Hacking the Free Seas

In late July, I took a quick trip to Clayton, NY and visited the Antique Boat Museum where a group of Brooklyn and Queens makers were planning to launch a paper skiff onto the St. Lawrence River with the intention of going 168 miles down river to Montreal. Yes, a paper boat! The group, Mare Liberum, describes itself as “a collaborative exploration of what it takes to make viable aquatic craft as an alternative to life on land.” That’s a practical undertaking given that nearly 1/3 of New York City’s territory is water, but so few of the five boroughs nearly nine million inhabitants engage that territory. One way to increase access is to make boats and encourage others to do so, which is exactly what Mare Liberum has been doing for several years now, teaching classes and open-sourcing many of their boat designs [PDF].

In NYC, the collective typically use reclaimed plywood, canvas, and even bamboo. In Clayton, the plan was to use a century-old Lake Ontario skiff, and produce a paper mold — a la papier-mâché — of the skiff and then affix a wooden skeleton to the body. The result is a beautiful two-person craft that not only floats (and survived the journey), but weighs much less than a completely wooden boat of similar design.

The paper molded clone of a Lake Ontario skiff, to be transformed into the boat below.

Jean Barberis (in water, with paddle), captain of Le Massicot (Paper Cutter in French), would successfully row 168 miles to Montreal in this papercraft.

At NYC’s upcoming third annual World Maker Faire, Mare Liberum compatriots Marie Lorenz, A’yen Tran, and Stephan von Muehlen give a presentation on making boats and their water-based projects, while Mare Liberum will also be building a paper canoe using little more than craft paper and wood glue! In just two days they plan to go from material to finished project using “the presumably lost art of building a boat by layering paper and glue over a form to create a sea-worthy vessel.”

Mare Liberum crew working on their paper skiff, with the original century-old skiff in the foreground that was used to make the paper mold.

Putting finishing touches on the skiff, minutes before launching on the French Creek Bay in Clayton, NY.

More:
On the Gowanus, We Are Swimming Cities
Afloat on the Boggsville Boatel

Maker Faire Project Profile

Mare Liberum's Paper Canoe

Mare Liberum, a boat-building and publishing collective, just finished a residency at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY where we made a paper skiff inspired by the presumably lost art of building a boat by layering paper and glue over a form to create a sea-worthy vessel. Our boat was then used to travel to Montreal, 168 miles down river from the museum. For the Maker Faire, we propose to fabricate a paper canoe using the techniques we developed at the museum. This time, rather than using a historical boat from the ABM collection, we will use an REI Read more →