Joe Zastrow's  Fire Boat

Document and pictures © copyright 2003 by Joe Zastrow. The "Fire Boat" is a easy to make fireworks station or set piece that looks like a fire fighting boat. If you have two boats you can enhance the finale of your display with an interesting "closing curtain" effect.

Materials

- 1 2'x4' board 3 1/2' to 4 1/2' long
- 2 10d nails
- 2 3" x 3/4" corner brackets and screws.
- latex enamel "Battleship Grey" colored porch and deck paint
- duct tape
- heavy aluminum foil or empty aluminum pie/cake tin.

DIRECTIONS

Cut six inches off the board. Place it on top of the board and on one end. Nail this down with two nails, leaving space in the middle of the board. This is the bow of the boat. Drill an angled 7/8" - 1" in diameter hole in the top at the end using a spade bit. The angle of the hole should be about 30 degrees from vertical (60 degrees from horizontal) and about 2.5" deep.

Line up the corner brackets on the other end of the board. This is the stern of the boat. The brackets should be centered on the middle of the board and 3/4" apart.  Drill small starter holes and screw the corner brackets into the board.

Sand and paint the board. When the paint is dry, place the aluminum foil (or pie tin) over the raised end and attach it with duct tape. Punch a hole through the foil to the hole in the board.

Now add fireworks to the board. Stick a 60 second California or Mountain candle in the hole and tape it down. Put a cone in the brackets at the stern of the boat. It should be at a 45-60 degree angle from horizontal. I like to use a "Silvery" cone (Red Lantern, #0362B) because it gives off a thick stream for about 32 seconds and reaches heights of 15 feet. Though, Black Cat glitter cones could be used, but they only last twenty seconds and are not quite as tall. Some where in the middle of the board place a fountain that lasts about 60 seconds.  My favorite is "Pop goes the fountain" (Black Cat #BC2009). You should place other fireworks in between the first three.  I use Black Cat Ground Pounders, twitter glitters, cuckoos and more cones.  The fireworks then get fused using fast and normal visco fuse.  Use the methods described here. It will be ignited near the California candle, so the bow of the ship is lit first and the stern last.  The idea is to have the fireworks overlap in time.  I like to have the middle fountain start 30 seconds after the candle and end about the time the last cone is started.  So I use about 30 inches of fast visco or black match (1 sec/inch burn rate) between the candle and the middle fountain and two feet of normal visco (burn rate of 2.5 seconds per inch) between the middle fountain and the angled cone.  Instead of placing only one cone in the bracket, I sometimes piggy-back another cone on top of the first (see picture on the left).  The first cone will be at 45 degrees and the second 10-15 degrees higher. This adds more volume to the spray. 

For the best effect, you want to have your boat off the ground.  I use a collapsible saw horse ($10-15) and attach the board to the top of the saw horse using duct tape (left).  If you make only one, you can use this board as a "set piece" that looks like a fire boat (right).

If you make two, you can create a interesting curtain effect at the end of our show. Place one boat on the left side of your display area and the other on the right side, with the sterns pointing to the center of the display area.  The boats should be 90 degrees to the audience and about 30-40 feet apart, depending on the strength of the cones used.  The boats should be ignited at the same time. When the angled cones are ignited, they will spray towards each other in about a 10 foot high arc. 

As the cones continue to burn the spray from each boat will move closer to the center.  Ideally, they should almost touch just as the cones are depleted. The effect is like a "closing curtain" at the end of the show.  Click here to see a video clip.  

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