Hello everyone, I have recently been given a mystery boat (to me) and I am trying to find out more about it. It is a folding boat that seats three people and covers to make a nice 3 person kayak. In addition it has a rudder, main sail, and a jib! The note that came with it said "Free to good home circa 1950 Granta". On the paddle it says "Built by Granta folding boats Cottenham, England". If anyone has some info on this boat or can lead me in the right direction to do my own research I would greatly appreciate it. Jeff Kayaker_at_thegrid.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
A Google search turned up this uk.rec.boats.paddle newsgroup listing from last December: ....a Granta folding Canoe made by Granta boats, Cottenham, Cambridge Jerry Murland murland_at_clara.net This was a response to another lucky soul who found an old boat.... Granta boats apparently was an older manufacturer whose boats were named after the Granta River in Cambridgeshire. Scott Camlin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Jeff wrote: >>If anyone has some info on this boat or can lead me in the right direction to do my own research I would greatly appreciate it.<< Hi Jeff, You can send the boat to me and I'll do all the research for you! Sorry - <always scheming to enhance the fleet> ;-) Melissa *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Jeff wrote: >>>>>>>I have recently been given a mystery boat (to me) and I am trying to find out more about it. It is a folding boat that seats three people and covers to make a nice 3 person kayak. In addition it has a rudder, main sail, and a jib! The note that came with it said "Free to good home circa 1950 Granta". On the paddle it says "Built by Granta folding boats Cottenham, England". If anyone has some info on this boat or can lead me in the right direction to do my own research I would greatly appreciate it.<<<<<<< GRANTA BOATS LTD:(all wood frame, canvas deck) 29 Great Whyte, Ramsey, Huntington, Cambs PE17 1EZ, England 0487-813777 (Sold to Ottersports)(in 78 Canoe Magazine's Buyer's Guide address listed is: 23 Great White)(Canadian address:W. Royalty Ind. Park, Charlottetown, P.I.E. C1E 1B0) You didn't give its dimensions but it is likely to be one of these models or a predecessor. The info on the following two kayaks is extracted mostly from the 1978 Canoe Magazine's Buyer's Guide: Kestral (17-0) (wood frame, PVC skin)(double) 32" wide, 108" by 23" cockpit opening Family "K" (20-0) (wood frame, PVC skin)(double or triple) 36" wide, 170" by 24" cockpit opening. Alan Byde says in ASKC#64 Nov 87 (Anglesey Sea Kayak Club Newsletter--I think, not sure of the spelling) that they were originally "Folbot", and that in 1932 Fridel Meyer of Germany paddled a Folbot from Bravaria to London. FOLBOT FOLDING BOATS LTD:(1933) 21 Hatfield St., London EC, England (Spr98C&KHA#25--built Folboat folding "canoes" and Kingfisher rigid "canoes" in the 1930's)(I suspect this company is somehow connected to Folbot Inc. (see below) but don't no how. Maybe one of the Folding kayak gurus named Ralph on this list can straighten me out about the origins or why the names are similar. FOLBOT INC:Phil Cotton (1933)(only folding kayaks--kits are now at Bryant B. W.) 4209 Pace. St., Charlestown, SC 29405 (was?also? P.O.Box 70877, Stark Ind. Park, Charlestown, SC 29415)(12/95SKad-(800)533-5099, 12/95SK-(800)528-9592, 99-01CBG-(843)744-3483, fax:(803)744-7783, 98rec.boats FAQ--(800)744-3483 folbot1_at_aol.com www.folbot.com Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Matt Broze wrote: > GRANTA BOATS LTD:(all wood frame, canvas deck) 29 Great Whyte, Ramsey, > Huntington, Cambs PE17 1EZ, England 0487-813777 (Sold to Ottersports)(in > 78 Canoe Magazine's Buyer's Guide address listed is: 23 Great > White)(Canadian address:W. Royalty Ind. Park, Charlottetown, P.I.E. C1E 1B0) > > You didn't give its dimensions but it is likely to be one of these models or > a predecessor. I really am not up on the Granta folding kayaks as the make died long before I came on the paddling scene. (They also made kit boats.) Britain had a meaningful folding kayak industry prior to WW II. These boats were used by the Special Boat Service clandestine operators in various missions against the Germans and the Japanese. It started life under the name Special Folboat service but that name was changed as it gave away too much of what it was all about. The Germans for some reason did not want to export Kleppers to the British during the war and so local folding kayaks were used. > Alan Byde says in ASKC#64 Nov 87 (Anglesey Sea Kayak Club Newsletter--I > think, not sure of the spelling) that they were originally "Folbot", and > that in 1932 Fridel Meyer of Germany paddled a Folbot from Bravaria to > London. She also won some race against all comers circumnavigating Great Britain or most of a circumnavigation anyway. > > FOLBOT FOLDING BOATS LTD:(1933) 21 Hatfield St., London EC, England > (Spr98C&KHA#25--built Folboat folding "canoes" and Kingfisher rigid "canoes" > in the 1930's)(I suspect this company is somehow connected to Folbot Inc. > (see below) but don't no how. Maybe one of the Folding kayak gurus named > Ralph on this list can straighten me out about the origins or why the names > are similar. The other Ralph (Hoehn) probably is better plugged in since he reads German better than I do and most folding kayak literature is in that tongue. Perhaps he has the answer to why the Gerrmans would not export Kleppers to the Brits during the war. > > FOLBOT INC:Phil Cotton (1933)(only folding kayaks--kits are now at Bryant B. > W.) 4209 Pace. St., Charlestown, SC 29405 (was?also? P.O.Box 70877, Stark > Ind. Park, Charlestown, SC 29415)(12/95SKad-(800)533-5099, > 12/95SK-(800)528-9592, 99-01CBG-(843)744-3483, fax:(803)744-7783, > 98rec.boats FAQ--(800)744-3483 folbot1_at_aol.com www.folbot.com Same company. It was started by Jack Kissner, a German who I believe had worked at the Klepper factory and moved to London in the early 1930s to found the Folboat Company. I have a catalog or pages from one from around 1934, I think (I would have to check my archives). The company moved to New York City around 1938. It moved to Charleston, South Carolina in the 1950s. Kissner ran the company all that time until his death in the early 1980s. He was eccentric but then, again, most of us folding kayakers are. You havta be with our boats! ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> > and > > that in 1932 Fridel Meyer of Germany paddled a Folbot from Bravaria to > > London. > >She also won some race against all comers circumnavigating Great Britain or >most of a circumnavigation anyway. A full article about her in Sea Kayaker magazine a few years back. The "race" was against an Englishman who paddled just a little further north up the east coast of Britain than her before he too gave up. She paddled along the south coast the next year before giving up. I don't think carrying the dog helped much. Alex . . Alex (Sandy) Ferguson Chemistry Department University of Canterbury New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
I'm waiting for some more detailed information on Friedel Meyer that might be forthcoming from the other side of the pond. Jack Kissner actually started Folbot in Germany, already before his move to the UK. See: www.Folbot.com. Phil Cotton has an historical overview on the website. Granta, Tyne and a couple of other folding boat builders were reasonably healthy in the UK well into the sixties, although it appears that they eeked out the latter part of their existence by reducing costs to the buyer by selling boats in kit form (thus avoiding having to charge a good part of the labor). What did in some of these marvelous old companies was the advent of cheap outboard motors on cheap plastic hulls (rather than "cheap" fiber glass kayaks, as is often believed), which made "water sports with the family" much more convenient and comfortable (though a little less sporty?!?). In fact paddling on the whole only survived because of the emergence of cheaper plastic kayaks. This in turn has allowed a modern renaissance of folding boats (which the other Ralph has been documenting for the last decade of its growth on this continent). As to why the Krauts would not have sold folding kayaks to the Tommies in WW II, I have no idea. Hey, they sold "equipment" to Iraq, Iran, Libya ... T34s (Russian tanks of WW II) were propelled by adapted aluminium aircraft engines made by Maybach (Germany!!) ... perhaps if more Brits had learnt to read the assembly instructions in German there might have been a market ... it worked in the USA, where at one point the German speaking population was almost as large as the English speaking part (ent ve are not too far behint zese dayss!!). The Other Ralph Ralph_at_PouchBoats.com www.PouchBoats.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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