A team is today attempting to paddle a fully 3D printed kayak from Prague to Hamburg.
The 800km journey is being undertaken by Kuba Vondrášek and David Soukup, who came up with the idea while at university. They explain:
“The idea of building his own boat and paddling it to Hamburg came to David while studying at the Faculty of Education at UJEP, where he met Kuba. The two quickly discovered that no idea was too crazy for them. When classmates once claimed that no one would swim in the frozen Mumlava River in January, they naturally ended up in the icy water. So building their own kayak was, comparatively speaking, a piece of cake.”
The project appears to be partially sponsored by Prusa Research, as the 23 large parts of the kayak were 3D printed on a Prusa XL with its huge build volume of 360 x 360 x 360 mm. The parts were printed in PETG material over the course of 14 days. They say the cost of the filament was around €400 (US$462), or about 20kg in the end.
The 23 parts were assembled with 200+ screws, and the gaps between the parts were filled with standard caulk.
As you can see in the images, the sea kayak looks indistinguishable from a normally-manufactured kayak.
They estimate the journey will take around ten days, and they intend on carrying all their gear in the kayak.
Will they make it? I’m hoping the caulk, screws and layers hold, at least for the ten days of the trip.
Via Instagram
