Lynn English students try to stay afloat

LYNN – The swimming pool at the Lynn YMCA became a boat launch for the “green” watercrafts created by Lynn English High School juniors who were studying buoyancy and floatation in their Marine Biology classes over the last month. The goal was to create a boat out of recyclable materials that could float their classmate.Marine Biology teacher Joe Skahan said the class had originally intended to make smaller, individual boats but got the idea to build larger ones when he heard about a man in Mexico who built an island that floated on netted bottles.”We thought, if this guy can float an island why can’t we float a person? So we decided to design boats on a bigger scale,” Skahan said. “We had a project for doing buoyancy and floatation, so we had the kids design a boat using green technology, buoyancy and engineering and they started the design process from scratch. So using the science and the creative design and engineering, they worked together as a team for about a month to build a boat that would hold a person.”One of the boats was made with 300 empty bottles, tarp and cardboard. Melissa Panagakis said she thought the boat, which is supposed to be better for the environment, would float, despite some difficulty in the building process.”Working on the project, we faced some challenges, like putting the bottles together and trying to figure out a way to make them all stick together, but we used teamwork and eventually fixed them and it came out to be really good,” Panagakis said. “We had five or six people standing on it and jumping on it. It seemed pretty sturdy. We designed it with our personalities.”Christian Peralta-Pinero was chosen to take the first ride on the boat and said he was nervous because he did not have much experience swimming. He found himself relieved when the boat floated and a little ticked off when his classmates tipped the boat over, but said it was an overall good experience.”I’ve got to admit it was fun. It was nice, I’m glad I was part of the group,” Peralta-Pinero said.Andrew Martocchio said his boat, which was inspired by teamwork, was definitely going to float, in part because of the hard work they put into it.”We have two 50-gallon plastic drums that basically are the mainframe and we have two milk cartons in the middle so the buoyancy is weighted out, we have a lot of nylon rope tying it together, criss-crossing so that the stress is based in the center, the strongest point, and we have a place on the top where you sit,” he said.His classmate, Jason Bent, said he liked the project.”I liked working on the project because it was a great experience. I am sure the boat will float because I am confident in its ability to float because it is made out of barrels,” he said.Although Martocchio said he was disappointed with the overall design and the “propulsion method didn’t work as well as we expected,” the class accomplished what they set out to do and learned how to work together.”They got to really see step by step how cooperation works and how teamwork works, and to take all the aspects under real consideration and turn it into something that they hope works. The results and the work that these kids did is just phenomenal. I’m very proud of them,” Skahan said.Working together and having fun was the whole idea to Martocchio, who said he will never forget the friendships.”Friendship is forever. It’s kind of like a boat – it will never sink and it will always float,” he said.