National Small Boat Collection

There is nothing new about the idea of a folding boat. Some of the Titanic’s lifeboats were folding boats and were successfully launched before the ship sank, but any lifeboat…

By the late 19th century boating and picnics on the River Thames were gaining in popularity:  social events such as the Henley Regatta saw large gatherings of pleasure boats. The…

The St. Mawes One Design (SMOD) evolved as a result of a Dr. James beating Frank Peters in races off St. Mawes, Cornwall in the early 1920s. Frank, designer of…

Sunshine was built c.1880 as a ‘foy boat’ for the River Wear in the North East of England. It was used for a range of inshore duties, such as transporting…

Surf life saving boats were first introduced into the UK from Australia in 1965. They have always been used primarily for competition and occasionally for rescue. Today, the equipment for…

Swift and other boats like her were built for racing on the rivers Gannel and Camel in Cornwall and was probably built sometime between 1890 and 1910 in Padstow. These…

During the late 18th century there were a number of developments aimed at creating a uniform system of measurement and rating to allow boats of similar but slightly different designs…

https://nmmc.co.uk/object/boats/klepper-folding-…uccessful-design/Boat building is a low profit margin business and as a result the history of boat building is littered with bankruptcies and short production runs. So all the more remarkable…

Simple fishing rafts made from available materials, with designs adapted to local conditions, have been found across the globe: from their use in Polynesia, by Aboriginal Australians, via the Tamil…