If you dont smoke it, sail it

Better not tell Mom. Not only do the Dutch smoke pot openly in the streets, but now they're even sailing around in boats made out of weed.

TU students Niels Haarbosch and Thomas Mol are proud of their first hemp vessel, a light-weight catamaran called `Flaxcat', featuring a hull made of natural hemp fibers. Last week, Haarbosch tested the boat during a sailing race on the North Sea. Although Haarbosch finished in 269th place and was disqualified for missing a checkpoint, he and Mol don't care, because their reason for entering the race was to prove that Flaxcat could withstand the harsh pounding of the open sea. It did.

Haarbosch and Mol founded a company, appropriately named 'Natural Powered Speed Products', and their aim

from the start was to find an environmentally friendly alternative to the composites commonly used in hull welding. Hemp seemed a good candidate. Industrially fabricated hemp mats, which are also used for insulation and strengthening riverbanks, are cheap, lightweight and widely available. But the mats are too thick for use in boat construction, so Haarbosch and Mol devised a method for strengthening the hemp by pressing it together and injecting it with resin. The boat made out of dope, an instant eye catcher, has been exhibited at the Delft Technical Museum and TU library.

Haarbosch and Mol have started work on a follow-up project: developing a new, improved hemp boat which, they hope, will perform better in sailing races. Also, they hope to create a series of 'kite boats', which are sailing boats that use a kite for a sail. The future looks bright for the two inventors. "Last week Peter Lynn paid us a visit," Haarbosch says. "He's a major player in the sailing scene."