If you have time, you could make an origami flotilla. I made the one in the picture above using a 7.5cm x 15cm (3.5in x 6in) piece of kami. Using a 2:1 rectangle (half a square) will produce a boat with the middle point about the same height as the sides. This is easy to make and only takes a couple of minutes. I wouldn’t recommend this – at least, not without a lifejacket! Several people have actually taken to the water in one of these large enough to take a human being, as this BBC article shows. It is very simple to make and it will actually float – at least for a few seconds or so before the paper gets wet. This traditional origami boat is one of the most well-known origami models, and one that a lot of people will remember making as a child.

One of the exhibits was a diorama made up of several of these origami boats (picture below), each representing a woman that played a key role in maritime history. I was inspired to post this after a visit to the Maritime Museum in San Sebastian last week, where they had an exhibition entitled Women and the Sea. This is the fourth origami boat I’ve included on this blog! The others have been the Full-rigged Ship, the Sailboat and the Sampan – two other traditional boat models.

“Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won’t drown.”

Origami boat