National Small Boat Collection

The National 18 was born in 1938 following a design competition organised by the then YRA (now the Royal Yachting Association – RYA) and Yachting World magazine. The original idea…

  Wizard was designed and built in 1932 by Uffa Fox for Wing Commander E. J. P. Burling, who was the officer commanding  RAF Mount Batten, near Plymouth, Devon. Burling…

These boats were based on the Thames working skiffs but were more heavily built, and were used by watermen for various uses including ferrying, fishing and taking people out for…

A collapsible cartop dinghy/tender by designer and television DIY series presenter Barry Bucknell. The boat has folding fabric sides on a pram dinghy-shaped glass reinforced plastic (GRP) hull. It has…

Closely related to the Thames pleasure skiff, the gig was a lightweight upriver version of the Naval pulling gigs. Gigs and skiffs became popular during the 19th century as a…

Shush was built to a very high standard by F C Morgan-Giles of Teignmouth in 1925. At only 2.6m long it must be one of the smallest boats with an…

At Devonport, on the borders of Devon and Cornwall, two Royal Navy dockyards extended for almost three miles along the east bank of the River Tamar. Serving the naval and…

This raft is from the Lobito Bay area of Angola and is one of relatively few examples of rafts found in Africa. It is believed to have been built about…

This is a typical example of a traditional outrigger canoe from Sri Lanka primarily used for fishing, both off the beach and further out to sea. The shallow dugout hull,…