Quickboat 3.7m Adventurer

Short of building dedicated boat-storage parks and dry stacks -- which we desperately need -- there’s a squeeze on. Just where will future boaters, who haven’t a driveway, a garage or a nearby storage amenity, keep their rigs?

Of course, just about every problem in life has an answer and the entrepreneurs in this world strike it rich by solving things first. Enter Quickboats, a new folding boat that needs no trailer, which can be stored on the garage wall, down the side of the house, on your apartment balcony, even the bedroom if you’re lucky.

The first we heard of the Quickboat was through a mention in a technology newsletter earlier this year. Australian-designed, the clever boat has now gained attention worldwide. The manufacturers had an e-marketing campaign and produced a limited supply of boats to create pent-up demand. Delivery in Australia is now out to March 2014.

Meantime, we jumped at the chance to take the Quickboat demonstrator for a spin.

The Quickboat 3.7m Adventurer is priced from $4375. For that you get an eight-piece boat in two carry bags. The transom is rated for an outboard that weighs up to 30kg and 10hp. We had a Parson 9.8hp engine on test.

Our Premium package also included specialist padded bags that are said to be easier to handle and offer better protection of your Quickboat, non-slip comfortable foot padding on the floor, and a stainless steel bollard for more secure anchorage.

The Quickboat with Premium Package costs $4990 including GST and free delivery Australia-wide.

A similar length tinnie will cost about $1750 plus another $1350 or thereabout for a registered trailer. So you are coming out about $1000 ahead of the standard Quickboat if you buy a tinnie on trailer. And we all know tinnies are good for decades of (ab)use.

But, as touched on, the Quickboat opens up a whole new market and its biggest competition is probably kayaks. It would also make a well-priced tender for cruising boats and yachts, stored flat on deck or cabin top. Serious cruising motoryachts might find they can carry a second tender without much weight or sacrifice of deck space.

Quickboats has had a reasonably long road to market. Partners James Graham and (uncle) Deryck Graham formed the company and bought some existing folding-boat intellectual property in Western Australia. They turned to Design + Industry in Balmain, Australia’s largest and most-awarded industrial designers, to advance the design.

Besides the cool $1-million-plus investment, the partners went to a crowd-funding site with the intention of raising $20,000. They achieved that with their folding-boat concept in 24 hours and eventually collected $60,000.

Several hundred Quickboats were subsequently sold very, er, quickly. At the same time, Quickboat has been eying global markets, with discussions now underway with various Asian governments. We’re also told new models are on the way in 2014, as are a bunch of neat accessories. We’ll get to that.

In respect of the layout, the foredeck features a net on its underside for carrying gear and there are two big rubber handles that make lifting and launching a snap. There’s a groove and cleat in the foredeck to assist anchoring, too.

The two rubber-backed cross thwart seats are kind on the derriere, certainly not bum-numbing like a tinnie, and the Quickboat boasts a four-adult load capacity. The transom is strengthened, but there’s nothing much else to talk about. It’s a very simply open boat.

Soft rubber-like padding on the seats and non-skid floor panels add to the user-friendliness, while the gunwales tracing the boat have been designed to fit perfectly in your hand and act as intuitive grab rails.

The light but strong closed-cell foam and fibreglass construction leads to a boat that is of course portable, but with the added bonus of having positive buoyancy in the unlikely event of being swamped.

Engineering-wise, the transom has been designed to transfer the load of the engine thrust back into the boat and, thus, the faster you got the stiffer the boat becomes.

But even at rest it’s not a floppy thing underfoot, with just a little bit of flex around the hinges. Being so light, it does bobble a bit. But the high freeboard and wide 1.7m beam contribute to a very stable and dry boat all the same.

Two people easily lifted the main hull bag from the roof and carried it to the ramp at Royal Motor Yacht Club Broken Bay. The stopwatch was started and the whole assembly process took just over two minutes from go to whoa. Impressive.

With just eight parts and a positive click action, you can easily throw the whole thing together and disassemble it in a jiffy.

The folding hull panels are joined by Kevlar-reinforced hinges robotically tested to the equivalent use of a boating weekend for 25 years. After which they still performed faultlessly, we’re told. As the hinges and part of the construction and epoxied in place (not just glued on), there shouldn’t be any future maintenance like glue softening on inflatable boats.

Quickboat went to some lengths to ensure top performance under power. The flat run back aft ensures the boat scoots to planing speed, and within no time the three of us were dashing about Pittwater. The claim with two adults aboard and the 9.8hp outboard on test is that the boat will reach 22 knots.

Spray deflection was another design consideration and the water does seem to be displaced to the sides. The sharp forefoot and vee upfront does a nice job of cutting through the chop, while the W-shaped ‘keel’ area aids directional stability. All told, you get a pretty nice ride!

The Quickboat was on show at the Melbourne Now exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria for its clever industrial design. It could be the future for apartment dwellers and those with special needs, such as a quick escape craft in flood-prone areas. It’s certainly a clever craft that, unfolded, expands the realms of boating.

Length: 3.7m
Beam: 1.7m max.
Folded hull weight: 36kg
Assembled boat: 54kg
Rated hp: 10hp
Maximum transom weight: 28kg
Person capacity: 4 adults
Folded length: 3.64m
Folded width: 0.70m
Folded height: 0.13m