We have all done it, had those chats with a group of mates about something that should be created to fix a problem we want solving. The big idea for the thing that someone should make or that maybe one day you will find time to figure out yourself and be the one to bring to market. For Will Watt it was a way to transport his gear while swimming. “I am not talking about an extralarge tow-float,” says Will. “That’s not big enough. I wanted something to transport two days’ worth of kit and with really comfortable floating.”
Back in 1996 Will and his brother were on holiday in Greece. They were on an homage to The Big Blue, visiting locations from the film. “We were on Amorgos and there was this great beach across the water from where we were,” says Will. “It was five miles by foot, but if we could swim across, it would be quicker and more fun, but we needed something to tow our kit. That’s when I had the idea. I thought… someone should invent that.” Will spent twenty years mentioning it to mates, one who is now an investor in his product, the Ruckraft. A simple, two-piece kit that transforms any rucksack, of any size, into a raft you can tow across a tarn, lake, river or bay. “My mate Paul was a lifeguard on Hampstead Heath when I was at college, I mentioned it to him as an idea all those years ago,” says Will. “He kept telling me to shut-up and wait for someone to invent it. Twenty years later I said to him, no one has done it Paul and so he agreed – I should have a go at it!”