Review by Peter Harken:

I never lose a race when I'm criticizing the AC tactics going on from our powerboat. I always know what they should have done. BUT as soon as I get into a boat that has one of those smokestacks with rags on it driven by windpower, stupidity reigns!



This Aquapro Raider 900 RIB, (9 meters long or close to 30ft.) is truly an ideal powerboat, especially for sailors,heck for anyone! It has separate air compartments in the rubber pontoons as they call them in NZ, so even if punctured you have lots of spare safety flotation. The Hypalon pontoons are tough and very resistant to ultraviolet degradation from the sun's rays. Aquapro's Kiwi workers are very diligent builders, especially with the rubber pontoon manufacture which they do in house completely. Building and adding the pontoons to the fiberglass structure is a great deal of extra and careful work and that's why the extra expense of a RIB such as this, but it's worth it. They are great for landing against another boat like a big yacht or pier in rough waters or big winds because it is one big fender. In fact a RIB like this would be very hard to sink in any kind of ferocious storm or what have you out at sea, a great safety feature. Even if totally flooded or flipped it would float.

The fiberglass hull and other parts are tough as nails so you can really slam her through seas. This Raider has full standing headroom in the cabin plus I had Aquapro put in the optional enclosed head with push button electric toilet which the ladies prefer well over exposed porta-pottys. Kiwis are nuts about not being underpowered so they convinced me to put two 200hp Yamaha four strokes on her. Underpowered I am not needless to say and it is an advantage if you have 6 or more people on board and a full load of fuel which is 500 liters(over 100 gals.) and you want to accelerate from a drifting position to getting on top of the waves in seaway quickly. These new 4 strokes are unbelievably quiet and very economical on fuel usage and best they keep our waters clean from oil pollution.
Another feature why I picked this Aquapro RIB was the clearance the pontoons have above the water, about 5 inches, while standing still so they are not dragging in the back like many other RIBs. The high rough seas bow is another advantage especially when pounding through a rough sea way. The higher bow and pontoons really help to keep you much drier.

This 900 Raider can be put into a container for shipping. All you have to do is unbolt the stainless steel tubular frame with canvas roof, deflate the pontoons and it will fit, a nice advantage over any other kind of deck cargo exposed shipping.

All in all, this Aquapro RIB is great, well laid out, well made, extremely safe, easy up-keep, well worth the extra money over conventual hulls and a hoot to drive.