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Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: commercial boats

Whatever your business, Redbay Boats have many years experience working with the various regulatory bodies to provide safe and seaworthy craft for commercial operations the world over. Projects both in the UK and abroad have included:

  • Fishery Protection Vessels
  • Ballistically protected drug enforcement vessels
  • Coastguard rescue and patrol vessels
  • Survey vessels for both seabed and
  • environmental applications
  • Search and rescue lifeboats
  • Fire support and airport rescue vessels
  • Navy, military and police vessels
  • Small passenger ferry vessels

The Stormforce range is extensive with RIB boats from 6 to 16 metres in both open boat and weather protected formats. All hulls feature a high dead-rise (deep-V) hull form with spray rails for additional lift, drip and a dry ride. The hulls have an excellent length to beam ratio and a high bow sheer for improved sea keeping. When the superior quality GRP hull is combined with the large diameter inflatable tubes the performance, stability and safety of these boats is unrivalled.

Redbay Boats are committed to building serious commercial RIBs to meet both the demands of our customers and today's stringent regulations.

All RIB's are built in accordance with modern International Stand Organisation (ISO) regulations, required by the various regulatory bodies including the MCA and BV. These include construction (materials, workshop, control and scantlings), Systems (fuel, electrical, fire protection, bilge pumping, steering etc.) and many other specific regulations.

Redbay Boats ISO 9001 Quality Management System covers all aspects from sales, production right through to after sales and in-life support. The system was developed in-house, allowing for optimisation of our production line. Each new build undergoes strict quality management procedures, including up-to-350 point checks through the build program.
This is further reinforced through pre-delivery inspections and sea-trails.
Redbay Boats use only the Scott Bader® matched performance marine system which is fully Lloyd's approved.

"Redbay Boats aims to manufacture and deliver a Best-in-Class product to both its leisure and commercial customers. The company is committed to quality excellence, as well as providing an unrivalled customer service" Redbay Boats Quality Policy

From the formation of the company in 1977, Redbay Boats have been constructing strong, sea-worthy craft. Building on experience and knowledge from the early clinker style wooden boats production of the renowned Fastfisher fishing boats began in the 1980s. By 1993, the first Stormforce Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) was built and the RIB range quickly expanded to become one of the most well established and respected brands in the industry.

Redbay is located in the heart of the Glens of Antrim. The location has had a significant bearing on the development of the company and the boats. With the Western Isles of Scotland only 16 miles away, and Rathlin Island with its infamous tidal flows only round the corner, the ideal testing and developing grounds for any boat are on our doorstep. Not only do the boats have to be built to cope with these Atlantic conditions, but safety and comfort of the crew is of utmost importance.

Today Redbay Boats use a perfect combination of dedicated CAD packages with controlled modern construction processes to achieve products that meet the demands and expectations of our customers and ourselves. Traditional values are still evident throughout the company and knowledge is still the best design tool we have.

Redbay Boats is in a continuous cycle of developing and redeveloping the product range, to ensure that we remain at the very forefront of the industry. Many of our staff have valuable sea experience, reflected in the close association with the local RNLI station.

Redbay Boats operate from a modern 20,000 sq ft production facility in County Antrim Northern Ireland. The factory has a dedicated GRP tooling shop, moulding shop, assembly shop and stainless fabrication shop all on site.

With launching and hoisting services on site the company can accommodate all variety of commercial craft through production, re-fit and in-life support activities.

Located just 40 minutes from Belfast International Airport.

Published in RIBs

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)