MacGyver Challenge: S.O.S.!

Think you could MacGyver your way out of a dangerous situation?  Welcome to Make:’s MacGyver Challenge — solve this emergency scenario in a creative way and your solution could be featured in the next issue of Make: magazine! Submit your answer down below by January 7th.

Written by MacGyver TV creator Lee David Zlotoff and his partner in predicaments, Rhett Allain, here’s the new challenge: S.O.S.!  Share your best solutions below for a chance to be in the magazine and win some Make: goodies too.

Lee Z wrote the popular MakeShift challenge in Make: magazine from 2005 to 2011. Now we’re bringing Mac back to help you think — and make — your way out of natural disasters, power failures, and other emergencies. There seem to be a lot of them these days. As Lee writes in Make: Volume 82, “We are all MacGyvers now.”

S.O.S.!

By Lee D. Zlotoff and Rhett Allain

The Scenario

You, and two of the people on your team at work, have been burning the midnight oil for weeks to submit a project by the deadline — which you’ve met. And the project’s been approved. So, to celebrate and enjoy some much-needed R&R, the three of you head out for a day of ocean fishing on your well-appointed motorboat. What’s more, you’ve all agreed to leave your phones on shore to guarantee some time without screens. After a spectacular day with lots of freshly caught fish in the cooler, you discover that the engine won’t start. And, for all its bells and whistles — like a motorized anchor winch — your boat has no radio. And you can all see the skies are quickly darkening and there’s a storm headed your way.

The Challenge

Using whatever you can find from the boat and the list of items below, how can you come up with a way to signal for help before you and your mates become food for the fishes?

What You’ve Got
And it’s all you’ve got:

• Any part of the boat

• Flotation devices

• Fire extinguisher

• Drinking water

• Fishing gear

• Anchor and chain

• Snorkeling gear (but no scuba)

• A 5-gallon container of gasoline plus whatever’s in the boat’s tank

• A basic tool kit, including a Swiss Army Knife

• Duct tape of course

• An unopened box of 30-gallon black trash bags

Share your best solutions below for a chance to be in the magazine and win some shwag too!  

Check out our previous challenge for some inspiration.

[feature image: Adobe stock – eveleen007]