Rigid-hulled inflatable

A rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) or rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a solid, shaped hull and flexible tubes at the gunwale. The design is stable and seaworthy. The inflatable collar allows the vessel to maintain buoyancy if a large quantity of water is shipped aboard due to bad sea conditions. The RIB is a development of the inflatable boat.

Uses include work boats (supporting shore facilities or larger ships) in trades that operate on the water, military craft, where they are used in patrol roles and to transport troops between vessels or ashore, and lifeboats.

The combination of rigid hull and large inflatable buoyancy tubes was initially conceived by a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) team working under Inspector of Lifeboats Dag Pike in 1964 as a means of reducing the wear and tear of the fabric bottoms of the existing inflatable inshore lifeboats. Although working versions were built, the plywood rigid hulls were not strong enough and broke up in waves. Development was being simultaneously undertaken by students and staff at Atlantic College in South Wales, where the rigid section was formed as a deep vee hull to add strength and which worked. The Atlantic College RIB's were developed to be an effective rescue craft for the college's fleet of sailing boats on the often perilous Bristol Channel, and the college had become an Inshore Lifeboat Station for the RNLI in 1963, carrying out countless rescues over the next 50 years. The first commercial RIB was introduced in 1967 by Tony and Edward Lee-Elliott of Flatacraft, and patented by Admiral Desmond Hoare in 1969 after research and development at Atlantic College.

In 1964, Rear-Admiral Hoare and his students at Atlantic College replaced the torn bottom of their 12-foot-long (3.7 m) sailing activity rescue inflatable boat with a plywood sheet glued to the inflatable tubes. This proved a successful modification but was rather uncomfortable at speed offshore, and so the floor was rebuilt with a deep-vee bow blending to a nearly flat section stern. This boat was named Atlanta and later that year an Atlantic College RIB was displayed at the London Boat Show.

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