What types of boat are, or were built out of fabric stretched over a skeleton structure?

Question

I just saw BMW's concept car "Gina" today, a car whose body panels are made entirely out of fabric, like an umbrella.

What an amazing idea that is, and I am beginning to think that this would be one sweet way to build boats, too.

And I am sure someone must have done this before - I darkly remember Eskimo kayaks being built from whale bones and seal skin, if I remember correctly, isn't that right?

What other types of boat were built from fabric draped over a skeletal support structure, do you know of any?

Answer 1

look up coracles

Answer 2

Skin boats are among the oldest type of boat - dating back to the neolithic period, perhaps longer. A skin boat is simply a frame and a covering. Wood was the obvious frame material for thousands of years but aluminum tubing is some modern builder's first choice now. (What about bamboo, or PVC pipe?) The original covering was animal skin, but canvas has been used a long time, and synthetic fabrics play an important part in the current skin boat revival. Skin boats resist generalization. A klepper, an Aleut iqyaq - also called the baidarka - an Irish Curragh, a Welsh corracle, a Dyson aluminum framed boat, and any type of umiak are all valid examples of skin boats.

Skin kayaks have a distinctly "live" feel on the water, especially if the frame has been built with flexibility in mind. Such boats are responsive in ways that their hardshelled counterparts are not, especially in absorbing wave action.This flexibility is not inherent for all skin boats, but must come from how the frame members are sized and joined. This is one of the most talked about and least completly understood aspects of skin boats, one that can provide the interested builder with a lifetime worth of R&D.

http://cronus.rockisland.com/~kyak/sbfaq...

Answer 3

Penn yann Swift was made that way back in the 50,s great little boat.

Answer 4

When I was a kid back in the 1950's, we would build a canoe framework and staples canvas to the wood.  Then by painting the canvas with an oil base paint, it would seal the canvas and instantly you had a light weight boat.  Used it for many seasons.  If boat started to leak, time for a new paint job.

Answer 5

That was I thought, canus or some smaller boats are made this way. On the other hand, the safety in a car like this isn't very good, isn't it?

Franky

Answer 6

Canoes and kayaks use this form of construction.

Think the Old Town canoes from way back.

And you are right Eskimo kayaks are a perfect example of this.

Answer 7

Well, Tahini, this kind of boat is built by a company in my home-town.

Very famous: http://www.klepper.com/en/faltboote.php

My father bought one in the 60's and it's still floating ;-)