Sailing Support Ribs

Solent Rib Charter have twenty-two years of experience in providing Ribs for sailing events, from small regattas to The America’s Cup. We have built our reputation for delivering the highest quality and most reliable Rib support. We have been appointed the official Rib suppliers to, amongst others, the Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup, SailGP, Vendee Globe, Route Du Rhum, Extreme 40 and the 2012 Olympic Games. Most of our skippers are experienced sailors themselves and know instinctively where to be, and where not to be, when on the water. We have built considerable expertise in providing Ribs for race officers, umpires, jurors, safety teams and other officials who need to be close to the racing but never in the way.

We have a number of boats insured for bareboat use. Organisers often find it convenient to recommend one firm with a good reputation, enabling overseas teams who haven’t shipped their support boats to charter high specification Ribs delivered directly to the venue. We are used to deploying wherever we are needed. Our record is Hong Kong, where we shipped two umpire boats. Other deployments include Oman, Venice, Spain, Denmark, France, Germany and Holland. We regularly send large fleets to France for the Vendee and the Route Du Rhum. Our record overseas deployment was 26 Ribs for the Volvo Ocean Race host city of Rotterdam in 2006.