SEAHOPPER KONDOR
This was the only folding boat in our test and looks for all the world like a small Mirror dinghy – her red sails doing little to discourage the comparison. She is beautifully crafted from marine ply, gleaming in the sun under her varnish. As such she is far away the most aesthetically pleasing of all the dinghies we tested. We raised concerns over the need to revarnish but were told she would sit outside happily enough in her folded state without the need for regular revarnishing for several years.
For what was the biggest and most like a sailing dinghy of all those we tested, the Seahopper was remarkably quick and uncomplicated to set up. Smaller 2m and 2.4m versions are available, but as Seahoppers don’t fold longitudinally, she was the biggest when stowed. Realisitically, you can easily see her flat packed and strapped to the bow but stowage below for most would be unlikely for all but the 2m-long Seahopper Scamp. This was her only major flaw.
SETUP
When laid out the Seahopper has more separate components than the other craft on test, but we were surprised how intuitive and easy she was to put together. Officially our set up time was 18 minutes, making her the second fastest of the group to put together. Though we are inclined to offer her joint first place in this category as she was ready to row in just five minutes, with the remainder of the time being given over to rigging up the sails, sheets, shrouds and so on.
The Seahopper was one of the three options we tested that comes with a stayed mast and headsail and this necessarily has an effect in terms of time and complexity in rigging.
Her overall weight is not much more than the others on test, most of this is in the hull, making lifting her a two-man job. During set up it is clear that everything has been well thought through and there are lots of nice little touches, like the buckles that click the thwarts into place.