Boat-Building and Bean-Loading

Bournemouth Air Show is one of the highlights of the year, and this time, Gabriel and I decided to explore the stands on East Cliff before the air displays began. The options were endless, but one stand in particular caught Gabriel’s eye—the RNLI. They were running a unique challenge: build a boat out of tinfoil that could hold the most dried beans without sinking. For Gabriel, this was an irresistible engineering test!

Gabriel jumped right into designing his boat. He went with a very flat, tray-like shape, with small raised sides to keep the beans from sliding off. As he placed his creation in the water, the RNLI assistant began slowly adding beans, and to our amazement, Gabriel’s boat stayed afloat, even with a substantial load! By the time it finally started to dip, Gabriel had earned himself a place on the leaderboard.

The RNLI challenge turned out to be one of the most popular activities of the day, with a constant line of kids and parents eager to test their own boat designs. Gabriel was thrilled with his initial result, but he couldn’t resist another go when we returned to collect our bikes at the end of the day.

This time, he made a few clever modifications, adding a bit more depth to the sides to improve its stability. When he tested it out again, his boat held even more beans than before, and he moved up the leaderboard a couple of spots! The RNLI team was genuinely impressed with Gabriel’s boat-building skills, complimenting his design and improvements.

We left the RNLI stand with big smiles, Gabriel’s tinfoil boat might not be ready to brave the open seas, but it’s safe to say he felt like a true engineer!