Sea Truck

The Rotork Sea Truck is a flat-hulled, high-speed watercraft, similar to a small landing craft. Made from fibreglass, they may be used to land vehicles without jetties or harbour facilities. They were designed by the design team at Smallfry in the 1970s.^[1]

History

The vehicle was designed by the design team at Smallfry^[1] led by designer Tim Fry and Anthony Smallhorn with input from James Dyson while he was a student in the 1970s, as part of his final year's project at the Royal College of Art.

Jeremy Fry 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 Royal College of Art.^[2]

It happened to be the first engineering project for Dyson of the Dyson company, as he had not even learned welding before. He and Fry built the prototype together.^[3]

The craft was manufactured by Rotork Marine in Bath, England.^[4] It was a high-speed "flat-hulled fiberglass landing craft that could deliver cargo where no harbor or jetty was available."^[5]

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."^[6]

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.^[7] In 1973, the Sea Truck was used by the Egyptian army in the Yom Kippur war.^[8]

Awards

In 1975, Dyson won the Duke of Edinburgh's Special Prize for his work on the Sea Truck.^[5]

In 1979, the Sea Truck won the Design Council Award for Engineering Products,^[9][10] 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.^[11]

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.