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Comment by mejari | Hacker News Reader

And what would be wrong with that? The goal is to have the shortest length of boat, a common measurement in boating. Obviously to achieve that you have to be clever with the attributes of the boat not under restriction. I'm sure no one would complain if you went for the "lowest underwater volume at time of departure" record, but I don't see how it's relevant here.

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Hah, reminds me of snub nosed fishing vessels. If a commercial fishing license costs ~$1k per foot of boat length per year, then cutting 3' off of the bow seems like a great idea. You can even temporarily reattach this ornamental nose, whenever the boat is not being inspected.

That's the goal, yes, but IMO, this design is cheating to beat it. It stretches the idea of what is a boat (for example: can it be wider than it is long?), and of where the boat ends and the stuff loaded onto it starts.

You can also be clever by designing a 'boat' that is nothing more than a mast with a large counterweight standing vertically in the water, attach your permanently inflated 20 meter long 'life raft' to it, and live out of that life raft during the trip. Such a 'boat' could easily be less than a foot long.

What you call cheating others call innovation. You have a personal view of what a "boat" is, but that doesn't mean it's shared by everyone, even just within the boating community.

I think the person designing this boat would also call your hypothetical cheating, but that doesn't make his boat cheating.

A submarine shouldn't really count

I wonder if there is there a record for smallest submarine?

Submarines generally aren't sail-powered.

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