Boat Design Experience

Christian Stimson of Stimson's Yacht Design and dad of Samuel and Benjamin here at school, shared some of his knowledge in boat design with 12 of our eager students this morning.

Christian shared some of his incredible designs with the children and got them thinking about what makes a successful design and what can cause some designs to fail! He taught the children about load bearing and hydro static pressure and altering designs to solve different problems or meet different needs. You can check out some of his work here

After some theory learning, it was time to hit the pool and put their thinking into practise! The children worked in small groups to design and build a boat that could carry 4x 1kg bags. When the idea of a race to finish the session was introduced, the children sprang into action to change their designs to maximise the windy day we were having, adding sails!

The race was VERY exciting and surprisingly the boat with the smallest sails won! Christian put it down to the fact that this boat used only 3 ice cream containers, so created less drag than the others in the water.

Thank you for sharing you incredible knowledge and skills with our kids today Christian!