After doomsday vision, man builds full-sized, seaworthy ark
"I dreamed that a part of Holland was flooded," Dutch-native Johan Huibers said in an interview with Today. "The next day, I get the idea to build an ark." That Huibers did — this brick-like behemoth of a boat is "Johan's Ark."
The almost-finished vessel you see pictured above is actually Huibers' second whack at making an ark of his own. The first was a half-sized replica, though this time the Dutch construction company director decided to go whole hog. It's even seaworthy, and Huibers plans for his ark to float along the Thames in London ahead of the 2012 Olympics.
Though we really have no way of knowing, Biblical scholars peg Noah's Ark as being somewhere around 300 cubits in length, 50 wide and 30 high. In feet, that translates into a vessel 450 feet long — or about the same as a Romulan Bird-of-Prey — and 75 feet wide and 45 high. In other words, it's like a narrower, longer football field, or half the length of the Titanic. Read: pretty big.
The amount of time that Noah had to build the original Ark is also something that's rather hotly debated, but the answer usually falls anywhere between a couple of decades to dozens of years. (Dude was apparently hundreds of years old when he heard about his star-making flood, so we'll forgive him a little lethargy.) Johan did it in three years, though he also had to spend $1.6 million in the process. Just like the ark of old, inside you'll also find a gallery of animals — life-sized, but fake — including a $11,000 model elephant.
These days, Johan Huibers isn't looking to survive a world-ending flood, however. In fact, when asked by NBC News if he thought it would see him through such a calamity safely, he said, "No, I don't think so." Still, it makes for a pretty sweet tourist attraction, and the size of it is certainly impressive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan's%20_Ark
http://www.neatorama.com/2011/06/22/johans-ark/
Kiwipete
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