Goodbye Cruiser, Hello SIB(ers)

[Jung at Heart]

What a fantastic forum this is, there is so much information and encouragement available, it's got me to where I would like to buy a SIB.

I've just sold my cruiser after 5 years on the river, it was enjoyable to own although rather pedestrian, expensive to run and restrictive as I didn't have a trailer and it takes ages to get anywhere on the river.

I'm convinced that a SIB is what I need as my next boat! I like the idea of no annual mooring fee, storing it at home and transporting it in the back of my camper, being able to inflate it and deflate the SIB rather quickly with an electric pump, getting my youngest kids involved and hopefully sparking their interest in boating etc.

Thanks in advance for all of the time people have spent posting informative thoughts that will be useful over the next few weeks, months and hopefully years of my relationship with a SIB.

[Fenlander]

Welcome to the forum "Jung".

I started on river cruisers as a 4yr old toddler... not quite crew but keen. This moved onto a couple of decades crewing for family on the sea with mixed sizes 17ft to 50ft+. Then back to (mostly) the rivers again for a period before starting to get back to sea with smallcraft and then the past 12yrs sibbing.

For me the downsides of using a river cruiser and your hoped for upsides of using a SIB are exactly what we have experienced.

So nip over to the Inflatables section of the forum and tell us what you're thinking of getting.

[Jung at Heart]

Thank you Fenlander, I'm just off the phone having ordered my SIB and will post details now on the Inflatables section!