The $100 DIY Sailboat that Won our Outdoor Sports Contest

We had a blast pulling together stories about sports — extreme and otherwise — for our theme week earlier this month. And we had a blast looking at the projects submitted by readers for our project contest, going over the directions and imagining each build.

But we had to chose one for the prize, a $200 gift certificate to the Maker Shed. One that was well-documented, one that captured the maker spirit and could help people have fun outside. To us, that’s Robert van de Walle’s $100 sailboat, built with materials from a hardware store, with a tarp for a sail and an air mattress for a float. Van de Walle provides a detailed parts list, as well as instructions in his YouTube video of the build (below).

It’s a smart and creative design, detailed and easy to follow. We hope to see these populating our lakes and rivers soon. For more instructions, check out van de Walle’s Instructable.

Thank you all for your interest, and we hope that you had fun reading about outdoor makers and building some of the projects we shared. And, thanks to Robert van de Walle, there’s one more for you to try.