[HN Gopher] World's longest journey by pumpkin boat
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World's longest journey by pumpkin boat
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 82 points
Date : 2022-09-16 14:56 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| a1pulley wrote:
| I grew my first giant pumpkin this year. Unfortunately, it's a
| bit too small for me to sit in--it's only about 500 lbs [1]. I
| will know for sure next Saturday when I move it to a contest.
|
| I think I'll be able to grow a larger one next year, since I did
| quite a few things wrong this time. If anyone in Los Angeles
| (South Bay area) wants into this silly project--whether for
| growing, escorting with a boat, or even paddling--please get in
| touch :-)
|
| [1] https://giantpumpkins.co.nz/giant-pumpkin-weight-
| estimation-...
| latchkey wrote:
| This is when I really wish HN allowed us to upload pictures
| here directly.
| [deleted]
| hinkley wrote:
| Oh my god, he cut a cup holder into it.
| hallway_monitor wrote:
| Wish I knew about this - I would have gone to see the trip. Well,
| at least my state is on the map for something. If it were
| possible to grow giant corn, we would definitely be in the news
| for that.
| gibspaulding wrote:
| Looks like Costa Rica has the record there:
|
| https://www.neogen.com/neocenter/blog/worlds-tallest-corn-pl...
|
| Edit: Oops, I lied, better link says it's New York:
| https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/tallest-s...
| samatman wrote:
| Did you notice that it's the same person?
|
| The first link says he moved from New York to Costa Rica in
| 2017, in the pursuit of taller corn.
|
| But the second one says he beat his own record, in 2021, back
| in New York.
|
| I want a podcast of this.
| JRKrause wrote:
| This story feels like it could be the plot of a children's book.
| mwcremer wrote:
| Almost: _The Runaway Pumpkin_ by Kevin Lewis and S. D.
| Schindler https://www.amazon.com/dp/0439565448
| KMnO4 wrote:
| I worked for a local farmer in high school. One of the novelties
| he grew in small quantities were "square" watermelons[0]. When
| grown in a square fibreglass enclosure, the melons would conform
| to the cube shape.
|
| I wonder if a pumpkin could be grown in a kayak-shaped mold to
| improve the maneuverability of the pumpkin boat.
|
| [0]:
| https://www.whataboutwatermelon.com/index.php/2018/05/cube-w...
| hinkley wrote:
| That will certainly be how this arms race progresses.
| 5440 wrote:
| Remember the square bonzai kitten thing.
| https://www.wired.com/2001/02/fbi-goes-after-bonsaikitten-co...
| hinkley wrote:
| One of my favorite (!?) FBI anecdotes is that one of the
| cartoonists who was syndicated in the original print version
| of The Onion, managed to have one of his characters make a
| joke about bombing the WTC get published the same week a bomb
| went off in the parking garage. Dumbest luck. He got to have
| a nice chat with some men in black about that one.
|
| I totally understand why they would need to dot some i's and
| cross some t's on that one but the bonsai kitten thing is
| just inane.
| sonofhans wrote:
| Oh god, I remember this. My mom sent it to her sister who was
| outraged -- frothing at the mouth, practically -- that
| someone could do something so cruel. It was hard to convince
| her that it was a fake, and then of course she said that such
| things should be banned.
|
| I also know that she enjoys veal, so as usual, human
| hypocrisy WRT animal exploitation knows no bounds.
| vlunkr wrote:
| > I also know that she enjoys veal, so as usual, human
| hypocrisy WRT animal exploitation knows no bounds.
|
| That seems like quite the false equivalence.
| diablerouge wrote:
| maybe closer to fois gras?
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| "Foie gras production should be judged not by the worst
| farms, but by the best"
|
| https://www.seriouseats.com/the-physiology-of-foie-why-
| foie-...
| technolo-g wrote:
| A different approach: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-
| news/fungus-answer-climate-c...
| hinkley wrote:
| I think this is the guy you want to help you make your racing
| pumpkin:
|
| https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/a25997168/grow-giant-p...
| kamranjon wrote:
| This is a great idea, I had a similar thought thinking about
| how woody gourds are and wondering if you grew a giant one, if
| you could somehow shape it more like a boat, dry it out and
| seal it and be on the water.
| londons_explore wrote:
| You know there are are other materials that one can shape to
| be boat-like? In fact, it's the way we've been making boats
| for a long time....
| bisby wrote:
| Why do they have model rocket launch height competitions?
| We already have real rockets that go to space.
|
| Almost all competitions have different
| restrictions/categories to participate in (swimming has
| backstroke, butterfly, freestyle, etc, etc)
|
| Different categories of a competition challenge different
| things. There are very different engineering challenges
| related to building a boat out of a pumpkin. It doesn't
| make a better boat than standard metal/wooden boats, but it
| does cause people to think about boat building in a
| different way. It might just be a fun personal challenge,
| or it might be a fun way to think up classic boat solutions
| by looking at things from a completely new lens.
|
| Worst case this wastes someone time and money (which a lot
| of standard engineering does too), best case someone has
| fun and/or learns something.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| _Hacker_ News
| DFHippie wrote:
| Kayaks are long and skinny. The shells of giant pumpkins are
| think. I think you'd have trouble getting enough flotation. You
| need something with a better surface area to volume ration, a
| boat more like a hemisphere. I'm thinking a coracle mold. But
| then, that's basically what a giant pumpkin is already.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Yes, this should be done. It needs to be done. I neither have a
| pumpkin farm, or a kayak mold making company, but I support
| those that do in this endeavor. God speed brave pumpkin
| kayaker.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| You don't need a pumpkin farm, just an ordinarily sized
| garden and $6 worth of seeds:
|
| https://parkseed.com/dills-atlantic-giant-pumpkin-
| seeds/p/05...
|
| A plastic kayak would probably not survive the mold-making
| process, but that's fine, you can get a kayak either used
| (abused) from a local livery for dirt cheap depending on your
| bartering/scrounging skills, or a low-quality new one can be
| had for under $200 at a big box store, and simply be cut off
| the pumpkin.
|
| I wonder if it would disqualify you to coat the pumpkin in a
| thick layer of Line-X:
|
| https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/a22652/bedliner-s.
| ..
| traverseda wrote:
| I live right next to dills farm! There's recently been a
| controversy where protester have been trying to change how
| the water in a local lake is managed, and the lake have
| been completely shut down (as in it is now a dust bowl
| unless it's rained recently), so we can no longer have our
| yearly giant pumpkin boat races.
| cestith wrote:
| You might also be interested in cardboard boat regattas.
| cdot2 wrote:
| Records are meant to be broken.
| hinkley wrote:
| > traveling 38 miles down the Missouri River.
|
| Well that's practically cheating.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| 38 miles in 12 hours in a river that has an average velocity of
| 3 to 3.5 mph.
|
| Kudos to him for keeping the pumpkin upright in a difficult
| river, but I don't think he would have done quite so well in a
| lake.
|
| On the other hand, a river with Class 3 rapids might have
| surface flow velocity of 10 or 20 mph, but that's not a good
| place to be in a pumpkin. Probably best to try this on the
| Missouri rather than the Congo....
| hinkley wrote:
| Any of the rivers around here would rip that thing to shreds
| too.
|
| The envelope math on that tells me almost all of his paddling
| went to controlling the pumpkin, not moving it forward, which
| makes sense for a round 'boat' and a single paddle. Some
| cultures have solutions for this but he wasn't aware of them.
|
| Even a little shaping to make the pumpkin more oblong would
| net you quite a bit of velocity. In particular, the ribs on a
| pumpkin look a lot like hard chines on a kayak, if you cut
| open the side of the pumpkin [correction: he already did
| this, but on a round pumpkin, and then he sat 90deg to the
| ribs] instead of the top. The next fool who tries this I
| expect to hit 40 miles in 10 hours, and then it's off to the
| races.
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