Possibly the most influential innovation ever on water, the inflatable boat dates back almost two hundred years (and that coming from the UK unless you count hanging on to the bloated corpse of a seal). What made it the most populous form of watercraft ever, however, was the addition of a plywood floor by a headmaster in Wales with the assistance of his sea cadets.
For you just never know whether something will succeed, unless it's one of mine and then you know it won't.
This is a picture of the very first rigid-bottomed inflatable, recently restored.
