Corky - sailing an inner tube?

[l'escargot]

Anyone ever seen one of these before: Corky ?

Just found some more about it:

http://www.simplicityboats.com/corky.html

 

[Searush]

I love it! I spent several years messing around in old lorry tyres on the River mersey in the mid-fifties. Always jumped in with the tube UPSTREAM of the slipway as it was useless trying to swim against a 3knt tide. We were never sophisticated enough to sail them tho, just sat in them & used our hands as paddles.

Miss the slipway & the next one might be a mile away, it's a long walk back to your towel, clothes & shoes in bare feet when you are dripping wet.

 

[Twister_Ken]

My first solo sea-going experience was in an unadorned lorry inner tube, at Splash Point, Eastbourne. There was quite a fleet of them based on Eastbourne beach. Was amused to see Huge Manley-Fingerstall using one as a diving support vessel when scallop(?) fishing off a Dorset beach.

 

[velo]

lorry tubes ! typical rich southerners ,try scooter tubes.one on each limb.

 

[LymingtonPugwash]

What?!!! Are you chaps totally crazy?!!! One couldn't even begin to imagine the Health and Safety implications! I'm amazed that the post hasn't been pulled by the Child Protection Agency and the advertisers prosecuted! I bet that abomination of fun doesn't have so much as a CE marking let alone BS-EN707!!

Posts and adverts such as these are totally and utterly irresponsible! Just imagine, encouraging kids to have fun going afloat using inner tubes! Whatever next?! And did you see the laddie in the advert? He wasn't even wearing a lifejacket and there was no safety boat anywhere to be seen!

Yours sincerely
Mr Nofriendsorfunjoykiller
Tonbridge

 

[davidfox]

Ive just found my next project, I er, I mean the kids will love it

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

How can one explain to today's kids that it was very possible to have days of fun in the early fifties with make-do or self built playthings? That 'fun' did not equate into a bought something, made out of composite materials, and costing well into four figures?
When did you last see a 'scooter' built out of wood, with old ball-races for wheels and an old shoe sole for a brake?
Kids really are missing out on a lot, I think!

 

[Lakesailor]

Ooo. Now I wonder if there are any tractor inner tubes around here?


Of course the MCA and RNLI et al will blow a gasket if you suggest any such thing for todays toof.

 

[Searush]

Tractor tube may have better bouancy than smaller lorry tube, but the beam will be over 6 foot and windage will be bad too. Plus it will take a week to inflate & weigh about 50kg!

I recently cut one up to make a new diaphragm for the pump on my lavac loo. The rubber was about 1/8th to 3/16ths inch thick. They are jolly heavy & cumbersome. Probably make a good fender for a cruiser tho', if not over inflated.

 

[fishermantwo]

I was lucky enough to live on the fore shore as a kid. Everyone had car tubes to play with and some had tractor tubes. Now tractor tubes were ideal for "king of the castle" type epic battles. Quite a struggle to get aboard especially in deep water with kids all fighting each other. The valve was always a bit of a health hazard. Fortunately in summer the breeze was always onshore.

 

[JonA]

We had a tractor tube with an ovol shaped piece of wood with holes about 9 inches apart all around the edge. This was tied inside the tube, with sisal baler cord (biodegradable), as a floor and pulled the tube into a basic boat shape. Best beach toy we ever had.

Jonathan

 

[Lakesailor]

When I was young and we lived in the East Riding I spent many a happy day at Spurn Point with a truck inner tube.
In the late '50s Spurn had miles of beach and huge beach pools of shallow and warm seawater. It's shrunk a bit since.

No pictures, not in those swimming trunks!

 

[narooma]

No pictures, not in those swimming trunks!

why not? ......bet they were knitted !!