Kapten Boat Collar

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  • 2019

  • Product
    Automotive and Transport

Designed By:

  • Patrick Xavier Jones

Commissioned By:

Patrick Xavier Jones

Designed In:

Australia

Kapten Boat Collars make small boats safer by increasing buoyancy, improving handling and performance, and boosting stability. The foam flotation device is attached to the outside of small vessels, at chine level, from stern to bow. The unique reverse-chine shape improves overall performance, thus enhancing many aspects of water safety.


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  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT
  • MORE
  • Small dinghies are notoriously unstable. They frequently tip crew out, capsize and/or sink, causing fatalities that should be avoidable in the 21st century. Our aim was to design a product that would increase stability and add life-saving buoyancy and flotation so the boat can be used as a life-raft if needed. We attached flotation to the external perimeter (safest place for buoyancy and maximum stability affect) but we shaped the foam with hydrodynamics in mind to create a reverse-chine for added performance underway. The results were well and truly exceptional, and exceeded our expectations well beyond our highest hopes.

  • Years of research and development with hydrofoils established the desire for better boat performance, so we shaped the Boat Collars to have a down-angle on each edge, which when fitted to a mono-hull boat, creates wide reverse chine the whole length of the boat. Installing the Collar, in a way that could cope with a huge amount of pressure underneath, proved a huge challenge. However, we perfected the fitting of the Collar by creating a product system using layered foam lengths and aluminium plates and screws. The product can be fitted to a huge range of boats successfully now.

  • Socially, the Boat Collars make fishing more pleasurable for many people, especially those with children, or who suffer from disabilities like bad backs, knees, inner-ear balance etc. not only from the increased stability, but also due to the softer ride through harsh chop. Commercially, we help commercial and government agents achieve level flotation (required for survey) quickly, easily and more economically than conventional methods. Environmentally, the Collars reduce the amount of wake a boat produces, reducing impact on fragile estuary banks etc. The amount of fuel required is reduced in many cases, too, leading to less fuel emissions.

  • Unlike other stability products that are fitted to the rear section of the boats, often out of water, ours are fitted low in the water, all the way from stern to bow, transforming the existing hull shape of the boat, and following the boats natural shape and curves. This is so there's minimal risk of flipping the boat at high speeds or in a turn, and the reverse chine at the bow not only captures and turns spray down, creating a huge amount of lift, but also helps prevent nose-diving and anti-broaching when overtaking swells and wash. Ours are non-absorbent, quality marine foam and work constantly when underway. The performance after a Collar is fitted is often described as 'a whole different boat'. The installation is straight forward for the average home handyman, so they're boxed and sent all over Australia, and have been exported to New Zealand, USA, UK, Canada, Dubai, and several South Pacific Islands. Nth America constantly request information on a stockist or distributors, as the Kapten Boat Collar is the only reverse-chine flotation system available, world-wide! The product is made exclusively for its purpose and has an approved Australian Patented Design Number #2010201449.