Hudson Folding Boat on the National Maritime Museum stand at the Beale
Park Thames Boat Show this year. Click on the images for a larger photograph
One of the most fascinating objects on show at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show this year was this amazing folding boat. I’ve posted a photograph of this boat once before, when the National Maritime Museum Cornwall included it in a display of folding boats.
However, I hadn’t realised it was such an exquisitely complicated piece of engineering. This is a real mass of hinges and brackets, sealing wax and string, and deserves admiration!
The folding boat was designed by a gent called Dick Hudson in the early part of the 20th Century. Intended for use as tender that could be tied onto a yacht’s roof without obscuring the helmsman’s view, it folded down to 20cm in thickness and with the help of a couple of brackets would sit on the running board of a car of that era.
Wow! Are the drawings for Dick Hudson's folding boat available anywhere?
G'day Gav, What a wonderful construction the folding dinghy is! Such a beautiful thing in wood. Are there drawings available, I don't think I could make a full size one but I'd love to do a model. With those changing angles on the diagonal ribbing and the sloping bow it's like the skeleton of a reptile of ancient time.
Jeff