Ship of plastic bottles successfully moves along the route

The Czech city of Nimburk is home to two young people who are tired of the endless pollution of the environment in Europe and around the world. Marine debris, especially floating plastic, is a real disaster for the seas and oceans.

The friends had a desire, at least partially, to solve this problem and, using floating "material", they built a small ship.
Jan Kara, 22, and Jakub Bures, a 21-year-old mechanic, recently unveiled their project to the world, pulling it right out of a yard shed.

To date, the young people have completed half of their planned journey, nearly 1,000 kilometers from their hometown along the Elbe River to Hamburg’s large North Sea port.

The total length of the ship, called “Petburg” (because the main building material became PET bottles), is 10 meters, and it is made of 50,000 plastic bottles. The official departure of the unusual vessel took place on July 12, 2014.



They are accompanied by a videographer and two men who share pedals with activists before arriving at their destination. Four garden plastic chairs were attached to a wooden frame and the pedals were borrowed from old bikes and attached to makeshift paddle wheels.



The plastic bottle ship has a cabin, which is also made of plastic bottles. It provides a sleeping place for men and protects against rain and bad weather.



Since this boat is handmade, does not reach twenty meters and does not have an engine, it does not need any license or permission under local laws. The whole trip is expected to take a month or two, and young people sailing on a plastic bottle boat will undoubtedly draw attention to the problem of environmental pollution.

The process of assembling the unusual vessel has been carefully documented.

In the photo below, Buers and Kara fasten the bottles to each other:



After that, support was needed for water bottles – a reliable wooden frame:



Buers (left) and another friend Jan Golan (right) connect the steering wheel to a steel rudder mounted at the back of the vessel:



Bicycle parts are used for propulsion and control. A long axis connects them to propellers and a steering wheel at the rear:



The guys install and fix plastic chairs on a wooden frame:



Finally, they put the bottles in place:



On July 12, the ship was launched.



“A lot of people support us,” Kara says. But there are also a lot of people who were convinced that we would not swim 10 meters. The whole thing is worth proving to them otherwise.”

Below is the approximate route of the ship "Petburg", starting near Prague and ending in Hamburg.



Source: facepla.net