National Small Boat Collection

This boat was primarily used in the lower reaches and tidal estuary of the River Parrett in Somerset for fishing or as a sailing day boat in Bridgewater Bay. Known…

This Holmsbu pram is a working descendent from the same ancestor as many small yachts and dinghies in Britain today. This particular craft was used for herring fishing in the…

This dug out canoe was produced by burning the centre of the log out with controlled fire and finishing with a hand axe. This particular example is thought to have…

This coracle-like craft is an Iraqi “guffa”, a traditional form of craft used for both cargo and passenger transport on the rivers of Iraq, notably the Tigris, for millennia: the…

Hydroplanes were developed in the 1920’s and 30’s as outboard engines became available and increased in size and power. Originally outboards were used on utility boats but as racing evolved…

“Perhaps the Solomon Islands are more celebrated for their canoes than for anything else, and, if so, I think, with reason”, wrote W. Coote in his work The Western Pacific.…

Canoeing with sail and paddle became a popular sport in the last quarter of the 19th century, with the canoes used both for racing and for camping holidays at home…

Windsurfing has become widely popular since its introduction in the 1960s, yet from the beginning a bitter battle raged over who was the legitimate inventor of the windsurfer. Americans Hoyle…

This dinghy was built by F.C. Morgan Giles at Hammersmith in 1908. It is of clinker construction with spruce planks on steamed oak frames. It is gunter rigged with a…