Wednesday 19 October 2011

Flatpack Rowing

As a fully paid-up gadget freak, I love this. Demonstrated at a design show on the Regent's Canal in London last month, the Foldboat is cut from a single 2.5 by 1.5m sheet of polyethylene, cleverly creased so to pop up into this little rowboat.
The designers claim it can be assembled in a couple of minutes, bolting together at the bow and the ends of the transom.
The Foldboat was developed by Max Frommeld and Arno Mathies, students at the Royal College of Art. They also created the novel oars with blades cut from the same sheet of plastic as the boat - the shafts are ash.
The Foldboat comes in two versions. This one is quick to set up but must be stored as a single sheet, though it would easily hang on the garage wall.
Another version folds down into a flat pack a mere 1.5 by 0.6m, so it could be transported in the back of a car or even carried around.
More information on the designers' very stylish blog.


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