I grew up in a ‘canoeing family’ in the 1980s, and my parents explored the rivers around the Sydney Basin with us kids in tow. When I got my car licence my friends and I continued to camp and fish in our canoes and ex[lore different river systems.

A few years ago my wife and I decided to buy a boat to take advantage of the beautiful waterways that surround us here in Forster NSW. We didn’t have any room to park a trailer boat so we decided to purchase a small car-topper. I loved the simplicity of use that came with the canoes that I grew up with; lift them onto your car roof racks, strap them down, pack a few incidentals and you were on your way. I was hoping to buy a lightweight car-topper boat with a small motor to have a person portable set up that was almost as easy to use as our canoes. Unfortunately, what we discovered was a world full of boats that were too wide for our sedan, too heavy for our allowable roof load, too heavy for me to handle by myself and hence required aftermarket roof loading systems. I looked around at what boats people were putting on their vehicles and the lengths that they went to to get them up there and get them back down again and thought that there must be a better way than this. Fortunately for me I had been interested in the latest canoe construction techniques in North America that were producing canoes and kayaks that were half the weight of the boats that I had grown up with. I am also an engineering draughtsperson by profession with over 30 years’ experience. I said to my wife that I thought that I could design and build my own boat that would suit our needs.

I bought the Australian standard for small craft and set about designing and building the boat that we wanted but nobody was selling. That first boat had a radical long, slender, semi displacement hull. It rode super softly, sipped fuel and cruised with two adults at around 17 kilometres per hour powered by a 5 horsepower outboard. It fulfilled nearly all my design parameters and I was very happy with it. Unfortunately, the build turned out a 72 kilogram boat which I couldn’t handle by myself and the hull was not as stable as it could have been due to its very narrow beam. Whilst this was all going on I was busily talking to every traveller with a boat on their roof that I could find. Almost without exception they said the same thing. They loved having the boat on their adventure, but they didn’t use it unless they were staying in the one location for a week or so due to the effort required to get it from roof to water and back to the roof again.

At this stage I looked at the shortcomings of the car toppers available on the market, the shortcomings of my own boat that I had built and saw an opportunity to build the boat that I wanted personally, and I thought might fill a gap in the market. I redesigned my boat to be shorter and wider then I had a professional boat designer and engineer design it to be built using resin infusion and foam core composite construction. The design was tendered, a manufacturer chosen and a prototype boat produced for testing. After testing a few minor changes were made and here we are with a revolutionary new boat that to my mind is going to fit the requirements of so many people. I hope it is the boat that you have been looking for but unable to find. If you buy one, then I hope it brings you as much satisfaction and happiness as this journey has brought me so far.