Down Chicago’s Drain

Getting ready for the upcoming Guerilla Flotilla, I've been gathering materials for a new trash raft. I found some broken styrofoam squares blowing around a nearby construction site which will provide the flotation. My idea is to build a lightweight frame with wheels which can be towed behind a bike, with styrofoam underneath to float the raft. Something simple and light.

2x4s are easy enough find, but I wanted some thinner and lighter wood. Fortunately I found an old French door in the trash a few blocks away:

Using the long wood pieces on the edges of the door, I assembled a frame to fit the width & length of two styrofoam blocks. The two bicycle forks at the end will hold the wheels for the trailer.

The cross bars of the frame are positioned for the front and back of a low lawnchair. Better to have a low center of gravity because I have no idea how tippy the craft will be.

Here are some photos from Saturday's Guerrilla Flotilla on the Chicago River behind Goose Island:

There were seven homemade boats that made it to the river to go for a little float. Yly's trailer raft proved unstable and promptly flipped him into the water, but the rest were all fairly seaworthy, even the Whiskey Rebellion, which was made from three half barrels with room for three sailors who paddled in circles.

Carl's Boat-a-saurus Wrecks was powered by a hand-cranked propeller, which worked better in theory than reality.

Friends, passersby and landlubbers enjoyed the show and tried out some of the boats.