Nine years ago, physics teacher Glenn Taylor and two other physics teacher came up with the boat project. Students build a boat with the main material being cardboard. This end-of-year project has turned into a tradition that many students look forward to watching. 

“Generally [a] boat that’s as wide as possible with a fairly low profile, not big tall walls… just skims across the top of the water and it’s wide enough to spread the mass out,” said Taylor.

Students spend days or even weeks preparing their boats for the water. Many want to win the fastest finish and do not want to end up winning the Titanic Award. The races will begin today and continue through all periods on Thursday.

Jayson Savoie, a junior in on-level physics, said, “I think I am just looking forward to seeing all the other boats and seeing how they do. It wasn’t an easy project, you have to put a lot of thinking into it.”

COVID has affected the boat races for the past two years. In 2020, physics students did not even do the boat project because everyone went virtual. In 2021, only one student was put in a boat along with a 5 gallon bucket of water, which is around 50 pounds. This year is the first year since 2019 where two students will be in a boat. 

Watching people fall or sink has been what Taylor looks forward to in the boat races.

“They turn too fast and they flip because their center of gravity is higher than expected,” he said. “Sometimes it just develops a slow leak and it can’t handle the mass, but it’s just funny to watch the students.”