Community / Milk float: innovative islander creates paddleboard out of used bottles
AN ENTERPRISING Shetlander has used a somewhat different material to make his own paddleboard – used plastic milk bottles.
Glenn Tonner, who lives near London, used 80 plastic bottles to make the stand-up paddleboard – the “milk float” – and he recently took it out for a successful test run.
It comes after Tonner – who spent more than 13 years in the merchant navy – made his own boat and sailed it 80 miles down the River Thames to raise money for charity.
He explained that the idea for the paddleboard came from rather humble beginnings – when he was putting his recycling out.
After some calculations based off his weight Tonner settled for 80 bottles.
“I got my wife a stand up paddle board for Christmas last year and she loves it, so I started saving up…the milk bottles,” he said.
“I had them strung from the rafters in the garage like smoked fish for ten months.
“This weekend I got to 80 and calculated with some serious maths that 80 2.2l bottles of air should support my sleek 93KG.
“I used some old shelves from a skip to give me the stiffness required and some slats of wood through the handles to keep the bottles in place.”
The resourceful Tonner said he was able to stand up on the board almost immediately after trying her out on a river, describing the board as “very stable”.
“It’s not the fastest craft on the water, but a great way to get out on the water, get some exercise and work off all that milk.”
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