A traditional trick toy. A friend holds the sail with eyes closed, you fold one end of the boat, and suddenly they are holding the bow.
Why this level: After the double boat you raise one point and fold the square corner to corner to stand the sail. Some folds go through many layers at once.
You need: 1 sheet of origami paper
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Nobody knows who first folded the trick boat. In Japan it is pictured in Tokyo kindergarten material of 1878, and an 1893 children’s magazine shows it as part of a “transforming ship” game. A Chinese paper-folding book of 1914 has diagrams for it too.
Did you know? The same shape is not always a boat: a Chinese book of 1917 calls it a horse’s head, and others have seen it as a lamp or a cradle.
White side up. Fold the right edge over to the left edge and unfold to mark the vertical centre line.
Fold the left and right edges in to meet on the centre line, like closing two doors.
Fold the top edge and then the bottom edge to the middle, creasing well, and unfold each again.
Fold the bottom edge up to the middle along its crease while pulling the two hidden corners out to the sides as points. Press it flat.
Do the same at the top: fold the top edge down to the middle while pulling the two hidden corners out to the sides, and press flat. You get a long hexagon.
Fold the top left point up along the line from the centre to the top left corner of the middle. A triangle now stands on the boat.
Turn the model over sideways. A big square shows in the middle of the boat, with the tip of the triangle sticking out at its top right.
Fold the top left corner of the square down to its bottom right corner, along the diagonal, in front. You get a tall upright shape, with one corner sticking out below the boat.
Fold the corner sticking out below the boat up to the right, along the line from the foot of the sail to the bottom right corner of the boat. It becomes the right end of the boat: your sailboat is done! Now try the trick.
While your friend holds the tip of the sail with eyes closed, fold the right end of the boat back down along the same line. The sail and the lowered end now make one long upright boat, and your friend is holding its bow, not the sail!
Fold the end up to the right again. It is a sailboat once more, ready for the next friend.