Man combines boat and lawnmower to create amphibious 'Shortcutter'

Amateur inventor John Hinton has launched an amphibious assault on the misery of the morning rush hour - with a vehicle that can swap traffic queues for river cruises. John’s ‘Shortcutter’, made from a sit-on lawnmower and an old boat, can chug along the roads at a ‘relaxing’ 9kph (6mph), then take to the water at the first sign of a snarl-up.

Of course, with a top speed that could cause more traffic jams than it solves and a propeller that spins wildly behind it on dry land, the four-wheeler is still very much a work in progress. But Mr Hinton hopes future models could revolutionise the way we travel. The 76-year-old said: ‘In theory, you could go anywhere on it – it would be just as good as a normal car.


‘You could go and get your shopping on it or go to work in it and, if you had to cross a lake or river or even part of the sea to get there, that would be fine. If it was big enough you could probably get all the way to France, drive on to land, pick up some cheese and wine and bring it all back without leaving the boat.’ And the retired insurance broker, of Horsham in West Sussex, has even been in touch with Honda about mass production of his vehicle.

He added: ‘It’s about time the car and marine industries combined.’ Mr Hinton spent two years and £1,000 making the prototype with late friend Laurie Mayhead. Wife Pat said: ‘Everyone needs something to do when they retire. This is just one of his many projects. I was quite happy to get him out of the house, to be honest.’