Otter Boats

Boatbuilder making traditionally styled, hand crafted small boats and dinghies / tenders finished in hand crafted hardwoods. Fishing or leisure use.

Started as a boatbuilder making traditionally styled, hand crafted small boats and dinghies / tenders finished in hand crafted hardwoods. Fishing or leisure use. These were lovely boats but needed either a permanent berth or a road trailer and we couldn't source a road trailer for a price that was significantly less than the boats. We also had many enquiries about the boats not progressed as we couldn't source an outboard engine for less than £550 which also pushed the price up too much. Economically, the expensive materials and laborious construction meant that even if sold as fast as we couldmake them, it still wouldn't be a viable business.

Those are the reasons we have suspended construction of the old models and sold the stock to finance the development of a radical new design. The prototype is nearly complete and should be testing in a few weeks. Videos and pictures will be posted of that historic event.

The new design addresses the oroblems of the old models with a revolutionary construction enabling fast completion of ultra-lightweight hulls that can be placed on a car roof-rack by a lone user. This negates the need for a trailer and makes launching and transporting as easy as a canoe. It can be used as a tender with an electric eor small petrol outboard, or with the addition of side floats and sail set, it can be used as an extremely safe and stable sail trainer or is available with a larger are sail rig for use by people who want performance from the light weight. The sailing rig has been designed for maximum simplicity and ease of use with no requirement for knowledge of knotsor any of the nautical jargon. The mat is free standing (and so requires no support lines and the singe sail is pre-fitted on spars and hoisted with a single line- In total the sailing rig has 2 lines and is clipped on so no knots are needed to set up or sail. The floats are easily attached with lockable catches clipping them in place. I have found a small outboard that is light enough and that I can sell for £300.
The boat alone will be priced under £1000 and the wholepackage with sailing rig, floats and electric outboard for under £2000 making it the lowest priced real sailing boat even before trailers and storaage and launching fees are considered.
Either as a sil trainer, performance trimaran, stable fishing platform or lightweight tender, we hope it will be the best and the best value boat available in the UK.
It's working title is the "Otterpup" as it is the baby of Otter Boats but it isn't finalised yet. "Remora" has been suggested as it hitches a ride on a larger car, "Skilblagdnir" after the mythical folding boat of a Norse god. Suggestions are more than welcome! We had considered "Latina" as it has a lateen sail arrangement, but that would not be good for people finding us on the internet! I will post some pictures of the prototype in development showing the bamboo frame that when encased in buoyancy foam and with a thin fibreglass skin are central to the revolutionary design. Photos of the lauch of the prototype and videos of it on the waterwill be posted as soon as possible so keep an eye out for them