Tag: tender

The Hudson folding boat floats!

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The Hudson folding boat floats

Hudson folding boat at Beale Park Thames Boat Show, photographed
by Chris Perkins

The amazing Hudson folding boat floats! I hadn’t realised it was in a condition to do so, but these folks look suitably relaxed and dry for a trip on the River Thames.

Many thanks to our kind friend Chris Perkins for the photograph, and for the news that Mr Hudson’s invention still works well! It’s an interesting shape for a tender too, don’t you think?

Follow the link for more intheboatshed.net posts on the Hudson folding boat.

Photographs of the Hudson folding boat at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show

Hudson folding boat at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show

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.

Hudson folding boat at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show

Hudson folding boat at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show

An alternative folding boat

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Handy Andy folding boat plans

10ft folding dinghy plans at the Svenson free boat plans site

Attention boating enthusiasts – is this folding boat the half-forgotten answer to the eternal tender problem?

Tenders tend to be be a nuisance as we all know – the nasty rubber things cost a fortune, take ages to inflate, take up a lot of space on board and row like psychopathic milk jugs, and of course a solid tender is a can be a pain to tow.

So some people might like to consider this folding alternative, which I’ve just spotted. Plans can be downloaded at the Svenson website.

Follow this link for more free boat plans.