n/a

Current boat name

n/a

Boat class

6915

Function

Military

Type

Length (m / ft)

5.48 / 18ft

Beam (m / ft)

1.4 / 4ft 7in

Propulsion

Paddle/sail

Designer

Warwick Aviation

Design date

1944

Date of build

1945c

Present use

Sailing

This privately owned craft was purchased from ex-service stock in 1946/7. Assembled on the GWR station at Kingswear, Devon, it was paddled away on the River Dart. It was used for about 25 years in Devon and then on River Wye. Later it returned to west country where it is still in use. Built as a Mk 7 military canoe by Warwick Avation 1945c the Mark 7 was developed in 1944 from existing wooden sectional canoes. Expertise from the aircraft industry was use to design and build a similar craft from light alloy in response to the need for a more robust canoe for use in tropical conditions for use against the Japanese in the Far East.The prototype was demonstrated at Hayling Island in August 1944 and by October a second prototype had been built and shipped to Sri Lanka for tropical trials. The trials were successful and 200 Mark 7's were ordered for service in the Far East. Some of these craft were used operationally before the end of the war in 1945. March 2009