I don't give a damn if he bills it as a testament to his Christian fait", the guy is STILL a crank.
[hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"] [div style="font-weight: bold;" class="mxb"] [div class="sh"] Dutchman builds modern Noah's Ark [/div] [/div] [!-- S BO --] [!-- S IIMA --] [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="203"] [tbody][tr][td] [img alt="Johan Huibers' replica of Noah's Ark" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41495000/jpg/_41495066_boat_ap203.jpg" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203"] [div class="cap"][font size="1"]Mr Huibers started work on the ark last summer[/div] [/div] [/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!-- E IIMA --] [!-- S SF --]
Dutchman Johan Huibers is building a working replica of Noah's Ark as a testament to his Christian faith. [/font] The 47-year-old from Schagen, 45km (30 miles) north of Amsterdam, plans to set sail in September through the interior waters of the Netherlands. [/p] Johan's Ark is a fifth of the size of Noah's and will carry farmyard animals. [/p] Mr Huibers, who plans to open the vessel as a religious monument and zoo, hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands. [!-- E SF --] [/p] Although Mr Huibers has tried to remain true to the ark described in the Bible, Johan's Ark is constructed with American cedar and Norwegian pine, rather than "gopher wood". [/p] 'Smell of dung' [/p] [!-- S IBOX --]According to Genesis, Noah kept seven pairs of most domesticated animals, and one breeding pair of all other creatures. [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="208"] [tbody][tr][td width="5"][img alt="" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif" border="0" height="1" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="5"][/td][td class="sibtbg"] [div class="o"] [img alt="Johan Huibers and his replica of Noah's Ark" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41494000/jpg/_41494854_huibers_ap203.jpg" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203"]
[div class="mva"] [font size="1"][img alt="" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif" border="0" height="13" width="24"] This will speak very much to children... they'll hear the creak of the wood, smell the smell of the dung [img alt="" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif" align="right" border="0" height="13" vspace="0" width="23"] [/div][/div] [div class="mva"] [div]Johan Huibers[/div] [/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!-- E IBOX --] [/font][/p] Noah's wife, three sons and three daughters-in-law lived together on the boat for almost a year while the world was flooded. [/p] Mr Huibers' vision is more modest - he said he plans to stock his ark with horses, lambs, chickens and rabbits - mostly baby animals to save space. [/p] "This will speak very much to children, because it will give them something tangible to see that Noah's Ark really existed," Mr Huibers told the Associated Press news agency. [/p] The total cost of the project is estimated to be just under 1m euros (£0.7m; US$1.2m) and was funded with bank loans. [/p] Mr Huibers plans to charge people to tour the boat and said a drink and religious pamphlet will be included in the admission price. At least 100,000 people will need to visit for the project to break-even financially. [/p] Mr Huibers said his wife was not very keen on the idea. [/p] "She always says: 'Why don't you go dig wells in Ethiopia?'," he said. "I've been involved in projects there before but she understands this is my dream."[!-- E BO --]
