STEAM boat race 24/01/2025

race day

It was a cold Thursday morning when we had to go to Hyde creek rec center to build our cardboard boats, prior to the race day we had done planning and designing on our boat ideas and modeled and tested a couple prototypes that we 3d printed    and tested using pennies.   

model 1

On race day they gave us 2 sheets of 4 meter long cardboard that we could work with and we started by gathering all our supplies.

 

 

This is the start of our project, we made the foundation of the boat by taping the sides together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture was taken when we got the tape back on the boat so that we could make it stronger and more waterproof, this step took very long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Our boat was almost complete now.

 

 

the race

 

At this point our boat was complete and we named it “A+O”. 

we sent our Ashwin to get it in as he was the lightest of all of us

                 

 the race went pretty well, Ashwin made it across and             

  our boat was one of the ones to last the longest in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection

I feel like one of the main reasons why our boat did well was because the boat was reinforced with tape and we also had a strip better known as a “bow” which supported the boat and prevented it from collapsing. as for improvements, one of the main things i would work on would be to make a space/ gap between the inside of the boat and the water, not only would this create a more solid structure but it would help the boat float better as there would be a gap of air, and since air is less dense than water it would make the boat more buoyant as the air would naturally want to stay above the water, this is the design used in modern boats.