Man builds full-scale Noah's Ark

MANILA, Philippines - A Dutch builder who dreamed that Holland has suffered a great flood has recreated a replica of the biblical Noah’s Ark, which has now become an attraction along a waterfront shipyard in Dordrecht, a city in the western Netherlands.

The $1.6-million ship, which Johan Huibers started three years ago, is still under construction and built to biblical specs. Huibers culled information on the ark’s size and shape directly from the Bible.

Tourists have been lining up to climb aboard “Johan’s Ark,” which the builder expects to be completed sometime next month.

Huibers, owner of a successful construction company in Holland, says the project is a dream come true – literally.

“I dreamed a part of Holland was flooded,” Huibers, 60, told Janet Shamlian in a report that aired on TODAY Wednesday. “Then, the next day I get the idea to build an ark of Noah.”

Down to the last specs

Huibers’ obsession with the biblical ship started 20 years ago. Despite his wife’s misgivings, he built an ark in 2004 that was roughly half the size of the specifications listed in the Bible and sailed it through the canals of the Netherlands.

That first creation proved to be a hit among tourists, who were charged seven bucks per person to climb aboard. The initial success financed Huibers’ real dream — building the ark that perfectly resembles Noah’s.

In 2008, he embarked on his ambitious project to build the full-scale replica of the biblical boat.

“Johan’s Ark” is 450 feet long, true to the Bible’s account of a 300 cubit-long ship (in ancient times, a cubit was the length of a man’s arm from elbow to fingertips, or roughly 18 inches). The ark weighs in at a whopping 2,970 tons, and is constructed of Swedish pine.

Huibers told The New York Times that the specifications and the choice of wood is in keeping with God’s command to Noah that the ark should be built of resin wood.

The ark builder, however, settled for inanimate models of animals, in reference to God’s command to Noah that the ark be stocked with two of everything in the animal kingdom, when it created a ruckus among animal rights activists.

The ship now boasts faux giraffes, zebras, cows and donkeys by the pair.

Shamlian was amazed when Huibers told her it cost $11,000 for just one elephant, saying, “You have a lot of money invested in fake animals, don’t you?”

“You can’t imagine!” he replied.

Seaworthy

Today, Huibers is putting on the finishing touches on his ark with the help of his two children and some friends. He is planning to make the floating “zoo” a first-class tourist attraction, complete with two conference rooms that will hold up to 1,500 people.

For tourists who might be disappointed in only seeing animal models on board, Huibers already has a couple of live chickens in the ark’s deckhouse and plans to steadily add a few more animals in the future.

The ship is seaworthy and is officially registered in the Netherlands as a building because of its massive size. Huibers says his gigantic craft is ready and able to set sail. In fact, he’s in negotiations with London officials to bring the ark down the Thames River for the 2012 Summer Olympics.