Wally (Yorkshire) Ltd

The History and Evolution of the Easy Wheeler Pedal Boats

Limited Company Established in 1970

1970-1977
Consultant Engineer in General and Textile machinery, plus Logistics (transport)

1976
Consultant Engineer was asked by a council officer to design a family sized pedal boat to replace their ageing large, heavy, expenisve to maintain wooden motor boats (game for anything … try anything once)….. evening at the local pub…..

…Four hours, four pints of Bass beer, four hamlet cigars, biro pen, equals….

First design of prototype of family pedal boat. Sketched out on the opened out Hamlet packet.

Propeller driven like the motor boats… size of a BMC Mini car.

1976/77
Plywood ‘plug’ for the Hull mould made in the Boss’ living room at home.

1977/78
Prototype then the beginning of PRODUCTION (commercial). Pedals/ gear box/ joystick steering

1979/80
VANDAL DAMAGE to boats when left moored to buoys on lakes overnight during the season. ASKED TO MAKE  A PEDAL BOAT THAT COULD BE WHEELED INTO BOAT SHEDS OR COMPOUNDS AT THE END OF EACH DAY….

1980 
DESIGNED A TWIN WHEELER PADDLE BOAT…. Popular with the punters…….But the back and front seat faced each other. NOT A GOOD IDEA.

1986
Redesigned CAR SHAPED self-assembly ‘KIT TYPE’  pedal boat to compete with two seater American pedal boats ‘JELLY MOULD’ that could be stacked like plastic chairs inside each other so you could get a LOT into a Shipping Container load. An ‘INSIDE OUT’ boat called a WATER BUG – which it resembled.

CUSTOMERS SAW THE NEW SHAPE AND WANTED IT ON WHEELS….

1987/88
TURNED INSIDE OUT BOATS ‘OUTSIDE IN’ …. put a  couple of stainless steel Jockey wheels at the back/ stern…. Used the size of the TWIN WHEELER PADDLE WHEEL with a larger paddle blade at the front and for the PEDALLERS A STEERING WHEEL …… AND……

1989
THE VERY FIRST ‘EASY WHEELER’ PEDAL BOAT … CAR SHAPED …. FAST, MANOEVERABLE…. SAFE ….. BUOTANCIED…. SUITABLE FOR ADDED ATTRACTIVENESS… SWANS, DUCKS etc

25 years later…
with the Easy Wheeler Design still going strong!
A real “classic” design.
Not yet beaten!