Week 3: Adapting Sling for Ease and Comfort

Week 3: Boat Sling

Group: Lizzy, Hillary, Steph

We added two suction cups to our model for added support onto the boat. We hot glued a foam pad to make it more comfortable under the arm. Apologies for the sexually suggestive pictures.

We went to Butler Boathouse to test it on an actual boat again, and evidently, this model is not much of an improvement! Two suctions didn’t help to serve its purpose of being more secure. Sure it was windy and cold, but the suctions still couldn’t stick on very well and it was very difficult to put on and around the boat.

We ordered airplane seatbelts to replace the plastic buckles we were using. Instead of suction cups, we were thinking of making a loop that goes around the boat and then attaching that loop to the seatbelts. This would hopefully be secure enough to keep the boat on the shoulder in lieu of suction cups keeping the boat close to the shoulder. Here I am trying to measure and mark the circumference of the boat and creating a loop.

We brought the loop back to We Lab and made two options: one where the loop is attached to the seatbelts with velcro and one that is hot glued on. I am leaning toward the velcro.

Our sheepskin pads are coming in soon so that will add to the comfort level of our device. Our next steps will be to go to CRI and see if this new loop around the boat is more feasible than the suction cups we ruled out.