Boat Review - Amphibious Penguin 4m feat. Sarah Ell

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Hi there, I'm Sarah Ell from Boating New Zealand,
and today we're looking at an incredible piece of Kiwi ingenuity called, the Penguin.
It's an affordable amphibian, a four meter inflatable with an integrated trailer,
where the wheels lift up into the hull once you're on the water.
The project's a collaboration between longtime boatie and retired investment
banker David Gibson, and Craig Looms, and the team at
Lomocean Design. They've spent five years developing this hull shape, and coming
up with something that looks so simple, you wonder why they didn't come up with
it in a day. But there's a lot of secrets to the design that make it much more
interesting than that.
One of the most innovative features is the wheel
activation lever or "woll." But I'll hand over to the Penguin team
to explain how that works on the water.
Here we are. We're coming out, and first thing we do
is put the motor down.
And then we put the wheels up.
Using the Woll.
And then we put the safety strap on...make sure that we're all safe.
And then, final checks - we're good to go!
Right... Lets go!
Andrew Wallace has been one of the first Kiwis to get his hands on one of these
boats, so let's hear what his impressions are so far...
Hi, Gibbo - I'd just like to say
think you've done a fantastic job on the boat. It handles superbly.
So easy to get in and out of the water, and on a day like today -
It just couldn't be better, Gibbo. That was awesome! Thank you.
Oh this... This is like driving a Tesla.
The engines so quiet... The boat's so smooth...
It's awesome Gibbo... cracker job!
Happy days!
Gibson was one of the first people to own a Sealegs in New Zealand,
and this is his envisioning of a Sealegs
for the masses. A boat the family
can use, it's easy to trailer, easy to launch, easy to maneuver.
One of the major design drivers was simplicity. So Gibson didn't want any
systems that needed repairing, or be complicated to use. So it's very easy to
get the trailer drawbar in and out. To get those wheels up and down
when you're on the water.
The Penguin has a conventional fiberglass hull,
but it's beamier than a similar-sized inflatable. It also has a chassis
component, to provide structural strength, and make it tow-able on the road.
And the topside portion of the chassis creates a handy fiberglass seat for the skipper.
Much thought and testing has gone into creating a hull shape which encourages
the water flow, to jump the gaps where the wheels are recessed into the hull.
There is also additional buoyancy aft, to make the stern sit higher in the water.
Weight saving was another major design driver. All up the hull, with
it's hard wearing hypalon synthetic rubber tubes, the trailer
draw-bar and the wheels, weighs just 151 kilos. A 15 to 25 horsepower engine adds
another 38 to 48 kilos. Keeping the whole package less than 200 kilos. That means
it's easy to move around by one or two people, and easy to pull up the beach
or boat ramp.
Into the design of the trailer, and the suspension instead of having
springs or levers made of steel, has a carbon composite... lever arm.
The design team has worked with an engineering firm to make the trailer certifiable for the road.
So when you order your boat and pick it up, it's already got a warrant of fitness.
The base package comes in at $10,000 plus GST, so depending on which outboard you select,
the whole package is around $15,000 plus GST for
the boat and the integrated trailer.
Like all of the best ideas this one is simple.
Producing a family-size, easy to use, amphibious inflatable boat, at an affordable price point.
But as Jazz great, Charlie Mingus once said: "Making the simple
complicated is commonplace, making the complicated simple... awesomely simple... that's creativity."
And with the Penguin 4 meter amphibious inflatable,
Gibson, and the Lomocean design team have hit that nail right on the head.
John Eichelsheim from Boating New Zealand.
Thanks for watching.
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Boat Review - Amphibious Penguin 4m feat. Sarah Ell

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