intheboatshed.net

Folding dinghy at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show 2008.
As usual, click on the photos for a much larger image

Folding and skin-on-frame boats are always represented at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show, and this year was no exception. I was particularly impressed with this folding skin on frame dinghy - folding canoes and tenders are relatively commonplace, but this is a much bigger production.

Here’s exhibitor Roger French’s history and explanation, followed by some more shots, and a coracle or two:

• Rescuers interrupt romantic rowing boat interlude

• Mtepe boats of Zanzibar

• Wells lifeboat restored

• The ‘Orse ablaze - she was never as fast after her frames were repaired

Claude Worth’s drawing of the Auray punt

The Auray fisherman’s dinghy used described by Claude Worth early last century is one of the dinghy forms most fancied by amateur builders. It has also attracted the attentions of several notable small boat designers, including Murray Isles and the mighty Phil Bolger.

Worth called it a punt, probably because it had a scow bow and stern, and I’m sure that then as now a large part of its appeal is the simplicity of its construction. Sadly, however, he doesn’t seem to have recorded the name used by the local fishermen of the time.

Intheboatshed.net readers might like to see Worth’s original description, and to read his thoughts on yacht dinghies generally. These pages come from the 1926 edition of his splendid book Yacht Cruising.

A little less than a century later, I had the great luck to go to the Douarnenez maritime festival, where I saw a small Auray punt in action, albeit in rather un-testing conditions. See the photos at the bottom of this post, which show a simple, load carrying box piloted by the most piratical-looking Breton I’ve had the privilege to see - but sadly I still don’t know the proper name for these boats.

There are two sets of plans for modern boats derived from the Auray punt in my book Ultrasimple Boatbuilding: one’s a simple rowing and small outboard boat, while the other is a multipurpose 8ft dinghy with a sailing option designed by the splendid Murray Isles.