A good point, corruption run amuck with a dash of Star Wars, and in “The Boss is right” department…
So, here’s a dinghy that really caught my attention.
It’s the plywood/glass Barket 2.3 from Faursail in France and it’s a pretty awesome dinghy.
Rips right along with a 4HP outboard and I hesitate to say what it might do with a 6HP. Know what’s even cooler?
It would be the perfect dinghy for a couple who are outboard oriented rather than rowers.
Be interested to see how well they sell. So many “cheap” roto-moulded stuff around, if no doubt heavier.
Makes sense to keep it under the 2.5M to avoid and CE issues.
Looks to be quite similar in concept to the Bolger/Payson “Skimmer”. Whilst I think you could build a reasonable Skimmer for quite a bit less than €950, I can see the financial savings of the one not outweighing the labour savings of t’other for many people.
The Skimmer is a great boat. The appeal of the French design is it performs with a lot less HP and it has a sane price. As long as we’re talking other designs Bolger’s step sharpie dinghy is one I keep planning to write about.
Assuming we’re talking about the same Skimmer, a minimum of 6hp is specified, which doesn’t seem like a lot. Admittedly, I’ve no idea if it would plane on that, although, having a couple of sheets of plywood to hand, and a fancy for a lowish hp power dinghy to explore our local rivers, I may one day find out.