve the boat by making it thinner/ less wide and waterproofing the bottom more in order for the boat to stay afloat for longer. That is would i change if i could get another chance to re do the boat.
The mass of the paddler could affect many things. For example if a paddler is heaver they will displace more water and cause the boat to sit lower, this could increase drag and make it harder to move quickly. If the paddler is light, this will make the boat sit higher but will make the stability worse as well. If the paddler is more dense (more muscle, less fat) they could paddle quicker but they will sink into the boat because they are quite dense, this could affect balance and buoyancy. On the other hand a less dense paddler (less muscle, more fat) could float better because they are dispersed more evenly across the water, but they could paddle not as efficiently as someone with more muscle.