For our cardboard challenge entry we decided that making a floating cardboard boat was a good idea. As it turns out it was. We started out with a few designs of boats we wanted to make and ended up making a pirate ship. All you need for this project is as much cardboard as possible a hot-glue gun and a lot of glue for the hot-glue gun, we also used a spray on plastic for the hull to allow less leakage into the hull(though not needed if you don't want it to float). You will also need an exact o knife or a sharp cutting tool of some sort.

Step 1: Materials

You will need a pencil, a ton of cardboard, a meter stick, graph paper, glue gun, hot glue sticks, plasti dip(optional) and a exact o knife.

Step 2: Design Phase

For our design phase we made some basic designs that could be changed as needed, but we knew what we wanted a pirate ship.

Step 3: Hull

We first traced out how we wanted our hull to look onto tracing paper(though not needed I recommend it) this helped us keep the ship symmetrical. Next we drew and cut out the hull walls, what we didn't realize during this was that cardboard isn't able to make nice clean curves so we lined the walls with the hull and by doing that we were able to find where we needed to make a joint. We made these joints by cutting about halfway into the cardboard and pressing our fingers down into the slit to make it more flexable

Step 4: The Deck

The deck was one of the simplest parts we just traced the hull onto another piece of cardboard than added an inch out from the the perimeter of the boat.

Step 5: The Captains Quarters (floor)

To create the floor of the captains quarters we first traced the back end of the deck onto a piece of cardboard we than made a pair of parallel lines that went on for about another 4 inches, after that we made two fifty degree angles going towered each other for another 3 inches, than we made another set of parallel lines that went for another 2 inches before connecting the two sides together.

Step 6: The Captains Quarters(walls and Roof)

First we made two triangle shaped pieces that would be the closest walls to the deck of the ship. Next we made the 50 degree angles walls which we found the height of by using the height to the triangles to reference than we made the back walls which were three rectangles one of which was 5 by 5 inches, and the others were 3 by 5 inches. To create the roof of the quarters we traced the shapes needed for the roof from the walls

Step 7: The Bow

We created the bow by tracing the front of the boat onto a piece of cardboard after that we sketched what we wanted the bow to look like than cut it out and glued it together. After that we realized we wanted to make it elevated to we measured the distance from the front of the ship to the end of the newly created bow and made triangles to elevate the addition.

Step 8: Stairs

The stairs were one of the hardest parts to make, we made these by cutting out the length of stairs we wanted than cut lines through the cardboard to create the steps, we than had to bend the cardboard and add an additional support to make it look like stairs.

Step 9: Stern

To build the stern we first started by connecting the very back of the captains quarters to the rectangle at the bottom of the ship. We than started to cut out the cardboard so it would fit like puzzle pieces and began bending the cardboard so it would give the ship a more ship like feel.

Step 10: Bow

Building the bow was easier than building the stern because it required less pieces of cardboard. we started by attaching the front of the bow to the front of the hull than we built the walls to the bow

Step 11: Mast

The mast was one of the easiest parts, I would recommend trying to get a circular piece of cardboard, though if you cant get one you could always layer cardboard together to increase the width of the mast.

Step 12: That Is It

After building the mast you should try to protect the cardboard with some sealant but you do not have too if you do not want too but after that you should be good and ready to set sail with your new boat.