GOAT: Humber Rib, tougher than an anvil!

People buy boats for all kinds of reasons, the sense of adventure, fishing, holidays, watersports and son on. When you need a boat for commercial purposes, a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) is often chosen, when you need one that is harder than a coffin nail, you buy a Humber RIB.

So what is so special about these boats?

Well, at first glance not much, a fibreglass hull, Hypalon collar all around, jockey console, simple helm and an outboard engine, just like many other RIBs, for starters, Humber build their boats on the river Hull, this connects to the river Humber which leads to one of the most notorious water masses on planet earth, the North Sea. I picture the factory testing their boats there and imagine the boats looking out to sea and shouting "come and try it if you think your hard enough!".

For a long time we used a Humber as a commercial boat in a sea school, apart from using it to teach students it was used for towing, diving, was jumped onto, jumped off of and generally not treated with the usual care and attention. Many times I found myself with my equally deranged brother the only people out at sea in weather that no sane person would navigate in, the humble Humber always came through, there was never any doubt, I imagined it thinking "just five more minutes please". Could it have been youthful exuberance and the surefire knowledge we had been granted immortality or, knowing that the Humber would get us back? 

Boots on the sea

There is a very well known brand of footwear called Dr Martens, they are known for making no nonsense leather boots and shoes, impervious to almost everything, petrol, diesel, acids, alkalis, you get the idea, over the years they have become trendy, going from work boots and indestructible footwear to upmarket, but, fundamentally they are still a tough item, no matter what colour or pattern you print on them, that is in essence what the Humber is, you can jazz it up, different coloured hull and collar combinations, different consoles, seats, lockers, electronics and for some applications, such as megayacht tenders and chase boats, that is appropriate, but, underneath, it is still fundamentally an anvil of a boat, capable of taking far more than most and still come back for more.

Final thought

I do not get emotional about boats, take the memories good and bad and move on, when the Humber went, I admit to feeling a tinge of sadness, like when you reach the end of a great book, a chapter closed. I hope wherever it is, its doing well and, I hope its new owners realize just how special it is.

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