The Hammock-Boat: A New Invention?

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA—Why choose between drifting on the water in a small boat and relaxing in a hammock? Inspired what he calls the best things in life – floating on a lake and swinging in a hammock – Jarrett Rainier of British Columbia now doesn’t have to pick between the two. He built his own hammock-boat just in time for the end of summer.

He built the hammock-boat at Vancouver Hack Space, which is a large workshop where people gather to share ideas, tools, and know-how. He detailed the building process and outcome in a post on Sept. 6 on Vancouver Hack Space’s website.

He bought a one-person catamaran with inflatable pontoons for $250, according to his post. He then began the task of securely mounting the frame of the hammock to the boat.

“In truth, it actually took several false starts to build this successfully,” Rainer wrote in his post. “Part of the challenge was that I wanted to avoid making any permanent modifications to either of the two structures.”

Once completed, he took it out for a test run at Cat Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Video taken of the test run show it successfully floated. Getting on and balance appeared to be an initial challenge, but he was ultimately successful and “at peace with the world.”

“It actually works really well, I was kinda blown away,” Rainier wrote. “It’s pretty much the best thing ever and I can’t believe it didn’t kill me.”

Visit talk.vanhack.ca/t/summertime-relaxation/9553 to read more about the process of building the hammock-boat. Check out the video of the test run at youtube.com/watch?v=Nc7ZBI2M4A4.