A beautiful combination of a pleasure craft and a RIB, build by HABBEKÉ SHIPYARD, is the Little-M.
This boat has all the advantages of an aluminium RIB, but also the quality and luxury standard of modern pleasure crafts.
Completed at the Habbeke yard in Holland is one of the largest leisure RIBs ever built. Based on the hull design of the Dutch Lifeboat Association lifeboat RIB, this large RIB has been fitted out with luxury accommodation and is probably the only RIB ever to have a king sized double bed installed.
This new design has a length of 13.50m (44ft 4m) and a beam of 4.40m (14ft 9in) outside the tubes. These tubes, which were made by FLOAT in Holland, have a normal neoprene/hypalon fabric exterior combined with foam inside the air chambers.
The tubes integrate cleanly with the superstructure design which features a raised coach roof running aft and merging into the deep windscreen around the cockpit. The area inside the windscreen can be enclosed with either a canvas or a hard top cover. At the aft end is an arch mast which supports the antennae and lights and immediately below are the scalloped air intakes for the engines.
The control centre is offset to port with a hooded dash giving priority to the electronic navigation instruments, Raytheon radar and electronic chart systems, a Raytheon GPS and a Robertson autopilot. The VHF is a Shipmate unit. The engine and jet controls are Hamilton units and the engine instrument panels are each side of the wheel. Twin captain’s chairs face the dash.