I thought it was a late April fool, apparently not:

[Simonpk]

Unbelievable.

http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/..._drifting_offshore____in___9__homemade__boat/

 

[DanTribe]

Not really unbelievable.

for Jaywick .

 

[Aardee]

Welcome to Jaywick (Twinned with The Jeremy Kyle Show)

 

[Simonpk]

All true, Darwin Award contender maybe.

 

[prv]

Apart from making the thing out of Kingspan instead of buying it from Lidl, it's really just the standard "rubber dinghy blown out to sea when the monkey-metal oar tubes snap" story repeated dozens of times around the coast every summer. Had they picked a more forgiving spot, rather than an open beach with an offshore wind, and had slightly better oar shafts (I'm curious whether they made them too, or scavenged them from a plastic beach toy), they might now be congratulating themselves on the free fish for tea.

Pete

 

[johnalison]

A friend of mine used to convulse with laughter every time he was reminded of Jaywick literary festival.

 

[30boat]

I think that with a few improvements they're on to something.They should apply for a patent...

 

[Simonpk]

I think that with a few improvements they're on to something.They should apply for a patent...

Then off to the Dragons Den, this time next year they'll be millionaires :highly_amused:

 

[VicS]

A lifeboat crewman is quoted as saying “Going to sea in homemade boat is certainly one we've never seen before.”

Plenty of seaworthy home made boats I suggest!

This is a particularly good ( ferrocement) one

 

[salar]

G

A lifeboat crewman is quoted as saying “Going to sea in homemade boat is certainly one we've never seen before

More likely the journalist misquoted. Many journalists seem not to have a clue about what they are reporting about, right up to BBC standard, judging from the nonsense I hear on mainstream news sometimes. A first for a boat made of insulation panels, probably.

 

[prv]

More likely the journalist misquoted.

+1, or just made it up out of whole cloth when back at his desk (actually he probably never left his desk).

Pete

 

[LadyInBed]

Great stuff!
Pity they didn't think it through - No anchor or secondary propulsion

 

[simonfraser]

should have used sikkaflex to glue the lot together

 

[salar]

G

More likely the journalist misquoted. Many journalists seem not to have a clue about what they are reporting about, right up to BBC standard, judging from the nonsense I hear on mainstream news sometimes. A first for a boat made of insulation panels, probably.

Perfect timing, to prove my point: 6pm news, Radio 4 carried this story about a.....two and a half foot boat. You couldn't make it up.

 

[Boo2]

Plenty of seaworthy home made boats I suggest!

This is a particularly good ( ferrocement) one

Nice ! What boat is that, Vic ?

Boo2

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Nothing wrong with the boat-building technique - a common way of building model yachts when I was a lad! We owned several model yachts made by our grand-dad using exactly the same method; they were a bit better shaped than that, though!

 

[William_H]

The original boat (not the ferro cement boat) reminded me of a peculiar Australian game of competition to build a boat out of beer cans and racing them in a regatta. Some get quite complex with dare I say quite a lot of beer cans. Usually demolished after the regatta. But in this case is was not the boat that go them into trouble but the propulsion and seamanship. olewill

 

[Iliade]

Now't wrong with the boat (apart from looks, durability and probably stability) - Even if it had turned turtle it would probably have rowed and floated just as well, it being a fundamentally raft with spraydodgers.
Reading the article, it would appear that the only component (of the three: boat, anchor & paddle.) they didn't make was the one which failed them.