How to Make Moana’s Boat the Easy Way

I honestly had no intention of building a life-sized Moana boat. I had seen some cute ones on Pinterest, but there was no way I had the time to do something like that. But then my husband came up with this super cool design and it took hardly any time at all. We were also able to use it in so many ways during the party that it made it totally worth it. It was the perfect photo prop and decoration, and we even incorporated it into the Moana Ta Ka Boat Game. So if you want to make your own, this is how to make Moana’s boat the easy way. No nails or screws!

First, we pulled together some boards and made sure they were cut to about the same length. I liked that they aren’t exact because it makes it look more rustic. These were actually scraps from when we built our patio cover and were already painted brown. But I think it would look just as cool if you didn’t paint it at all. You will notice that one of the boards is a 4×4. This is so that we could drill a deep enough hole in it to support the mast. We then used rustic-looking rope to lash it all together. It would definitely never float, but we didn’t need it to.

To make the mast, we used an old flagpole and drilled the hole in the 4×4 so that it was just the right size to fit in. For the sail, I grabbed some old muslin fabric I had laying around and found a bamboo stick. To cut it to size, I used the pole and the stick as a pattern. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it is supposed to look rustic.

Once I cut it out, I had a nice triangle shape. I then used red paint to draw the spiral. I wanted it to look well-worn, so I threw it in the washing machine and dryer. This helped fray the edges and give the spiral a well worn look. Then using rustic-looking twine, I hand stitched the sail on to the pole and stick. The weight of the stick helped the sail hang the right way. And the stitching looked a lot like Moana’s boat.

The ones on Pinterest are way more impressive, but this was exactly what we needed and worked perfectly. And I figured that how to make Moana’s boat didn’t need to be crazy complicated for the girls to still love it. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and it was a real show stopper when the girls showed up.