Cork Boats

All you need is corks and cocktail sticks to make these adorable little boats. If you don't have any cocktail stick handy then you can always use matchsticks sharpened to a point.

In Springtime, when there is plenty of water around, it is great fun to sail one of these little cork boats down the length of a stream. They are small enough not to get stuck too often, and the cork makes them super-floatable. If you don't have a stream to sail them on, then they can be sailed across any pool, puddle or well. The slightest breeze will catch their sails and you can make them race each other to the other side. The bigger the leaf you have used for a sail, the swifter it will go, until you make it too large and the boat will topple over!


This is the basic design for a cork boat, as described in the instructions below.


This boat is a sort of catamaran, and is made with one cork split in half, and held together with cocktail sticks.


Six corks were used to make this large boat (too big to fit down most streams) and one giant ivy leaf for the sail.

You will need:

A cork

2 cocktail sticks

a couple of leaves, or piece of paper


This boat is really tiny, made from just one half cork. On the picture it has a piece of heather for a sail and mast.

Instructions:

1. Take a cork, and cut it into two equal halves. (Diagram 1).


Diagram 1

2. Cut the cocktail sticks in half. Push two halves into the side of one of the split pieces of cork, then fix the remaining piece of cork to it by pushing it into the cocktail sticks. (Diagram 2)


Diagram 2

3. Push the other pieces of cocktail stick into the flat side of the cork, as masts (diagram 3), and add the leaves leaf, or piece of paper for sails (diagram 4).
Diagram 3
The boat is now finished. There are a great many different designs that can be experimented with. A larger galley could be made by using more corks and fixing three or four halves together; more masts can be added; or else you could make a catamaran (diagram 5).


Diagram 5


Diagram 4

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