Ontario’s twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo both have downtown parks that surround small lakes. Waterloo Park, founded in 1893, was built around Silver Lake and upon completion was dubbed the “Jewel of the City.” Three years later and two miles distant, in what must have been a bit of twin rivalry, Kitchener created Victoria Park by transforming a plot of swampland on the site into Victoria Park Lake. Kitchener officials declared that the park built around the lake was “The City’s Crown Jewel.” For boating lakes that are outside of the bicycle's range, the boat fits in the back of Matt's car.
Photographs by and courtesy of Matt Morris
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This is a very unique and interesting boat. I cannot envision the design of a sail rig for it. Does Matt have any photos of the rig and of him sailing to share with us? Great job on the design.
Hi there, Nels,
You can see more photos of the boat experimenting with the sailing rig, and videos of Matt sailing here: https://urbanboatproject.weebly.com/
Phil Bolger, in Boats With an Open Mind, designed a take-apart boat that is divided longitudinally rather than crosswise, his reasoning being that sometimes it’s width rather than length that creates space challenges. The boat is only 5’6″ long, and has a narrow center section, with two “sponsons” flanking each side. These are fully enclosed, making the boat as unsinkable as a rubber raft. When disassembled, the sponsons stow inside the center section. He shows it carrying one or two people, with two rowing positions. He concedes it is quite heavy, but says it rows well, up to the inherent speed limit of such a short boat.
I have built a couple of very short dinghies, one a 6′ 6″ V-bottom pram by Al Mason, the other a 6′ flat-bottomed pram by Billy Atkin. Both boats rowed nicely, carrying well between strokes of the oars. At the anchorage, I could easily outdistance anyone trying to make do with a little Livingston dinghy. The Livingston stopped dead between every oar stroke. Atkin claimed his, dubbed TINY RIPPLE, could serve as a lifeboat, with a couple of built-in air chambers, but if I had to stake my life on one, I’d pick the Bolger boat.
At first sight I was struck with the beauty, engineering and craftsmanship of your captivating work of art!
The strength and lightness are immediately evident and the nesting is very neat.
Your illuminated boat looked fantastic outside your home, quite unique.
The Brompton is the perfect tow vehicle, being compact enough to stow aboard and was my choice for towing an amphibious bicycle camper.
Thank you for the kind comments.
I just saw this note years later.
It was certainly a fun challenge to design and build this boat.