The Beverage Barge MK 2

When i was sitting on my raft today, i realized i had a problem. I was in the middle of the and my drink was all the way on the other side of the pool! What am I, a lazy american, to do? INVENT!!! After many days of careful planning (half an hour) the beverage barge, mk 2, was born.

Step 1 Gather The Materials

You will need:
- one noodle (make sure that the noodle is bigger then the can)
-one can (full preferably)
-one sharpie (the picture says a pencil but ignore that)
- four popsicle sticks (four for each barge)
-a kinfe (taller than than the can)
- a cutting board
-a hot glue gun (what craft would be complete with out one)

Comments

[Trepsik]

Killer idea. did you cut the noodle in half because of tipping issues? I left mine full and just used zip ties to hold it together. no sticks or glue plus the center holes allowed me to put a tether on it since i'll be using it on a river

[Trepsik]

tested it now and it is mostly stable. a sharp tap to either side will cause it to flip so I am thinking of either adding another piece of noodle to each side or perhaps a small keel of sorts to the bottom to dissuade tipping

[Trepsik]

tied a 1 5/8" steel ball bearing into a monkey knot which I then suspended from the bottom of the raft via a section of the rope and two fender washers. The ball bearing weighs more then a full can of beer and effectively lowers the center of mass below the water line making the raft very difficult to flip. It is now river ready. Dubbed the USS Pot-Valiant and her sister ship the HMS On the Lash for my British friend.

[joepekula]

I'm thinking of trying this, but maybe cut a yoga mat material into a square and glue that to the bottom to hide the popsicle sticks and any glue that we don't want to be seen.

[shaneomacmcgee]

lol awesome man i agree, a tether would be useful If the huggy part was too small or the hole in the barge was too big, you could just hot-glue it in place great 'ible! thanks!

[wotot2]

The reason i didnt choose to glue the huggy part on is because then youd have to lift the entire float to your mout, kind of akward. This way, you only have to lift the huggy

[shaneomacmcgee]

See, I was thinkin you take the soda out of the huggy to drink it. Then you could glue the huggy to the barge w/o a problem, but I see ur point, that'd be pretty awkward lol

[LoganSix]

I added a coozie (huggy) to my barge. I glued it into the barge. I had no issues lifting the drink out of the coozie and having the coozie stay in place. However, at the end of the river trip, the coozie did come unglue. I would say that the hole was much larger than coozie and it was only glued in a couple of places, which led to it coming unconnected.

[LoganSix]

I made my barge into a Hookah Barge. It holds one drink and one hookah. I had a little issue with the glue, so I am going to try out some other glue recommended by someone. I made it a little more durable, because I took it floating down the Dan River in NC. It floated great, but when ever my tube got hung up on a rock, I would end up jerking the barge and then it would tip the hookah. Because of the top heavy all-in-one coal and tobacco holder, it would tip over the hookah. Other than that, it worked like a champ.

[papermaster]

thats a great idea now instead of paying 10$ for a raft w/ cup holders i only spend 2$.....1 4 the raft and 1 for the noodle

[Lance Mt.]

and 1 for the can your drinking!

[papermaster]

good point.........

[Jural]

Great Idea!! Made some tonight for a lake event tomorrow. I was even more lazy. Just wrapped a large zip tie around both ends and cut the hole in the middle. That way it will stretch to hold my favorite hugger.

[Yerboogieman]

Congratulations for being featured on Lifehacker!

[wotot2]

??

[Yerboogieman]

lifehacker

[johnm62]

Since my favorite beverage comes in bottles I had to make a super barge so it wouldn't tip over. Instead of cutting my hugging thing from a noodle I used a noodle connector since they are already the perfect size for a bottle, then I cut a 1/2" piece of noodle and glued it to the bottom of the huggy (connector). The rest of the construction is the same except I just hot glued everything together.

[wotot2]

Nice, i had a problem with glass around my pool so that wasnt an option

[qwertyuiop5433]

This is a great idea! idk why i never thought of doing something like this.

[Shaino]

That is one of the coolest ideas ive ever seen, only in America!

[zvillesurfer]

Dont they make rafts with cup holders? Haha I still like the idea. It sounds like something I would try to make.

[Derin]

It is harder to drive to the hardware store.

[Derin]

omg frozen pool

[ChaosJile119]

Well here is mine.I call it the MK 2.5 because I used skewers for the supports and it also made a nice hitch for it.

[jmiksanek]

We were out on the lake this weekend and talking about how we should invent something just like this:) Thanks

[cromagnolia]

You sir, are a true American hero!! I shall never be forced to swim for beer again!

[AlternateLives]

Nice comment about the laziness of America! Nice Idea as well!

[cowscankill]

Haha! Necessity is the mother of inventions.

[the_handmaden]

Great idea. I suggest you add a tether so it won't float away from you.

[sjoobbani]

I attached a piece of paracord from the raft thingy, to a tiny red floaty boey, then that goes to an anchor(full can) on the ground

[axist47]

You could use one of those neoprene cup holders for the middle part, so you don't have to use so much swim noodle, and it already has the middle cut out.

[sjoobbani]

well if you've already cut one up, you should just use the rest, and also the more noodle the more floaty, in case you wanna put somethin heavier, like beer bottle or sothin

[ChaosJile119]

Awesome! I love it!

[ruggrat]

You could cut out a smaller hold in the huggy thing to make a bottle fit. I know that glass and pools don't mix, but for those aluminum weird budlight bottles, and the few beers that can be found in plastic bottles...

[screaminscott]

Cool, something I can use my hot-wire cutter for!!

[reptileink]

attach a string to it and tie that to your raft so it doesn't get away from you. Otherwise it could be floating on on end of the pool and you on the other...

[l8nite]

cool idea, very good instruc. Those noodles are amazing, Im 250lbs and a third of one will support me! Instead of glueing craft sticks across the bottom how about bbq skewers pushed through the supports sides? I have packages of those little sticks all over the place because they are so useful

[dchall8]

If you don't patent this thing like YESTERDAY, someone from China will start importing them and give you no credit. It might be too late already.

[robot343]

Very nice, using a floaty noodle to create a floating drink holder, but i would rather have a floating cooler to hold beers, and pops for when im chillin.

[kelseymh]

Very simple, but here's a case where simple isn't a bad thing! And enough not-taking-yourself-seriously to make it a fun read.