The hovercraft — new ideas

Christian and I have been negotiating hard about how to make our hovercraft.  We want to do something inexpensive and not to difficult to see whether we like it.  At the same time, we want it to be cool.  I have been doing a little more reading and found that starting with a rubber raft is about the easiest way to get started.  I thought that would be a little expensive because it is necessary to buy a raft and cut out the bottom.  Well, this morning, I got to looking around for rubber rafts and found a brand new one for only $17.99.  I think that we really ought to consider buying that raft along with a piece of plywood, some nylon straps and some caulk to get started.  I am hoping Christian could start hand drawing up some sketches of how we could put in a low seat and add a fan for propulsion and a steering wheel with a pulley system leading to vanes behind the fan for steering.  We would probably start with a plastic molded chair like this, from which we could remove the legs and somehow attach it to the plywood platform on top of the raft.  Christian, if you do the sketches, try to make them with the idea that we can follow your sketches to do the actual building.  Draw them so it actually shows how things would work with arrows to indicate motion and maybe even some dimensions.  This could be QUITE fun and interesting…