Is that a dinghy in your pocket?
“All I ask is a small ship, and a star to steer her by…” I know, the actual Masefield quote refers to a “tall” ship, but when a tall ship is a tall order and you feel the deep need to set sail, the “Urban Skiff” by Thomas Giger, Anita Meyer, Florian Ueker, Femke Morf & Thomas Etter, just might be your perfect escape plan from the urban jungle. This portable/foldable sail boat comes complete and ready to assemble in a rather suspicious looking body bag duffle bag. Just drag this thing down four flights of stairs, down into the subway, across the park and drop sail faster than Tony Soprano tying up a lose end. With all the “urban lifestyle” concepts floating about, this one just might have (sea) legs.
Designer: Thomas Etter, Thomas Giger, Anita Meyer, Florian Ueker & Femke Morf
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lol
I need to get one of those. it’s perfect. I live in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, and near the city there are 4-5 lakes. I have practiced a little this kind of sport, so I would like to improve my skills.
Please, tell if you know, where I can bye it!
This is awesome! I think it really has potential if it can be manufactured at a good price-point.
I want one of these. Living in NY, if the sh*t were to hit the fan, everybody would be flooding the bridges, tunnels and roads out of the city. If you had one of these, you could sail down the river laughing at all the land lubbers getting eaten by zombies. In fact, they should make that the name of the product: “Escape the Zombie Apocalypse Boat”
Can someone explain how it doesn’t sink if the back doesn’t fold up to keep out water?
The backs of lots of sailboats are built that way. Typically the bottom is curved, the nose is deeper in the water than you’d think, and the orientation lifts the bottom edge of the back out of the water a little. Unless you’re being chased by waves faster than you (in which case you’re boned anyway) no water gets in.
The secret is the thickness of the bottom. Think of it like a fat surfboard with walls. Surfboard’s floatation is proportional to the volume of water they displace, not keeping water off of the top.
I don’t know. I think this would be fun to take up to my Dad’s place to skip around in the bay. I wouldn’t want to go any further than I do on an open-water kayak (certainly not out of sight of land), but fun for day stuff.
The sail also makes it better than a lot of other emergency life rafts I’ve seen.
If anything was to be between me and jaws this would have to be it!
Seeing the actual product model in those photographs are awesome but where are the photographs of it being tested in the water?
On another note, I’d like a folding canoe.
http://www.thomasetter.com/?q=urban-skiff
No back isnt a problem, the sides and bottom look filled with foam and the backs left open so when your sailing any water that makes it inside drains out the back.
Is there any picture of the boat sailing?
Can we bue it in russia or ukraine?