Wednesday, July 2, 2008

St. Joseph Human Powered Boat Meet - June 14, 2008


St. Joseph Human Powered Boat Meet organizer Dan Grow carries his boat into the St. Joseph River. This was the third annual event organized by the St. Joseph resident. For more information about his boat, which weighs about 50 pounds, see article below about the 2007 gathering. "Idling" in the background in Jake Free of Elkhart, Ind.


Bill Goldthorpe of Palos Hills, Ill., prepares to unload his 12-foot long boat. It's his own design, made from 1/4-inch plywood bought at a Home Depot store and covered with fiberglass. In front of the fixed-position seat is the dry well, in which the drive unit drops. To accommodate different size riders, there's multiple positions for the drive unit.

Bill Goldthorpe holds his homemade drive unit, which uses a bicycle cottered crank and part of a bicycle fork, McMaster-Carr sprockets and chain (smaller than a bicycle chain) and a model airplane propeller. (If anyone knows how to get this photo upright, please e-mail mikethebike@acd.net.)


Bill Goldthorpe's and Dan Grow's boats in the water and almost in the water respectively. (Photos and text by Mike Eliasohn)

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