THE EVOLUTION OF INFLATABLE RACING BOATS

THE EVOLUTION OF INFLATABLE RACING BOATS

Early Beginnings (1985–1986)

Humber, ZODIAC and Avon inflatables could be found doing the rounds in early days.

Back then, the boats typically had the old traditional round nose shape with a wooden transom, split wooden keel and wooden floorboards.

People began modifying them – particularly strengthening the transom – to handle wave jumping, which they loved doing around Strand, Blouberg, and Tableview beaches.

Shortly an informal club of enthusiasts formed, including competitive motor cross riders who brought another dimension to the sport with high powered outboard motors and bigger HP.

No formal association was established at that stage and enthusiasts joined the growing number of crazy power hungry competitors just for the fun of it. The sport also grew upcountry and soon there were a quite a few enthusiasts gathered around the country (If you know, please add participants, dates and area, zone).

Zodiac Futura & “Hijackers”  – This was the first design that had an inflatable keel and two speed tubes that gave the craft a catamaran effect.

 

Formal Racing Emerges 1988 to 1990

The Origins of the Trans Agulhas

Another major milestone in South African inflatable boat racing history was the start of Trans Agulhas. A group of enthusiasts looking for a challenge and big adventure met up with the late Sparks Esterhuizen, founder of See en Sand, a lifesaving organization participating mostly on the popular East Coast beaches, to initiated the idea of an extreme, multi-day offshore race along the notoriously challenging southern coastline.

With Sparks’s help and collaboration, the First Trans Agulhas took part in 1988.

• The competitors raced standard inflatables, many still with wooden keels.
• The norm was for the pilot and co-pilot to sit on the tubes, and foot straps were fitted to the floorboard to help staying in the boat in gruelling sea conditions.
• Falling out of the boat was common, and rescue efforts were part of the excitement (and risk).

Despite the hardships – and numerous wipeouts – these early Trans Agulhas events captured the public’s imagination and cemented our love for pushing these boats to their limits in rough ocean conditions.

At that stage springbok rugby player Rob Louw was introduced to the sport via his brothers in law Billy Cooper and Simon Patterson and started participating in the social side of racing with a boat sponsored by New Era. He loved the sport so much that in 1988 he started Robbie Duck, a manufacturing company working out of a loft of Viking Fishing in the old V&A harbour. The sport took off as Rob was an icon of SA rugby and attracted a lot of followers to the sport.

Around 1990, For Sport (tied to Honda Centre) emerged, and an actual association formed, hosting inflatable boat races across South Africa.

 

Legacy and Impact

The history of inflatable boat building in South Africa is deeply intertwined with innovation, friendly rivalry, and pure passion for adventure. Starting in the mid-1980s with a handful of wave-jumping enthusiasts, the sport saw:

• Technical Developments: Reinforced transoms, solid oak keels, outboard “hijackers,” inflatable floors, and more.
• Local Entrepreneurs: Companies like IBC/Gemini, New Era, For Sport, and Robbie Duck each contributed unique designs and competition strategies.
• Competitive Spirit: Events in rivers, dams, and ocean surf spurred builders to experiment constantly, pushing performance boundaries.
• Birth of the Trans Agulhas: A grueling ocean race along South Africa’s southern coastline that tested both man and machine – and remains a legendary test of skill and perseverance.

The biggest fundamental change to the “worldwide” design as we all know it today happened in 1989/1990.

A client showed Rob from Robbie Duck a photograph from an Italian racing magazine of a racing boat that had a solid GRP transom, hull and nose cone fitted with a set of independent tubes (port and starboard).

The fundamental difference was that the port and starboard tubes ran straight with a GRP wing in place as the nose cone (pencil duck). We took one look at this and the Eureka moment hit us. We sat down with the late Lionel Jones who was our head of design and production and designed a boat that had all our innovative ideas and parts attached BUT in a “pencil duck” shape. So 2x longitudinal tubes of roughly 4m long joined at the back with our standard wooden transom and joined in the bow by a hand made wooden nose cone. We simply took a few pieces of 15mm marine ply and made a triangle shaped nose cone that we then laminated and glued with all the pieces together and fitted a new floorboard to match the new nose cone.

The late Billy Stewart fitted his race ready 50hp Yamaha and we made our way to Three Anchor Bay, a little slip way out of the public eye (so we thought). I jumped in as co-pilot and remember “shitting” in my pants as Billy Stewart only knew one speed and there was a big chop running. I had no idea where to sit and what to expect. Needless to say after 300m at full speed in that chop, we stopped and started celebrating. Speed, stability, performance in rough water, agility… and more was better than we could ever of dreamed of. We knew there and then that we had a winner. When we came back into the bay we had plenty of interested people watching. It wasn’t long after this that Gemini launched there first version of the “pencil duck”.

See the photo of the late Billy Stewart who raced the new design very successfully.

A few firsts followed the success of the modern design, namely the wash through transom.

These foundational years set the stage for the modern “rubber duck” scene. As more formal associations arose in the early 1990s, and other manufacturers copied our design. Our collective determination to improve and innovate had already created a distinctive, high-performance style of inflatable boat – uniquely South African in its ruggedness and flair for adventure.

I started MAKO in 1993 and competed in 6 Trans Agulhas events winning 2 and placing 2nd once. I was also crowned SA champ for 1992/1993 and again 1993/1994. My intent isn’t to blow smoke up my behind, but rather to justify my involvement in the winning designs of the boats. It is one thing sitting behind the desk not competing in race events, but manufacturing boats, or being the person who gets onto the water and tests your own designs and innovations.

I am VERY proud to say that I have had involvement in the modern design as we know it.

At MAKO we strive to innovate and improve and we are constantly testing new things. Nothing will ever compare to the massive innovation of the “pencil duck” as the world knows it, but we will certainly try.

A shout out to Kobus Potgieter of KND (ex NEW ERA), one of the pioneers of the sport for your valuable imput into the THE EVOLUTION OF RACING INFLATABLES.