Am loving this because ~ talking of circles ~ we've come full circle in boating terms.
A company in France, where they still make things, has re-introduced the long-tail outboard in electrical form. You like I will only have been aware of these from either visits to transport museums like those in Berlin or Istanbul, else while being terrified in Thailand at being driven at high-speed along the waterways of Bangkok.
Ironically, tho' it would appear more obvious to put a propeller on a stick as here, the original outboard patent filed by a Frenchman in 1880 featured an upright type; albeit chain-driven instead of requiring a gear-box to turn a perpendicular driveshaft through ninety degrees. This may have been done first by Evinrude in the US, but I can't be bothered with the due diligence.
It had to wait until 1904 before another Frenchman would devise a long-tail like that here. It would flourish however in the Far East, where it was the ideal way to repurpose scrap auto-engines, and where they would not be shut down for mincing small children.
They're asking £1200 for the extendable entry-level prop-on-a-stick and £1800 for a carbon-fibre version: each of which deliver the equivalent of 1.50 horsepower.
Product design tho' it's ever France, Italy, Japan and James Dyson in the play-offs.
Ed. Dog not included.
