You'll Soon Be Able to Hire a Picnic Boat to Sail Down the Yarra River

Melburnians will have another excuse to hit the water this summer when GoBoat splashes into town.

The Denmark-born company has been busy launching its eco-friendly picnic boats in cities all over Europe and, come January, it's set to make its Melbourne debut, giving punters a fun new way to cruise the Yarra.

Aimed at making the whole boating caper more accessible for everyday folk, the Scandinavian-designed vessels are slow-moving, a breeze to operate and don't require a boating licence, making for some fun, fuss-free sailing sessions. In a win for the planet, they also run on silent, pollution-free, electric engines, and are crafted from a mix of reclaimed timber and recycled PET bottles.

Each of the contemporary GoBoats clocks in at 18-feet long, boasting a central picnic table with room for eight people (and all the necessary snacks and booze). And despite what you might be thinking, they're even affordable enough to fit your post-holiday budget — simply BYO food and drinks, find enough eager sailors to jump aboard and a GoBoat session will cost you less than $15 per person, per hour. That's $109 hourly in total.

A fleet of four Melbourne GoBoats will be setting sail out of Docklands from early January, with six more vessels to come. Oh, and did we mention they're pet-friendly? Surely you've got a very good boy who deserves a river jaunt this summer.

GoBoat is slated to launch in January, 2019. We'll update you as soon as it has.

Images: Lean Timms.