THE TEST

SAILING

Sitting in the Seahopper feels like sitting in a proper little boat. She doesn’t have the wide buoyancy of an inflatable but felt stable.

Under sail the Seahopper was traditionally a rigger with a gunter mainsail and small jib. The wind was fading slightly when we sailed her, so she felt a little under-powered. As a direct comparison to the other boats on test she performed well, but the boat’s smalldinghy feel lead us to hope for a slightly more finessed finish and slightly better handling under sail. The fit out was fairly rudimentary in terms of sheets, cleats and fairleads. For example, the horn cleats on the mast would have been better as camcleats to prevent the jib sheets getting caught when tacking, and the cleats for the jib cleats, essential when single handed, weren’t so easy to use.

Having said that she handles predictably and sails efficiently to windward. We’d just have liked a slightly more polished sailing performance.

UNDER MOTOR

The Seahopper motors very nicely indeed. She was the fastest of all the boats under power. Again, she gave more of a sense of a sit-in tender than any others on test. Ideally we suspect that the Seahopper would want a single passenger to sit on the thwart for which an extension arm would be required to get weight far enough forward. She could carry a family of four and their bags for shipto-shore purposes at a pinch.

ROWING

As with all rigid dinghies, keeping your weight central is important, particularly when stepping down from a yacht.

Once seated centrally on the thwart and with oars deployed, however, she rows extremely well, aided by her proper wooden oars. Where all the other boats tested were inflatable and so were much trickier to row into a headwind, the Seahopper surged ahead easily. We tried rowing her with mast and rigging still attached, and though it added a little reistance, she was still remarkably easy to row.

YM VERDICT

The size of the Seahopper when folded counts against her when compared to boats which stow neatly into one or two bags. All Seahopppers are customisable to a degree on order so our few gripes when sailing could easily be rectified before or after purchase. The Seahopper is clearly a boat you might use to go further afield – perhaps exploring upstream after anchoring in a river – as well as a mere tender, where the other boats on test were more of a compromise. To our eye she is the prettiest of all those on offer and would be something to be proud of rather than merely a convenience tool.