Floatopia Boat

Floatopia was a day to be remembered. It is a rare spring when Stanford’s Lake Lagunita is actually filled with water. Such occasions much be taken advantage of to their full potential, and I think Floatopia was exactly that. My colleagues Erik Goldman, Alex Blackstock and I constructed one of the finest vessels known to man using only our bare fists (and power tools), our wits (perhaps a baby pool), and garbage (with a fine piece of Texas memorabilia to boot!). The vessel was built to support a lot of weight. The body consists of a baby pool as the main structure. Underneight the pool, we stuffed 4 giant garbage bags filled with styrofoam packaging peanuts and empty plastic bottles (with the lids screwed on). On top of the pool, we built a simple wood deck for stability. For navigation, we used an 8′ piece of metal conduit and pushed off of the bottom of the lake. The raft could hold 6 people comfortably and took on very little water.