Kieran Baack’s Most Plausible Winning Entry
by Lee D. Zlotoff
October 20, 2009
You are a quick thinker, and before too long you think of an idea: youโll use your spare equipment to make a small sailboat (Fig. A)!
[Figure A Missing]
You cut the thermal blanket in half (on a diagonal) to make 2 triangular sails. The long side of one is taped to the extra paddle. The bottom of the extra paddle is taped to the front of the cockpit. You puncture a hole on the end of the short side of the sail that is farthest from the paddle/mast. You tie the rope through that hole. You use this rope to control the angle of the sail. Then, you break down your other paddle (so itโs in half) and tape one half to each side of the boat with the paddles down and parallel to the rest of the boat. This is to stop the wind from pushing the boat the wrong direction.
Now, you pick up the nylon rope and let it out until the sail starts flapping (luffing) on the inside edge. Then you pull it in so itโs not quite luffing, and itโs full of air. While youโre sailing, use the GPS to measure your speed and where to steer, always sailing towards the shore.
Unfortunately, you canโt sail within 45ยฐ of the wind (Fig. B), so you just point as close as you can to shore, and tack every couple of minutes.
Tacking is when you switch which side of the wind youโre on (Fig. C above) by turning through the wind (where you canโt sail) and then coming out the other side and sailing again. When you tack, the sail will switch sides of the boat. If youโre sailing along and the wind picks up and your boat starts to flip over, let the rope out until the boatโs flat.
If youโre still out on the water and itโs nighttime, you can use the part of the blanket not used as a sail as a blanket, and you take the sail down so you donโt sail farther away from shore.
