Why we love inflatable catamarans

WHY INFLATABLE CATAMARANS?

In the world of boating, inflatable catamarans have emerged as a game-changer, offering a plethora of advantages over traditional dinghies. These innovative watercraft are revolutionizing the way enthusiasts explore the water, providing unmatched convenience, stability, and versatility. Below, we explore the numerous benefits of using an inflatable catamaran, elevating your boating experience to new heights.

Stability

Catamarans are incredibly stable with all the buoyancy on the outside of the platform. This compares to a vee-hull platform which has all the buoyancy along the centreline. This is most noticeable when climbing in and out of the dinghy. The catamaran will barely move when you step into it, when the vee-hull will feel very tippy. There are also advantages when standing up in the dinghy. Times you may want to stand up are when you are loading the dinghy or when standing up to cast out when fishing. Our True Kit catamaran platforms can also be driven in a standing position with a tiller extension. This can make for quite a comfortable steering position for many people including those with compromised backs.

Fuel Efficiency

Catamaran platforms have lower drag through the water. This makes them a great match for pairing with electric motors. With battery life being a key consideration when using electric motors like an ePropulsion Spirit of Torqeedo Travel, having a low drag platform really helps to extend the battery life.

Performance

Catamarans will typically plane with smaller outboards. Smaller outboards mean less weight and less hassle for you when moving the engines around.

Shallow Draft

Catamaran dinghies have a very shallow water mode. They are literally just a few inches of depth due to having such high buoyancy. This makes them great when approaching beaches and boat ramps.

Sits flat on the Beach

With both hull tubes sitting at the same level it means a True Kit cat will sit flat on the beach, trailer, rooftop or deck of a boat. This compares to a vee-hull which will always tip over onto one side or the other. This can make the dinghies difficult to deal with on the beach, and also means they can cause damage to your larger boat when used as a tender. Our Catamarans will always sit flat no matter where they are.

Safety

With the 2 hull tubes of the True Kit inflatable catamaran being quite wide apart, you will find the roll around much less in a seaway. This makes catamarans a much safer platform to be on when the waves get up. True Kit have tested their inflatable catamarans in surf conditions, both bow into the waves, stern to the waves, and side on to the waves. You can see this demonstration in the video below

Load Carrying

True Kit cats have great load carrying capacity for the size of the boat. This is due to the extra large tubes and also the buoyancy volume that the air deck has.

Wide Bow space

Our catamarans have wide bows which increase deck space. This is handy for loading the boats up with gear. You will also find it great for dogs who just love being up on the bow of a True Kit.

Low Wake

Due to the low drag platform, you will find that catamarans put out very little wake. While other boaties appreciate this when you are zipping around in a bay, where it is really beneficial is for use with watersports. Our True Kit catamarans have been used as support boats for rowing events, kayaking events, sailing events and swimming events. All the competitors of those watersport events really appreciate the low wake benefits.

Quiet on the water

Inflatable catamarans are great for sneaking up on fish. They don’t exhibit the same slapping water sound that you get from aluminium hulls against the water. Fish finders have proven that a True Kit inflatable will get you closer to the fish without spooking them than most other watercraft.

Lightweight

Without the need for a heavy inflatable keel, or aluminium or fibreglass vee-hull, an inflatable catamaran is typically a very lightweight platform. At True Kit we make designing lightweight structures one of our important considerations. With each detail we consider if there is a lighter way to produce the boat with the same or superior strength. Our thermo-welded seams are a great example of this. The 2-part glues that are used for seams on some inflatable boats is actually very heavy. By welding the seams, not only do you make them stronger, but you also save weight. As anyone that has ever pulled a dinghy up the beach or onto a yacht has experienced, the lighter the dinghy, the easier it is.

More portable

Our inflatable catamarans are designed with parallel tubes. This has the surprising benefit of making them easier to pack down, and more compact than an equivalent sized vee-hull inflatable boat.

Easy Access from the water (Discovery)

Have you ever tried to climb into an inflatable boat from the water? Those benefits of all the buoyancy from the tubes is suddenly working against you! It is incredibly hard to push the tubes into the water due to the volume (normally a good attribute!). However, with out inflatable catamarans (the Discovery model) and their open bow design, you will be able to get that bow close to the water and slide onboard. This is great for divers, kids, dogs and pretty much anyone who loves to swim from their dinghy.

Great to row

Catamarans also have the surprising benefit of being quite good to row. With stability and low-drag comes a nice platform to leave the engine on shore and dip those oars into the water!