Make Your Own Regatta » The Pleasantest Thing

Make your own boat from cardboard tubes and cans

We are staying at a lake side house. I have been kicking myself for not bringing toy boats for the boys, when it struck me that we could create our own. My idea started out simply, with me gathering supplies to make a boat from a cardboard tube. My 4 year old noticed what I was doing, and suddenly my 11 year old nephew, my 4 year old, my husband and I were designing several boats to bring down to the lake.
Our supplies: We kept our supplies simple, and either taken from the kitchen cupboard, or the recycling bin. We used an aluminum can, several straws, 2 paper towel tubes, a cracker box, a plastic bottle, the straw box, duct tape, and scissors.
Set Up: To set up our regatta, we gathered all our materials, and then brainstormed ideas for how to best put it all together. Our fleet contained:

Paper towel tube sail boat and catamaran: We covered the tubes with duct tape, and poked holes in them to fit a straw. I cut out large triangles from the cracker box to make sails, and cut 2 parallel horizontal slits to thread the sails through.
Straw box boat: We covered the bottom and sides with duct tape, and cut a hole in the middle for some of my 4 year old’s figures to drive. This was his favorite boat.
Plastic bottle boat: We couldn’t find the cap to this bottle, so we covered the top with duct tape. We cut a hole in the center for the driver, and decorated it with duct tape.
Straw raft: We put a piece of duct tape on the table, sticky side up, and placed five straws in a row next to each other, and then wrapped the rest of the tape around the straw. Then we put a second piece of tape around the straws.
Aluminum can boat: We covered the top with duct tape, poked a hole into it, and made the same straw sail as the paper towel tubes. Then we brought all our creations to test their seaworthiness. The boats were floated, and splashed, dunked, and sunk. We all got wet, and cheered our own creations on as we raced and tried to sink each other’s boats. I think we will make our regatta an annual tradition!