Door County Floats Its Boats!

By Door County Pulse , Peninsula Pulse – May 28th, 2020

Two Washington Island School students are pictured with the boats they created. One – a barge – held 154 pennies. The other was a cardboard vessel that held 317 pennies for 12 minutes and one second.

Boat builders of all ages stretched their creativity by entering newspaper, cardboard and freeform creations in the Door County Maritime Museum’s (DCMM) online competition, the Float Your Boat Challenge!

Between May 15 and 20, participants shared more than 30 video and photo entries of boat creations using #dcmaritime, with quarantined residents floating their cardboard pirate ships, row boats, schooners and rafts in creeks, bathtubs and even toilets.

This year, Ms. Dahlke’s class at Washington Island School created boats as a science project, and Ms. Meacham’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) class at Southern Door School compiled videos of their entries. Watch them on DCMM’s Facebook page.

The Float Your Boat Challenge was the quarantine stand-in for the Cardboard Regatta competition that the museum launched in May 2019 with Door County middle school students. That event teaches students some engineering principles, problem-solving and teamwork.

Though the opportunity to have entries published in the Peninsula Pulse has ended, DCMM still encourages anyone to create, float and post a vessel. To find out more, message DCMM on Facebook or Instagram, or email [email protected].

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