SWMBO calls it a 'Pocket book boat'

[nedL]

This past weekend I was loaned (for the season) a folding sailing dinghy. Now I know what you are thinking, I was pretty sceptical at first too. When I went over to pick it up we collected pieces some from the dinning room & had to go up into the attic to carry down this big duffle bag and other assorted parts. When we started opening things up & pulling things out everything was nicely varnished mahogany plywood. In the big duffle bag it looked like a stich & glue kit for a 9' pram, except that all the seams were already connected with these hypalon 'hinges'. This pile of plywood unfolds into a nice little 9.5' sailing pram. It was built in England (Thank you John Smith & others over there ;) ) & really has some nice thought put into its design. All the seams secure in a finger joint fashion as they open up. Now it certainly is not rugged & wouldn't hold up very well to a bunch of 'free range teenagers', but with care it would do very well for a long time. The best part is SWMBO even likes it & says she will go out in it & she doesn't even like sailing :D . My daughter, my father inlaw & I took it out on a local small lake on Sunday to do some drifting around in the rail showers & it seems like it should sail rather nicely given some breeze. Definately a boat for those short on storage space. Apparently the company is still in business, but I don't know the name.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid27/p70ff939d051ceaedfc3ea9eb35d6dd8e/fd792df5.jpg
OK, so its kind of funny looking at first ;)
web page (http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291558843)

[skuthorp]

Looks pretty good! Better than the flexible plastic one that nearly drowned me crossing a flooded creek near Birdsville. Just like a Sabot proper in fact. How rigid is it under sail?

[nedL]

I was quite suprised, the hull is quite stiff when all together. There are a couple of aluminum tube 'strutts' that run from the bottom forward corner of the daggerboard trunk up to the inside of the gunwale right where the rear shrouds fasted to the hull which stiffens things quite a bit for sailing. I think there is a small one design class called the "Optimus"(?) of which this is quite a bit like. It is also a lot like the boat I learned to sail on when I was six, and 8' pram of a class called the "Waterbug".

[John B]

"Sabot" is what I thought when I saw it too. Looks pretty good.

[Steve Paskey]

She was made by Seahopper Folding Boats of Wellington, Somerset. Here's the web site:

http://www.seahopper.homestead.com/frontpage.html

Watercraft Magazine (a British mag) sent someone out to do a test sail, and they were very impressed.

[Paul Scheuer]

nedL: "Optimist Pram". See issue 36 page 73.
A young design, only two years older than me.
I fine example of right-thinking people with a good idea.
Happily a part of my youth. smile.gif