A novel amphibious boat

Ares reports:

This strange looking creature will be on show at Euronaval next week. It's made by a New Zealand company called Sealegs, which claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of amphibious vessels.




The company's patented (and proven) amphibious technology is based on marinised hydraulic cylinders which raise and lower all wheels (much like an aircraft) and hydraulic steering which controls both the front wheel on land and the outboard on water. They are seaworthy up to sea state 4 and in wind speeds up to Beaufort 3.




These craft come in two sizes: a 6.13 (20ft 1”) meters long RIB (rigid inflatable boat) with a maximum payload of 500 kgs (1,100 lbs), a top speed of 65 kph (40 mph) on water and which can carry two adults; and a 7.13 meter (23ft 5”) RIB with a top water speed of 78 kph (48 mph), a maximum payload of 700 kg (1,540 lbs) and which can carry eight adults. They both have a top forward and reverse land speed of 10 kph (6 mph).

There's more at the link.

Intrigued, I went to the manufacturer's Web site (from which all photographs in this article have been sourced). Sealegs claims:

Sealegs has been specifically designed and developed to take all the hassle out of the boat launching and retrieval process.

The Sealegs system consists of motorised, retractable and steerable wheels which are fitted to specially designed boats to give users a fully integrated, turn-key package.




The Sealegs system works by having powerful motorised wheels which give a user variable speed of 0-10km/h (forward and reverse) powered by an on-board 24hp Honda driven hydraulic power-pack.

A Sealegs boat can be driven from a storage location, down a boat ramp or beach and into the water - all with the occupants staying in the boat and remaining completely dry!. Once in the water, the Sealegs wheels are easily retracted into the "UP" position and are completely out of the water. The boat is then driven and used as normal. When approaching land, the Sealegs wheels are lowered into the "DOWN" position whilst still moving in the water.




It is then simply a matter of trolling towards the beach and the Sealegs powerful motorised wheels touch the bottom and drive the boat up onto land. The occupants can then disembark, totally dry and safe.




The Sealegs system utilises all submersible components and is Salt Water ready.

There's much more information at their Web site. Here's a video clip of a Sealegs boat in operation.

Now that's just plain nifty! Congratulations to the designers on a really useful piece of work. I understand the craft's not cheap, but I can see its unique qualities will make it almost indispensable for a whole range of applications. I wish they'd been available when I was serving as a volunteer with the NSRI in South Africa, many years ago . . .

Peter