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Our annual Motor Boat Awards have been celebrating the best boats of the year for more than 15 years now but in all that time we’ve never found a way to recognise all the brilliant new kit that allows us to enjoy them to their fullest. Let’s face it, even the fastest sportsboat or most luxurious flybridge is pretty hopeless without a chartplotter to navigate its way to a secluded bay, an anchor to hold it there and a tender to get to the beach. And that’s before you consider the deck shoes on your feet, the sunglasses on your nose or the lifejacket around your neck. You get the point, a boat without kit is like gin without tonic – you need them both to appreciate the full effect.
The Editor’s Choice is our way of rectifying that. It represents the 50 best bits of kit that have caught the eyes of the MBY team this year. We haven’t yet had a chance to test them all but we are confident they all have the potential to enhance your boating enjoyment. We should also point out that although all the products have been chosen and written about by us (nobody can buy their way onto the list or influence what we write), we have allowed companies to enhance the size of their entry. If you like what you see you can find a more detailed review of all the products at www.mby.com.
We’re fully behind the effort-saving concept of lightweight dinghies (who wouldn’t be?) and Crewsaver has now brought out two new compact quick-to-inflate boats – one with a slatted floor, the other with an air deck – marking the company’s entry into the inflatables market.
While Crewsaver is known to boaters as a supplier of lifejackets and safety equipment, it’s actually part of something larger – namely the Survitec Group, a trusted brand with a long history of providing safety and survival solutions for the marine, defence, aviation and energy industries. Consequently, the organisation was well positioned to transfer its proven technologies and expertise into the leisure industry, making the Crewsaver inflatable range a force to be reckoned with. Designed for up to three people, the sizes on offer range from
1.85 to 2.6 metres. Key features include excellent rigidity and performance, and being lightweight they’re easy to deploy. They also fold up small, making them easy to stow, a factor that’s bound to prove attractive to many owners, especially those with smaller and mid-size boats where space is always at a premium.
The dinghies are quick to inflate and deflate by way of onetouch inflation valves. The design features a PVC laminated solid transom which can be fixed to stern davits by using integral davit eyes and a davit ring. Additional stainless-steel lifting points on the outside of the bow facilitate towing and lashing operations. Further enhancing the package, every Crewsaver inflatable boat is kitted out with a high-capacity pump, repair kit, two paddles, mooring lines, a sliding alloy seat, and a carry valise.
The range went on sale just a few months ago and Survitec tell us they received a high volume of pre-orders from their retail and distribution networks. So it appears that Crewsaver is set to make a major assault on the lightweight, compact inflatable market.