The Rotork Sea Truck is a flat-hulled, high-speed

watercraft Any vehicle used in or on water as well as underwater, including boats, ships, hovercraft and submarines, is a watercraft, also known as a water vessel or waterborne vessel. A watercraft usually has a propulsive capability (whether by sail, ...

, similar to a small

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. Pr ...

. Made from

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

, they may be used to land vehicles without

jetties A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

or harbour facilities. They were designed by the design team at Smallfry in the 1970s.

History

The vehicle was designed by the design team at Smallfry led by designer

Tim Fry Tim Fry (25 August 1935 – 17 May 2004), was an automotive engineer who, whilst in his twenties and working for the Coventry-based Rootes Group, designed the Hillman Imp, in conjunction with Mike Parkes. He subsequently became chief engineer at ...

and Anthony Smallhorn with input from

James Dyson Sir James Dyson (born 2 May 1947) is a British inventor, industrial designer, farmer, and billionaire entrepreneur who founded Dyson Ltd. He is best known as the inventor of the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the princip ...

while he was a student in the 1970s, as part of his final year's project at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

Jeremy Fry Jeremy Joseph Fry (19 May 1924 – 18 July 2005) was a British inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, adventurer and arts patron. Early life Born into the Fry family in Bristol, the son of Cecil Roderick Fry, who, as the last chairman of the J. ...

was co-designer, along with Dyson, who was working at Rotork at the time. Dyson used the Sea Truck as part of his final year's project at the

. It happened to be the first engineering project for James Dyson of the

Dyson Dyson may refer to: * Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson * Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson * Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon * Dyson (operating system), a Unix general-pur ...

company, as he had not even learned welding before. He and Fry built the prototype together. The craft was manufactured by Rotork Marine in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was a high-speed "flat-hulled fiberglass landing craft that could deliver cargo where no harbor or jetty was available." According to ''Wired Magazine'' and Dyson, it was described as a "Welsh dresser on water," with Dyson saying he learned not to prioritize conventional appearances with his projects, as "what it did, it did rather well." It was adopted for use by the oil and construction industries, as well as military use, and could carry three tons at 50 miles per hour. In 1973, the Sea Truck was used by the Egyptian army in the

Yom Kippur war The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...

Awards

In 1975, Dyson won the Duke of Edinburgh's Special Prize for his work on the Sea Truck. In 1979, the Sea Truck won the Design Council Award for Engineering Products, and the Series 5 Sea Truck, credited to the Rotork Marine Design team with Tim Fry and Anthony Smallhorn of Smallfry Ltd. as consulting designer won the

Prince Philip Designers Prize The Prince Philip Designers Prize is an annual design recognition given by the Chartered Society of Designers and originally awarded by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921–2021). It is the longest running design award in the United Kingdom, h ...

Versions

There were five versions of the Sea Truck. Jeremy Fry invented the original Sea Truck and the Mark 2 version. Dyson as a student was involved in the Mark 3. The Mark 5 designed under John Fry by Mike Ross and styled by Tim Fry and Anthony Smallhorn won the design award.

References

Boat types James Dyson {{boat-stub