Seahopper

Seahopper is a brand of wooden folding boats, built in Wellington, Somerset, England. Since 1974, more than 7000 Seahoppers have been built in this yard. Seahoppers are built from plywood, with a PVC membrane.

The Seahopper was developed in the 1970s by Geoff Lennard. After approximately a decade, Lennard sold the business to Steve Rea. Originally, the yard only built the two smaller models. In 1997, at the request of Mark Walters, a larger dinghy was developed, somewhat similar to the Mirror. This model became the Kontender. For a few years Rea and Walters cooperated in the building, promoting, and selling of the three models of Seahoppers. After a few years, the collaboration separated into two companies: Seahopper and Stowaway. Stowaway built its own, similar, copies of the Seahoppers, though eventually further development made them more distinct.

The hull of a Seahopper is built from 5mm-thick plywood. A sturdy PVC membrane allows it to fold, while keeping the water out. To unfold it into a boat one slots in the thwarts, the seats and the transom.

Seahoppers are centreboard prams. The centreboard together with the skeg give the boats their directinal stability. Additionally, the skeg includes a skeg wheel that allows moving and launching the boat without the need to carry it or to use a launching trolley. The transom bow is formed by the membrane, clearly indicating that the boat is a folding boat; on the inside a transom is inserted to make it rigid. The transom stern is formed of two flaps on the inside and the membrane on the outside. To this transom a bracket can be added to attach a rudder or an outboard, or both.

Seahoppers exist in three models:

This is the smallest model Seahopper at 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 m). It was promoted as SeaScamp between 1997 and 2000, after which period it became the Crafty Scamp At the start of 2017 it got its current name. The base model can be used as a rowing boat or with an additional outboard bracket it can be used as a motor boat with a small outboard. There are two sailing rigs available for the Scamp: It can either take a lug sail, or it can be sailed with a Holt rig with just a mainsail.

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