Launching the Boat Build Toolkit
Have you ever wondered how we made the Flipflopi Ndogo?
Apart from using our own blood, sweat and tears that is…
As you probably already know, the Flipflopi was the first of her kind. No one had ever built a sailing boat using recycled plastic waste. Did that put our team off?? Of course not. Instead, it drove us to work harder to find the solutions we needed to make this happen.
Now, 3 years after we completed the build of Flipflopi Ndogo, we want to share all the lessons we learnt with this step by step toolkit so you can either build your own Flipflopi or marvel at the engineering genius that went into our little 10-metre dhow!
What’s inside the toolkit?
Within the kit is all the information compiled into a simple step-by-step process that you can follow. You’ll learn;
What you’ll need to begin building
A breakdown of the different types of plastics, including what is usable and what isn’t.
Details about the machines you’ll need to turn plastic waste into something useful.
Information on the different moulds and processes that are used to recycle the plastics
And finally, how to put it all together!
PLUS if you want to geek out, we put together a report of our material tests and bending analysis of the recycled plastic beams.
What’s it for?
This toolkit can serve as a starting point, reference or motivation for anyone interested in building boats or how to turn plastic waste into a big idea. After all, if you can build a seaworthy boat, you can do just about anything with plastics! Much of the processes we used here are transferable to other products.
We want you to learn from our experiences!
Why now?
As we prepare to begin building the Flipfloppi Kubwa - a 23-metre long dhow built to carry our message, grow the movements and solution on a global scale - it was vital we look back on our processes of creating Flipflopi Ndogo. And of course, because we are firm believers in open sourcing to grow a plastic revolution across the world!
Throughout this second - much larger - process, we’ll be researching and developing even better solutions to the challenges we found. PLUS we’ll need many hands to make the creation of Flipflopi Kubwa a reality.
That’s why we’re sharing this toolkit today. So you can see our processes and work out where your unique skills can support us the best.
Please share with your friends, boat builders, engineers, recyclers and environmentalists to spread our message.
And if you want to follow the journey, you'll find our updates on our YouTube channel - or for the first look, when you support us on Patreon.
With thanks to Katharina Elleke for compiling this information so beautifully 🙏