With 70 percent of the Earth’s surface covered in water, it is safe to say that most places you travel to, there will be some sort of waterbody and that’s good news if you love canoeing. Well, actually it is not entirely good news because you can’t possibly lug along 16 feet of fiberglass or thermoformed or whatever it is made of, wherever you go – not unless you have the ONAK Origami Foldable Canoe. ONAK Origami Foldable Canoe is exactly what it sounds like – a canoe that folds down to a manageable size suited for traveling so that it can go wherever you go.
Developed by Belgium-based company by the same name, ONAK is made from an in-house developed patent-pending material called Honeycomb – Curv Polypropylene that has air cells within its tough hull that promotes buoyancy even when the boat is entirely flooded with water and being a solid shell, it will not face the same risks, such as tearing or puncturing, like inflatable canoes. The only trade off is, though it is travel-friendly, it is by no means compact. But that’s expected as we are talking about a canoe that stretches over 15 feet long and 2.8 feet wide (465 x 85 cm).
When compacted, ONAK folds down to nearly 88 percent (in volume) of its original size, into a 48 x 16 x 10 inches (120 x 40 x 25 cm) case complete with wheels for ease towing around. The obvious boon is, even if you are traveling around the world to meet up with the various waterbodies, you don’t need a large vehicle with special rack to transport this 27 lbs (17 kg) boat to your destination. And if you have a bigger ride, you could even pack a few ONAKs into the cargo space.
But like every other canoes, ONAK is an investment, which means it can cost as much as, if not more, any regular canoe out there. That said, you are looking at an initial outlay of €995 (US$1090) and that’s only if you back the product’s Kickstarter campaign. Delivery is expected to happen sometime in March 2017 and that’s provided the campaign meets its funding goal in the next seven days or so. Continue reading for the product pitch video to learn more.
Images courtesy of ONAK.
submitted via TIP US page.
