A Great Crate....

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
I guess this counts as flatwork :D

Recently a buddy of mine who works at the British Embassy here in Tokyo asked for my assistance in an interesting project.

There is this British gal named Sarah Outen who is attempting to go around the world on human power only.

She has two boats, a sea kayak named Nelson, and an ocean going rowboat named Gulliver, and a sturdy bicycle named Hercules. She has just arrived in Tokyo after cycling down from northern Japan. Her sea kayak, Nelson, will now be shipped ahead, back to the UK, I think, where she will use it next year some time. Now she will rest in Japan over the winter and then next spring head out to cross the Pacific ocean in her row boat, it will take her a very long time to row to North America.

When Nelson was shipped across europe and Russia for the last time she used it, the crate was not very good, and Nelson was partially crushed.
This time they wanted a good solid crate so Nelson would arrived in one piece. Mike is a cycling friend of mine, but he knew I like to play with wood, so he asked for my help to build a crate for Nelson.

Let me tell you about Nelson, he is 17' 1' long, about 19" tall and 21" wide, not the usual size of something that is crated up and shipped. When Mike contacted a few shipping companies about crating Nelson up for travel, they mostly said "No thanks", the one that said they would consider it, wanted about $1200 for just agreeing to the job, and most likely more than that by the end of the job. Wow, I'm in the wrong business!! :D As Sarah is self funded, I jumped at the chance to help out.

One more thing, the whole crate had to be made from OSB because of shipping regulations... :rolleyes:

I decided that we needed to make a torsion box, this would provide a very solid base for the whole crate, and while I know it certainly might be considered overkill, that is just the way I roll :rofl::rofl:

Nelson is suspended inside the crate by two straps that work kind of like a cradle under the kayak, and then two straps are attached to the t-handle lift ropes on both ends to hold him down. This way no even if the crate were flipped upside down, the kayak would still be held in place. The crate was a little snug around the middle, so we put some carpet between the sides of Nelson and the sides of the crate.

All told about 15 sheets (3'x6' sheets) of 9mm thick OSB, a bunch of staples and glue and we had a crate, a great crate!! The whole deal, kayak, equipment, and crate weigh about 180 Kg, or just a touch under 400lbs.
Below you can see a quick slide show that Mike made, I don't have the pictures just yet, so the slide show will have to do.

>> Video Link <<

Took us about 8 hours total, but that includes a very tasty lunch at Tony Romas just around the corner.

Total cost, just over $200, I think Nelson will arrive at his next destination safe and secure.

Cheers!
 
Where there size constraints on the crate? I'm just curious as to why you didn't make it a bit wider, so there was more space between the crate and the sides of the kayak.
Will it be shipped by air, or by ship (container ship?)

Entirely OSB, weird requirement....

good job, Stu!
 
Thanks guys!
There were not constraints, but they add up the three dimensions and charge you for the shipping, so the smaller it was the cheaper it was, and like I said, Sarah is totally self funded, as in her own money, or money she raises by speaking dates or donations etc, so saving her money was high on the priority list.
Whatever is used to build the crate has to meet the ISPM15 standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPM_15 and have that stamp on it, or DHL would not take the crate for shipping to the EU, funny think the OSB we got was actually made in Bulgaria, so that means it was shipped to Japan from the EU..... :doh:
Cheers!
 
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