The RIB market is teeming with many manufacturers, all of whom have their own personal view on design and construction philosophy and who all try to provide answers to a growing and demanding public. This RIB market is surprisingly vast and highly specialised and its potential is astounding.
Not long ago, they were essentially entry level craft to boating, due to modest purchase and maintenance costs and their high versatility. Today these features are still relevant to some extent, but customers, over the years, have learned to appreciate other characteristics and advantages which are not that obvious, and which have encouraged RIB manufactures to cater more and more for their customers' needs with more efficient, performing and elegant boats.
One can easily say, without being contradicted, that none or very few sectors of the boat industry have seen such radical changes over the past 15-20 years, in terms of design and construction methods, as RIBs.
What was once a simple and economical boat for fishing or a handy tender to medium sized yachts, has evolved into a multiple-role craft which is just as suitable for pleasure boating as it is for heavy duty work roles or military applications or as a maxi tender to yachts that just get bigger and bigger.
Safety above all. What could ever be as important as safety, when it comes to going out to sea on a boat?
The very nature of a RIB, with multiple air-compartment tubes, is to preserve its buoyancy even in the event of multiple punctures on one or more air compartments due to impacts or to keep the boat afloat, with the hull breached and the deck swamped by water.
Who can honestly say that they've ever seen a RIB sink? The tube moreover is an inbuilt safety mechanism which is all but delicate and prone to failure and the development of more robust tube fabrics has made failure or ruptures a rare event, giving a well built tube, if correctly used and looked after, a life span in excess of 15 years. Not to mention that the RIB's versatility is also in the fact that the tube can be replaced, turning it into a brand new boat, providing fibreglass structures are intact.
Compared to any traditional fibre glass boat of the same length, a good RIB will handle better... period.
Similar in its basic concept to a trimaran, its low centre of gravity, the aid given by the tube with its buoyancy reserve and a stable and high performance hull, designed specifically for use on a RIB, make these boats not only simple and fun to use, but stable, comfortable and highly manoeuvrable even in rough seas. It's not just by chance in fact (also because of the safety issues mentioned above) that RIBs are popular boats among Coast Guards, maritime and customs police, port authorities and port pilots and military corps worldwide. This should make customers reflect on the advantages that they too will experience when purchasing and using a RIB.
Going out for a trip on your boat has to be simple and quick, especially when you haven't that much time. This is yet another advantage of a RIB, in particular of those equipped with outboard motors. One could say that with a RIB you just turn the key and you're off. If this is important for a keen pleasure boater, with just a little time on his hands for boating every now and then, it's needless to say how this practicality is of the essence in work roles. Whether it's a maxi tender, passenger boat or diving boat, ease of use and rapid deployment on a RIB are undeniable assets. Even a fairly large RIB (10-13 metres) can be easily manoeuvred, moored and used in general by just one person, with sufficient boating skills. Last of all, perhaps because it seems so obvious, even a clumsy driver with little boating experience can move about ports, alongside other craft and moor with ease, being sure any awkward manoeuvres will not cause damage to his RIB or other boats, thanks to the tube.
Among the vast array of RIBs available on the market, what distinguishes Sea Water? The answer, we believe, cannot be given through words alone; one has to see a Sea Water RIB up close and try one to understand what we think is essential on a boat and what is important to customers:
These fundamental features, that mark a good RIB, are achieved primarily through the use of only the highest quality materials, state of the art design and production instruments and methods, studied and tested over the years.
Vacuum infusion moulding, using quadriaxial fibre glass mats and vinylester resin, tubes for example are cut from fabric, bonded and assembled directly in our factory, by qualified personnel, with many years of experience on tube assembly. Safety, handling and versatility are therefore the result of good quality materials, sound designing and testing and the highly qualified craftsmanship of our men.
Deck layout has been studied and designed to provide the best possible answer to an inevitable compromise in boat design: space on deck or utility structures such as lockers, sun beds, etc. A neat design, space on deck to move around and enjoy your boat, but without having to sacrifice storage room, utility fittings or sunning areas is important.
In our Convertible series the same concept is taken a step further, allowing the customer to plan the deck layout, according to his needs.
Nowadays many RIB manufacturers tend to add fibreglass structures to the tube body of their boats, in an attempt to turn them into something different but this, on one hand, does not always improve the design of the boat, secondly, and worst of all, this nullifies the aid the tube can provide as a fender, resulting in more damage to boat, especially while mooring. Sea Water produces true Rigid Inflatable Boats.
Our boats do not give up the extraordinary advantages an inflatable tube provides, instead our whole design is built around the tube itself, as the natural silhouette of the entire craft, giving it an innovative and aggressive look, and an elegant, exclusive and modern distinctiveness, but with the look of a true RIB and not something else.
Once again one of the virtues of our design is versatility: a Convertible 320 or 410 can be an elegant and sporty pleasure boat or an efficient, comfortable and classy maxi tender all in one, thanks to a design philosophy whose aim is not only to impress with creativity and good looks, but to surprise with its simple but lucid technical solutions.
On our top range of models (Smeralda 320, Convertible 410 Fb and 430 EFB) the possibility of customizing your boat is almost infinite and comparable to what is more common on lager yachts, rather than RIBs. Starting with a wide variety of colour schemes, we can personalize wih one-off metallic paints for fibreglass hull and deck structures and/or deck accessories such as the steering helm, driver's seat etc; the same variety of colours and textures is available for upholstery, of the finest quality, as it is for tube colours or sun cover fabric colours, so you can create the RIB of your dreams or match your tender with your yacht's colour schemes and logos etc.
Customisation doesn't stop here though and is not only a question of looks. The standard optional accessories list is rich and varied enough, but other special accessories, designed to enhance safety, efficiency and comfort on board are available and many others are currently being designed and tested.