Posted by Tom Napier on July 03, 2011 at 12:27:11 user Didymus.
In Reply to: Re: Folding Boat (semi) posted by Alex Forbes on July 03, 2011 at 11:17:47:
One advantage of a somewhat larger boat is that yours presumably has a human-accessible fore-hatch. That would allow you to poke one end of a folder in the companionway then drop down the hatch to lift it further in. The Precision's hatch is about 8" square.
My mind has been running on the light-weight composite materials that have been developed since the Handy Andy was designed. Rather than plywood, one could use balsa or foam with thin plywood, glass-fiber or carbon-composite facings. One material that is so light and rigid it is used to build satellites is two aluminum sheets with aluminum foil honey-comb glued between them. Sealing the edges might be tricky in any of these examples and all would be expensive to implement on a one-off boat. On a large scale one could use a self-hinging molded plastic shell and do without the canvas. (Sorry for the American spelling but it's become a habit.)