The Idea

This toy design is known as the Wind-up boat. The boat is able to float in any body of water and has a waterwheel built into it allowing the child to wind a little knob and release it to let it move in the water on its own. The basic principles of this toy is water propulsion, bouyancy, springs, and rachets.

toy boat

How It Works

The toy boat works by using a spinning waterwheel attached to the back of the boat and a spring motor. The way a child uses the toy is that s/he winds the spring motor that had a little knob attached to the side of the boat. This knob winds a spring located in a motor that stores a certain amount of potential energy. After the knob is released a small thin chain attached to the waterwheel is put into motion by a gear that is attached to the motor. When the boat is placed into the water and the knob is released the waterwheel spins with a direction towards the front of the boat. because of the shape of the wheel and the amount of surface area on each part of the wheel it pulls water from the middle of the boat and pushes it towards the back of the boat causing it to move forward. This toy would be quite easy to manufacture and would not be costly at all. Almost all the parts would be made of plastic and the toy itself is quite small. Because the material would be made of plastic it could build up a small amount of wear and tear from children playing with the toy but nothing drastic enough to cease its functionality. In terms of safety the toy does have small parts that can be swallowed but all parts would be hard for younger children to remove. Also, the speed that the boat would be traveling at would not be great enough to cause any harm if a child were to be hit by the moving boat.