My brother Dave Nicoll who was a member probably from 1996 when he built his first coracle on a Terry Kenny’s course on the weekend of the Ironbridge regatta of that year, died on Saturday 20th April after a short illness aged 85
Urban coracle
13 January 2019
I made this coracle from some plumbing materials I found in a skip. Building the frame was really pretty easy. It is made from ‘Floplast’ PVCU overflow pipe – it’s very easy to work – just heat it with a heat gun or hot water. I based the design on a willow coracle that I had.
Covering it in cling film was a bit fiddly. Once the cling film was on, I very gently heated the cling film with a heat gun to shrink it.
Initial water trials were relatively successful. However the cling film started to unstick from itself! Cling film does not stick to itself the way it used to!!
Mark two involved wrapping the cling film right round the boat and then cutting a hole in. This happily resulted in a decked coracle. This was better but it was still very fragile.
I would like to do one covered in industrial film (the sort they wrap pallets in) or shrink wrap.
If anyone has a contact in the Hertfordshire area that would let me put my coracle through their shrink wrap machine please get in touch
John Weinstock