Discover Boats

You are able to see the earliest Inflatable Boats in carving done in ancient times. These early versions used animal skins and were blown up by mouth. Several people though there early drawings of inflatable boats were scuba equipment. While that would be amazing itself, they were in fact Inflatable Rafts for 1 person.

The 1st Duke of Wellington in 1939, Arthur Wellesley had tested the development of the Inflatable Pontoon Boat during his term as the Leader of the House of Lords. Then in the early 1900s due to technology advances in the manufacturing process of rubber, it was then possible to make the Inflatable Raft from rubber. Obviously during this time period, the Inflatable Boats were not mechanically propelled, so the only way to navigate these Inflatable Rafts was to paddle. Due to inherent flaws in the rubber manufacturing process the Inflatable Boats tended to split at the seams.

With the 1912 loss of the RMS Titanic and then the World War I losses of war ships to torpedoes launched by submarines, inflatable boats for use as life rafts was obvious. The most prominent cause of the loss of life on the Titanic was the lack of lifeboats. There was such a shortage of life rafts that no more than 50% of the passengers could have been saved if each one had been used to its capacity.

This disaster was shortly there after created the initial SOLAS treaty to avoid such catastrophes again. The main premise of the SOLAS treaty was to ensure that there were adequate numbers of lifeboats aboard all vessels so that every person had a space on a life boat in the event of an emergency. [http://www.imo.org/Conventions/contents.asp?topic_id=257&doc_id=647]

Cargo ships did not have a difficulty in meeting the new standards at the time as they did not carry many hands on these vessels; however War Ships and Passenger Liners had a very difficult task at hand. For the Passenger Liners to accommodate this had to stack the lifeboats where ever they could in order to meet the new requirements.

The rubber giant Goodyear had developed a new manufacturing process for Inflatable Boats due to their R&D between WW1 and WW2. These Inflatables were predominantly Life Rafts made in a square shape using rubber cylinders with a hard floor. Since they were Lift Boats, these were stacked more easily on the decks of the War Ship and Passenger Ships. Though there were much better that the previous design, public conception held the mass production of these watercraft up and they never gained acceptance in the general public’s eye.

A man named Pierre Debroutelle designed a new version of the Inflatable Boat in 1937. This model was the premier model with the now traditional U-Shaped inflatable tube. His design was so innovative that it was the first Inflatable Boat to be certified by the French Navy. Subsequently, a wooden transom was created and then patented in 1943. On modern Inflatable Boats, you will be able to distinguish the commonalities between the 1937 model and today’s model.

As with many things, World War II changed the need for and thereby the industry on Inflatable Boats. Submarine attacks in the Battlefield of the Atlantic created escalated numbers of casualties among merchant ships as well as the many warships.

It was at this point that the US warships really started to use rubber life rafts. With the further advances in the rubber processing and manufacturing process over the last 35 years, the Inflatable Boat was accepted and here to stay, and now it was shaped like a boat.

Now is the Inflatable Boats day to shine as it is no longer only a utilitarian war and rescue watercraft, it is now an economical option with can go many places that other boats can not including the trunk of your car. Inflatables are a smart option for anyone, and if the cost of boat ownership have held you back from having a conventional boat, Inflatables are an affordable option.