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Do It Yourself - Wooden Boats 

Polar Educators can cut their own cedar wooden boats too.  

Depending on the supply and requests of boats from Float Your Boat, educators may want to make their own boats. It is important that the wooden boat template pattern is used. 

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A few creative ideas to get boats made:

  • high school woodshop students cutout boats

  • community members who have a wood shop cut out boats

  • friends with jig saws cut boats

  • source cedar lumber scraps from fencing company or other construction projects

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How To Do it Yourself

These instructions are for DIY boats using an adjustable blade angle jigsaw. One 2x4x8' should yield 12 boats. We recommend rough cedar and do not recommend pressure treated wood. Other wood types can work, yet may get water logged quickly and not float as long. 

 

Supply list:

 

  • 2"x4"x8' wood - preferably cedar (rough cut works)

  • trigger clamps or other type of wood clamp

  • 8" boat pattern (click on download above)

  • pencil

  • jigsaw or band saw with settings to adjustable blade angle

 

  1. After sourcing your lumber, trace the boat pattern on the 2x4s.  Space between the tracings is not recommended to maximize the yield. 

  2. Clamp the 2x4 to something stable so that 3-4 boats can be cut without getting in the way of the clamps. 

  3. Set the jigsaw blade angle to 15 degrees and cut out one side of the boat pattern as shown in the video.  The next step will require adjusting the blade angle on the jigsaw to the opposite side so the other side of the boat pattern can be cut (see video at top of this page).

  4. Finally cut the transom. Re-adjust the clamping to cut out the next 3-4 boats.  

  5. Once you have your boats cut, contact the Float Your Boat team with the number of boats and we will assign serial numbers for your boats which can be labeled with a sharpie marker.  

  6. Have learners decorate the boats

  7. Ship the boats back to the address provided before the drop dead date and sit back and enjoy the journey!

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After boats are received by Float Your Boat organizers in Seattle, they will be permanently branded with the website and serial number. 

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