Depending on where you live, you might need to cross water to get home or to your safe place in the event of a social or natural disaster. I live in the northwest, where there are two major rivers that bisect my town. Depending on the way I drive home, I may need to cross one, two or three bridges. I currently don’t have a water craft in my car kit, but I’ve thought about it.
I guess if there was a disaster, I’d hope that someone with a river boat skiff would be so kind as to ferry people across. I know that’s probably not very realistic. What stops me from buying a water craft, I guess, is the cost. Is a blow-up raft worth it if I keep it in the car and may never use it? I mean, they’re not super expensive. But a good one is also not super cheap.
I don’t know. Perhaps I’m getting closer to making an investment in some sort of water craft as an emergency device. Here’s this canoe I found…isn’t Kickstarter amazing?!
The “origami canoe” is in the pre-order stage. It’s called MyCanoe and it’s supposed to easily fold up into a small box that you can carry around or pack. The body of the canoe is made of custom polypropylene. There’s also a MyDinghy made of the same material. It has a 15-year UV treatment that is rated to 20,000 folds! I don’t know how the rate UV treatments based on folds, but that’s what the website says.
The 14-foot canoe assembles in 10 minutes, and folds back into a 37 by 25-inch box in 5 minutes. Given how many tries it takes me to fold a map, I’m just going to go ahead and double both of those times. But still, that’s pretty impressive.
MyDinghy is 9.4 feet long and 37 inches wide and weighs 52 pounds. It folds into a 37 by 8 by 25-inch box. The canoe is 14.7 feet long and 35 inches wide. It folds into a 37 by 8 by 25-inch box. The canoe also weighs 52 pounds. The canoe costs $1,400 with an $840 pre-order and the dinghy costs $1,350 from OriCanoe. The blow-up raft is starting to look a lot more affordable. But at least with this canoe, I wouldn’t be tempted to keep it in the trunk of the car and never use it!
Images from oricanoe.com