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Posts Tagged ‘inflatable boat’
Inflatable boating responsibilities for safe boating
posted by The Captain @ 1:52 PM
Friday, May 25, 2012
Responsible boating begins with you
With your inflatable boat, you can discover the richness of the marine environment. Help keep it beautiful.
Enjoying some time on the water is great, but it comes with some responsibility for us all to work to ensure that the world around us remains a strong healthy environment for living and play.
Please, respect your environment by applying the following basic safety rules:
- Avoid creating excessive wash
- Keep out of designated swimming areas
- Respect all animal life. Respect the laws for bag limits and practice catch and release sportsmanship.
- Use non-polluting antifouling paint and non-polluting cleaning agents.
- Don’t make unnecessary noise. Excessive noise should be avoided, particularly around launching ramps and populated areas.
- Don’t discharge oil or fuels into the water. In most areas this is illegal and in all areas it causes pollution and harms plant and animal life.
- Don’t litter. Dispose of garbage and trash properly. if there is no appropriate refuse disposal, bring back your trash.
- Don’t make excessive wake. Remember that the wake your boat trails behind can be destructive to the shore, as well as to other boaters. A boat wake crashing on the shore can cause and accelerate erosion and damage the environment.
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Zodiac’s creative genius has led it to patent a great many of its products, accessories and exclusive models. For this reason, their brand has been chosen as our demonstration unit for this section.
Hulls
- The Flat Hull
This hull usually comes with a slatted floor, making for a light, quick to set up tender. Generally reserved for boats which don’t need to plane or cover long distances.
- The V-shaped Hull
Created by combining a rigid floor with an inflatable or wood keel. This hull design helps planing. Improves navigational stability.
- The Futura Hull
Exclusive to Zodiac. Reserved for larger inflatable boats. Offers optimum handling, precision and comfort.
Floors – The floor influences total weight, time and ease of assembling
- The H2P Floor
The fully inflatable boat concept reinvented by Zodiac: the inflatable H2P air-floor is made up of two layers of fabric held together by thousands of polyester cross-stitches; when inflated to high pressure this air cushion becomes as rigid as a traditional floor, but is much lighter and takes up less space. Soft to touch the H2P air-floor absorbs bumps and resists tears.
Developed by Zodiac, the only manufacturer to master its use on large boats, the H2P is fitted to models from 2.40 m to 4.70 m.
- Roll-up Floor
If you envision a nomadic style of navigation, choose a boat where the floor can be left in place be it slats or an auto-rolling rigid floor or, the lightest and quickest of all, the H2P air-floor.
- Floorboards
If you expect to set the boat up only several times a season, the traditional floor with strengthening rails is an excellent alternative. Choose between marine plywood or aluminum, particularly resistant to shocks, or a composite floor with its inherent lightness.
Assembly
Assembly is quick and easy: just simply inflate. The whole boat fits in one bag: no lost fittings. The floor can be removed: easy maintenance.
Navigation
A light boat; easy to launch: easy to pull ashore. Smaller outboards: exceptional performance. Tenders easy to pull on board: less strain on the davits.
Decks
Two Types of Decks:
The fully equipped decks provide seating and maximize storage space, by using the area between the deck and the hull. Flat decks are for those who require free space to carry a maximum number of passengers or equipment, or for creating a customized layout.
The Hull is Fiberglass
Fitted with an inflatable buoyancy tube for added stability and safety. Particularly suited to intensive navigation on choppy water. A deep V ensures an easy ride in heavy seas. A progressive V planes quickly, even with heavy loads.
The Removable Tube System
A clever concept, for most of its semi-rigid models, the tube is equipped with a cuff that slides into a slot on the rigid hull.
To install it, slide the cuff starting from the bow into the built-in slot on each side of the rigid hull. Tightness is secured once the tube is inflated.
Entirely removable the tube can be disassembled and folded for maintenance, repair, storage and transportation.
View inflatable boat products, accessories and other innovative boat and marine products here.
Yacht Tenders
This category is ideal for first-time boat buyers, or for anyone seeking a practical all-purpose boat offering maximum safety and stability at an affordable price. The size of boats in this category range from about 6 feet up to 20 feet. There are four types of inflatable boats of distinctly different hull (or bottom) configurations available in a modern yacht tender inflatable:
The floors of these inflatable boats consist of a layer of fabric and slats (usually wood) running across the beam. They’re usually painted or stained and are about 4 inches in width. The slatted floor system is generally found in inflatables from about 6 to 8 feet in length only, where there is no need for performance. Consequently, these inflatable boats don’t tow, motor or row as well as inflatables with an inflatable keel and v-hull.
V-hull (wood or inflatable keel)
This consists of a separate longitudinal inflation tube or wood keel located beneath the floorboards. Once inflated. it provides a moderate V-keel at the bow of the boats by pushing the fabric floor down and away from the floorboards. Handling and performance is greatly improved as the keel cuts through the water cleanly. An added benefit is the extra buoyancy and flotation it provides.
High-performance hulls
Here is where you go from conventional inflatables to inflatables offering high speed coupled with excellent handling. However, this added performance can often create a false sense of security and may lead to boating accidents. These boats are recommended for more experienced boaters. An example of a performance hull would be Zodiac’s Futura model. The patented Futura hull has smaller “speed tubes” attached below the regular collar. Upon reaching plane the boat lifts up onto these speed tubes, trapping air underneath and exerting positive lift (hydrodynamic lift), leaving the boat riding on these two “speed tubes” like a racing catamaran.
Rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RIB’s)
As their name suggests, these boats feature a fiberglass rigid hull mated to an inflatable collar. This allows a conventional deep V-hull shape at the bow, flattening out to common planing sections aft. The concept marries the famous buoyancy and stability of an inflatable boat with the excellent handling characteristics of a conventional fiberglass hull. The larger boats in this range offer a wide range of console configurations, seating and other features such as built-in storage lockers, and many other features typically found on larger fiberglass vessels.
The benefits of the RIB are quickly seen in increased performance and handling, coupled with versatility, stability and passenger comfort. The smaller rigid-hulled inflatables make excellent yacht tenders for larger yachts, while the larger RIBs make perfect watersports or fishing boats, particularly because of their flotation, stability and safety. Many rescue and military agencies have recognized the seaworthiness, safety and stability of RIBs and use them in many applications. Also, many of the RIBs offer removable collars making storage, maintenance and repairs much easier and convenient.
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Initially, inflatable boats were developed for use in the navy for transporting torpedoes and other cargo as well as other applications. Over time, recreational applications evolved for the smaller boats including pleasure, tender and fishing. When the stability, flotation and seaworthiness of inflatable boats became more known, lifesaving and rescue agencies around the world began using them as tenders on their larger vessels. Today, rescue and military agencies around the world use inflatable boats, particularly RIBs, for many applications inshore and offshore. Some of the many applications of inflatable boats today include:
- Yacht tenders, pleasure boating, scuba diving, fishing and hunting, watersports
- Search and rescue, emergency lifeboats, workboat applications, personnel ferrying, drug enforcement
- Army/Navy transport, special military ops, security patrol, fisheries patrol, law enforcement
- …and many other applications.
Now, there are many new manufacturers, new models and new designs to have hit the market. Inflatable boats are no longer a little dinghy on the back of a large pleasure yacht, but can range up to 45 ft in length and longer. “Rigid” hulls of fiberglass or aluminum have evolved from the original fabric floors, luxury components and even cabins now grace the decks of many inflatable boats. Contrary to the name, inflatable boat, on some inflatable boats of today the only thing inflatable is the collar around the perimeter gunwales of the deck however, the inflatable boat lives on and becomes more popular year after year.
View inflatable boat products, accessories and other innovative boat and marine products here.