Man is regressing

Just ran across this Er-um “interesting” design on a Craigslist ad, googled it, and sure enough, these things are being manufactured and sold for real!

 

Oh thats nothing. Look at the news.

 

The dumbing down of America

 

I apologize in advance.

Round Boat | Roundabout Round Skiff Ultra Shallow Draft 1 or 2 Man Boat https://roundaboutwatercrafts.com/

Boat Only - Roundabout Watercrafts https://roundaboutwatercrafts.com/product/boat-only/

I am guessing they tend to cork a bit, er, bob.

 

some guy was selling what looked like a California-king size mattress of stiff coated foam as a boat. I think it folded in half for transport.

IIRC had pics of just regular folding beach chair, and related equip like ice chest.

I more practical and versatile concept IMO. Be great for lounging and sleeping on the water, path over mud at water's edge, and as shelter. IIRC it was very lightweight.

 

I’m afraid to look at the news, so I amuse myself by looking at Craigslist.
We might name that thing the Donald Dinghy, as it can readily be driven in different directions....

 

^

 

It seem to be based on traditional fishermen boats, see eg Vĩnh Hy bay in Vietnam . . .


( ↑ by Phuong Nguyen )


( ↑ by Phúc Mã )

See also Coracles . . .


‘‘ Britons with coracles - from Cassell's History of England, Vol. I ’’



‘‘ . . . . The River Teifi, West Wales. The two men are John Davies (forefront) and Will Davies of Cenarth; the last two legitimate coracle fishermen in Cenarth. They are both using the single-arm method of propulsion; a means of gliding downstream in a controlled way. They carry their coracles and their fish home on their backs. (1972) . . . . . Where coracle fishing is performed by two coraclers the net is stretched across the river between the two coracles. The coraclers will paddle one handed, dragging the net in the other, and draw the net downstream. When a fish is caught, each hauls up an end of the net until the two boats are brought to touch, and the fish is then secured . . . . ’’

 

Also similar to the Japanese tub boats Indigenous Boats: Tub Boats http://indigenousboats.blogspot.com/2009/08/tub-boats.html

 

Here's some safety guidelines^PDF from the Coracle Society, must say the new post #1 type shows some improvements such as built in floatation, but sitting lower would enhance their stability, which might be needed since they look as to suffer from the pontoon effect* . . .

P.S.
* ‘‘ . . The vessel is stable and self-righting up to the point that the centre of gravity shifts past the centre of buoyancy of the ship and the vessel rapidly capsizes. . . ’’

In case of the Roundabout it looks to me when the centre of gravity shifts past the centre of buoyancy, than before hitting 90º capsize, it will fall back to horizontal after the crew has fallen off, which is easily likely to happen when a crew of two moves to one side of the craft, hence only jumping near center in the promo vids....

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​

 

BBC - Coracles: The surprising history of Britain’s strangest boat - #3 - #4 - #8 - have a video



#9 ↓ Coracle use for sheep herding while they're being washed annually in the River Teifi in West Wales until the late 1960's.



↓ Kuphars in Baghdad 1914 & 1918 . . .

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BTW, they're talking up to 16 tons near the bottom of the history section.

 

Not so different than these (in foreground).

 

↑ Those look like inflated U tubes for fishing, sitting low in them is their key to a great stability, often it's needed to wear a pair of insulated waders to keep warm, option is to ad a pair of flippers for trolling....

(source)​

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(source = dutch link)​

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(source) - ‘‘ Side Fins - Allow forward movement with an upright walking motion while other fins propel backward ’’​

 

Fasten 2 of these coracles together and you almsot get a barrel like vessel....similar to the Frenchman's vessel, now 'barreling' across the Atlantic .
Progress - ain't it wonderful!

 

The Novgorod ... round battleship.

Russian monitor Novgorod - Wikipedia https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_monitor_Novgorod