Small Inflatable Watercraft & Sports RIBs
The alternative to jet skis & personal watercraft
![A Grand G340 inflatable watercraft serving as a sports RIB with two passengers on board and a waterskiing passenger in the water behind them](https://grandboats.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sports-RIBs-Header-1024x576.jpg)
Find your inflatable boat:
Feel the fun, action, thrill and easy adventure of a personal watercraft in one of Grand’s small inflatable watercraft and sports RIBs, starting at 3 metres in length.
Find the best wakeboarding boat for you in our range of inflatable wakeboard RIBs, ranging from 3m – 9.5m. Whether you’re looking for a family boat for wakeboarding fun, a commercial wakeboard charter boat, or a small wakeboard RIB.
With their enhanced stability, efficiency and comfort, RIBs make excellent fishing boats. Find your inflatable fishing boat across our range of premium rigid inflatable boats here.
Designed with practicality and comfort in mind, our fleet of rigid inflatable yacht tenders and dinghies deliver a first-class ride to passengers with their modern comforts and stylish design.
Our range of commercial RIBs and inflatable charter boats serve a range of uses and work streams. Whether you’re after a large taxi boat, a diving boat, fishing charter boat, or a charter boat with a bit more luxury, find your inflatable commercial boat at Grand.
Our rigid inflatable boats combine safety, stability, practicality, comfort and style to create the best family boat for you. Stable on the water, and packed with storage capacity and modern comforts, you’ll find everything you need and more for a comfortable day out on the water with family.
Find a luxury cruiser boat for you and your family in our range of premium rigid inflatable boats. Perfect for relaxing days on the water and fitted with modern comforts and luxuries.
Rigid inflatable boats offer incredible safety, stability and practicality as dive boats. Here at Grand, you’ll find the best diving boat for you, whether for commercial or recreational diving use.
Make everyday boating more comfortable and functional than ever with our range of runabout boats and RIBs.
Make boating even easier with our range of trailerable boats. Our rigid inflatable boats from 3 – 7.5 metres are easy to tow behind a car or ute, making them a great option for everyday boating or taking away on holiday.
Small inflatable watercraft & sports RIBs - An alternative to personal watercraft
Feel the thrill of action, speed and adrenaline with our range of small inflatable watercraft and sports RIBs. A great alternative to personal watercraft and jet skis, our fleet of small inflatable watercraft provide great craft to travel around waterways, are fantastic watercraft to fish from, and provide a great sports boat to wakeboard and wake surf from. Capable of holding more passengers than a jets or personal watercraft, our small inflatable watercraft can carry a minimum of four people, helping you to share the ride more comfortably.
The Grand G340 in particular is a small but lightly inflatable watercraft and sports RIB, capable of going 25 knots comfortably with numerous passengers on board. With a ski pole at the stern, enjoy wakeboarding or wake surfing fun on the water. Plus, easily fix fishing rods to the stern too, enabling you to fish from the watercraft.
The Grand G420, a bestselling small sports RIB in the Grand fleet – also makes a great jet ski alternative, and with high engine power options, creates a fun, fast and nimble ride on the water.
All of our small inflatable watercraft are fitted with Garmin chart plotters, perfect addition for keen anglers, as well as Fusion speaker systems too, enhancing the feeling of your ride with music.
Thanks to their size, these small sports RIBs serve effectively as yacht tenders too, fitting comfortable in super yacht garages or tender storage areas, enabling you to easily transport the fun ride of a watercraft wherever you travel.
Are inflatable boats safe?
Rigid inflatable boats offer unparalleled safety thanks to their design and in many ways are safer than other conventional hard-hull boats. With inflatable tubes that enhance the boat’s stability, buoyancy, and seaworthiness, passengers can feel more comfortable at sea. Even when travelling at high speeds – which is common when using RIBs for water sports – passengers can feel safe and comfortable onboard thanks to the inflatable tubes that act as shock absorbers and relieve the impact for passengers onboard.
However, as with all boating, it is vital that passengers take care to have appropriate safety measures on board – including life vests and kill cords – to ensure that your boating experience is as safe as it can be.
Inflatable watercraft vs personal watercraft
The difference between inflatable watercraft and traditional personal watercraft comes down to a number of factors including design, materials, use and value. While personal watercraft are typically made of fibreglass or fibre reinforced plastic, inflatable watercraft such as RIBs combine hypalon or PVC tubing with a hard hull made of fibreglass or aluminium. Additionally, the simple engine configuration on a personal watercraft differs from the outboard engine set up often found on inflatable watercraft.
Jet skis or personal watercraft are typically faster than boats, however with a high power engine option, small inflatable watercraft can reach speeds of up to 35 knots – even with several passengers on board.
The wider layout of an inflatable watercraft also enables more passengers to fit onboard – whereas you can typically only have two passengers on a personal watercraft. If waterskiing or wakeboarding is a favourite pastime, you’ll be able to do this much more easily on an inflatable watercraft or sports RIB as jet skis aren’t always capable of towing.
What are inflatable boats used for?
Thanks to their stable, seaworthy and practical design, rigid inflatable boats are used across a number of different activities. Individuals use RIBs for yacht tenders (thanks to their stylish but lightweight design), as well as for recreational family boating (thanks to the spacious layout and enhanced safety and stability), and for activities such as fishing, waterskiing, wakeboarding and diving. Rigid hull inflatable boats are often used for commerical boating as well as across military and rescue too. Our D950 in particular serves well for commercial use, working well as a taxi RIB, or for fishing and diving usage.