Make a Ship in a Bottle

H
ow can someone possibly squeeze a model of a sailboat, or even more astounding, a model of a
fully rigged clipper ship, into a bottle? The opening is way too small. There has to be a trick—
and there is. You really do squeeze the boat in through that little opening. You build the boat
outside the bottle with all its masts, sails, and rigging folded back toward the stern. Then you slip it
in, glue it in place, and then—with the pull of a thread—pop up the masts and everything attached
to them. It’s a neat trick, though it requires a steady hand and some patience.
Here’s what you’ll need:
3-liter soda bottle sandpaper magnet wire
Goo Gone or WD-40 x-acto carving knife black thread
artist’s brush 2 wooden cooking tissue paper
blue paint skewers or dowels long stick
5-inch length of pine glue tweezers
or basswood drill

1. Wash out the soda bottle and remove the label. Remove any stubborn adhesive
with Goo Gone or WD-40.
2. Lay the bottle on its side and, using a long artist’s brush, paint a blue ocean for
your boat to sail on along what is now the bottom of the bottle.
3. Measure the opening of the bottle and carve the widest hull that will pass
through the opening—probably about 1¼ inches wide. You can use a piece of
pine you might find lying around, or basswood obtained from a hobby shop.
4. Cut a 31⁄2-inch mast from a cooking skewer or a thin dowel.
5. Cut another piece of skewer about 2 inches long to make a bowsprit (the pole—
or in proper sailor speak, the spar—that sticks out from the front of a traditional
sailboat).
5. Using a pin or needle, push a small hole into one end of the mast and the
bowsprit.
6. Glue one-quarter of the length of the bowsprit to the deck at the bow, making
sure the hole you drilled is on the outer end.
7. Figure out where you’d like the mast to go on the hull, and drill two small
holes through the hull on either side of the mast. Poke the magnet wire
through the hole in the mast, bend it into a U, pass the ends through the holes
in the hull, bend them up onto the hull bottom so they won’t come out, and
glue the ends in place. Check to see that the mast pivots up and down easily,
and adjust as necessary.

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 Now it’s time to get creative. You have a choice of how to rig your boat. It can be a modern
sloop with a triangular jib (the small sail in front of the mast) and mainsail (the larger sail behind
the mast) with a boom along its bottom edge—in which case it will be Marconi-rigged. Or it can
have a four-cornered mainsail with a gaff (a pole) along the top edge as well as a boom (another pole)
along the bottom edge—in which case it will be gaff-rigged. (The gaff and boom, by the way, are two
more examples of spars, and the mast is yet another example.) Or it can be a cutter with two jibs, or
it can be square-rigged if you add a square sail.
8. Rig the boat using black thread for rigging and tissue paper for sails. The key is
the headstay—the thread that leads from the top of the mast through the hole in
the bowsprit and out. With the rig lowered toward the stern, see if you can haul
it up into place with all rigging taut and sails in place by pulling on the headstay.
Keep adjusting the rigging until everything lies flat—pointing straight back—
and looks shipshape when you haul on the headstay to pull it up. Be patient; this
may take a while.
9. When you’re finished, complete your vessel with a trim paint job.
10. Using the long stick, spread slow-setting glue on the “water” in the bottle where
the boat will sit. Grip the bowsprit with tweezers and slide the boat into the
bottle and onto the glue, making sure the end of the headstay is hanging out of
the bottle. Use the stick to push the boat down into the glue for a better grip,
and let the boat sit overnight.
11. Now for the grand finale. Pull the headstay to erect the rig and tension all the
rigging. Keep light tension on the stay while you put a dab of glue over the
bowsprit hole with a stick. Let that dry, cut off the excess thread, and display
with pride.

➊ Using a long artist’s brush, paint the inside ➋ Carve a hull that will fit through the
bottom of the bottle blue. You will glue the hull bottle opening.
to this.

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➌ Glue the bowsprit. Attach the mast to the deck
using wire run through the hole you drilled at
the base of the mast and the two holes drilled
through the hull.
➎ Attach the tissue-paper sails to the mast,
boom, and headstay. Lower the rig to the
stern.
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➍ Rig the boat with a headstay (black thread) run
through the end of the boom, the top of the
mast, and the hole at the end of the bowsprit.
➏ After spreading glue on the blue bottom
of the bottle, slide the hull into the
bottle, stern first. Position the hull
with a rod or skewer, making sure the
headstay thread is hanging outside the
bottle mouth. Let the hull dry overnight.
Gently pull on the headstay to raise the
mast and sails. Once the stay is taut, glue
it to the bowsprit, cutting off the
excess thread.