4' Folding Coracle Tender (2015) - FAERIE

My pop-top cruiser HESPERIA (also listed here), laden with gear, is too heavy to move if the tide goes out from under her, and with tides in my area ranging up to 14′, constant tending is required when she’s nosed up to a beach. I’ve used a few systems to put the boat at anchor from shore, but they are all time-consuming and require very long lines. I wanted a folding dinghy that I could stow out of the way in the cockpit (see photo), so the fit there determined its dimensions. The only boat I knew of that small was a coracle but while studying the type I came across the Fliptail, a dinghy that was very close to what I had in mind: a skin boat with a folding frame. I laminated bows that would fit the forward end of HESPERIA’s cockpit.

The Fliptail uses hinges, but I couldn’t find any that were the right size, shape, material, and price. I sketched many schemes for using bolts as pivots before figuring out the geometry that would do the job. The skin is Hypalon I had from an old pool liner. A plank set across the gunwales serves as a seat and if I need floorboards for a passenger or cargo, HESPERIA’s dining table is a perfect fit. The high freeboard gives FAERIE surprising carrying capacity. I’ve paddled with my son sitting in the stern, and our combined weight is about 415 lbs.

FAERIE feels a bit tippy with the paddler’s weight carried so high, but I haven’t yet capsized her. On beaches with a moderate slope I can paddle up to the water’s edge, lean back quite confidently and set the bow just barely up on the land and step out with dry feet. I used a zig-zag sculling stroke at first but later discovered old film footage of coracles ( Boyne Coracle, A Bygone Craft, and Peeps though a Window of the World) being paddled with a draw stroke and the blade slashing in an out of the water from one side. It provides much more power and drives the little hull as fast as it’ll go, which is about 2 knots.