Inside the fabrication shop at Grants Pass High School, the sounds of grinders, welders, aluminum hammers, and buzzing fabrication tools echo through the room like controlled chaos. Sparks fly across steel tables while students in welding googles, and some in helmets lean carefully over handcrafted aluminum hulls that, within days, will skim across the Rogue River in front of cheering crowds during one of Southern Oregon’s most beloved Memorial Day traditions.
For many in Grants Pass, Boatnik has always been associated with the parade, roaring jet boats, carnival rides, fireworks, and crowds lining the riverbanks. But tucked quietly behind the larger races is something far more personal and deeply rooted in community tradition: the junior hydro “creek” boat races, where local students not only race the boats, but build them by hand themselves.
This year’s Junior Hydro’s Exhibition, sponsored by The Growler Guys, will take place Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m., with additional races scheduled Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and finals Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Along the Rogue River, families will watch students from Grants Pass High School, Hidden Valley High School, North Valley High School, and other local participants compete in small aluminum sprint-style creek boats that represent months of teamwork, fabrication, and mentorship.
What many residents may not realize is that these boats arrive as completely unassembled kits manufactured in Oregon by Matt Richardson. The kits are distributed through community support, sponsorships, and grant funding, including approximately $10,000 in awarded assistance helping keep the youth program alive. The project itself operates as a nonprofit-style community collaboration, with the kits sold at cost to the cause rather than sold for profit.
Once the kits arrive at the school shops, the real work begins.
Students enrolled in the Metals 3 Advanced Fabrication program spend countless hours cutting, fitting, measuring, welding, and assembling the boats from raw aluminum pieces into fully operational racing craft capable of reaching serious speeds on the water. The boats are powered by 650cc Yamaha motors and use cable steering systems along with emergency shutoff switches similar to personal watercraft safety systems.
And yes, the students truly weld the boats themselves.
Under the guidance of fabrication instructor Jake Leair, students learn advanced welding techniques including TIG welding, MIG welding, aluminum bead welding, rig welding, and full-gun fabrication work. Depending on experience and challenges encountered during assembly, a single boat can take anywhere from eight hours to an entire day to fully construct, or more if you a mistake is made.
During a recent visit to the fabrication shop at Grants Pass High School, the level of collaboration surrounding the student boat-building project was impossible to miss. Members of the Active Club, including Andrew Powell, were present working alongside students, while Travis Hamlyn of Hellgate Jetboat Excursions attended in support of the program and the students participating in the project. The atmosphere inside the shop reflected far more than a typical school assignment, showcasing genuine community involvement, mentorship, teamwork, and camaraderie as students from multiple schools came together to prepare the handcrafted aluminum boats for the upcoming races.
Because some schools fell behind during fabrication this season, boats from Hidden Valley and North Valley were temporarily brought into the Grants Pass shop so students and volunteers could work collectively to help complete the fleet before race weekend.
It was not competition inside the shop.
It was cooperation.
Students Clayton Markey and Kyler Blocker, two of the lead student fabricators involved in the project, walked through the detailed assembly process with the kind of pride that only comes from building something with your own hands. Every weld, every alignment point, every steering connection, and every section of aluminum represented real labor and problem-solving.
Some of the completed boats will be painted traditionally, while others have been professionally wrapped locally by Wrap It Up, giving the small racing craft polished designs that rival professional teams.
But beyond the aluminum and horsepower, the junior hydro-boat program represents something increasingly rare.
Students are learning hands-on trade skills tied directly to real-world application. They are learning fabrication, teamwork, engineering, mechanics, troubleshooting, and safety while participating in a hometown tradition that has existed for generations along the Rogue River.
For some families, these races are deeply personal. While many boats are now built through school programs, other competitors still race boats assembled in garages, barns, workshops, and family shops throughout Southern Oregon. In many cases, parents and grandparents who once participated in Boatnik themselves now stand beside younger racers helping prepare the next generation.
That connection between education, family, craftsmanship, and community may be exactly what makes the junior races one of the most meaningful parts of the entire Memorial Day weekend celebration.
Long before the engines fire on race day, the tradition is already alive inside the welding booths, fabrication tables, and classrooms where Southern Oregon students are quite literally building Boatnik’s future one aluminum weld at a time.
Residents and visitors are encouraged to come out to Riverside Park this Saturday to support and cheer on the young racers as they showcase months of hard work, craftsmanship, teamwork, and dedication on the water.
