Cormorant 6m RIB
South Pacific’s Cormorant RIB is much more than a yacht club tender.
“Built by Kiwis for Southern Pacific Conditions” is the proud claim of Southern Pacific Inflatables, and with internationally-renowned sailors Richard Macalister and Dean Barker at the helm, this iconic New Zealand company certainly has the credentials to back it up.
The Cormorant range of mid-sized rigid inflatables combines the best features of two of the most popular boatbuilding technologies in this country – a rugged aluminium rigid hull for strength and performance, and an inflatable collar for comfort, stability and safety. This is the third, and biggest, of the Cormorant range and follows the successful 500 and 550 models. The brief for the design was for durability, weight reduction and a dry, stable ride with stability at rest.
Although Cormorants have proved popular as yacht club chase boats, the design is intended for all-round use, including fishing, diving and water skiing. With the alloy hull, it is capable of being launched straight off the beach or from a boat ramp – no concerns about scratching a fibreglass gel coat.
The new boat is beautifully finished, to a higher standard than a typical club work boat. The light grey and charcoal tubes are offset by a black powder-coated T-top, with black canvas sun shade, complemented by the matching black Suzuki DF100B four-stroke outboard on the back.
The manufacturing systems allows for the seamless integration of modules into the tubes themselves. So, there are a number of Railblaza Starport fittings positioned around the hull – rod holders, cleats, drink holders and all manner of other accessories. All securely fastened, and easy to move around as required.
This boat’s bow has the bowsprit beautifully melded into the hull under the bow tube, tucking the anchor securely but safely away from the occupants. There is now no risk of damage to the boat or passengers when operating the anchor winch, and there is also little risk of damaging the wharf or trailer when bringing the boat in to shore.
A stainless-steel Viper S series drum winch – tucked into the bow locker – is fitted with 60m of premium, double-braid rope and 6m of short-link chain. A reinforced strip over the bow also allows the deployment of a mooring rope or an auxiliary anchor over the bow tube, with one of those handy Railblaza cleats close by for securing it.
The large centre-console’s windscreen provides shelter for a double bench seat – based on a Iceytek chilly bin. In
front of the console unit is a second bench seat, and it doesn’t have any form of wind protection. Other seating options are also available. The powdercoated T-top provides a good amount of shade, although only limited shelter from rain or the elements, and again, other options are possible.
Everything is flush-mounted and fully waterproof at the clean, simple helm station. A 9-inch Garmin Echomap SV provides chartplotter and fishfinder functions, and the Suzuki digital gauge is a dedicated display for the outboard. With NMEA-2000 connectivity, all the engine functions can also be displayed on the Garmin.
A very elegant panel of stainless soft-touch illuminated switches from Bell Marine provide a visual display of the state of all the circuits, and these are easy to operate even with wet fingers.
A Fusion stereo, Icom VHF and the MOB+ man-overboard safety cutout system, are also installed. The large, sealed storage locker under the helm keeps gear dry.
Four rod holders are welded to a curved ski-arch protecting the engine, and a bait board fits over the unit when fishing. The new model DF100B Suzuki four-stroke outboard is right in the middle of the recommended range for this hull and it proved more than adequate for three or more adults and a range of gear on board.
As we have noted with the smaller models in the Cormorant range, it is interesting to see that the tubes fit outside the rigid hull, not on top of them as with many RIBS. This gives the boat extra internal beam, especially in the forward area, and there is plenty of space to step around either side of the centre-console.