Australia · 2026 edition
Australia's dinghy, tender & RIB buying guide.
The most comprehensive independent database of dinghies, yacht tenders, RIBs, tinnies and sailing dinghies sold in Australia. Specifications, buyer fit scores and side-by-side comparisons across every brand you will actually be quoted.
Compare the Australian market leaders
Fast start
What is your hard constraint?
Start with the thing your dinghy absolutely must do. This cuts hundreds of models to the right market in one step.
Dockside notes
Three decisions that save expensive mistakes
Short editorial calls from the patterns that repeat across the Australian market.
Gabriel's note 01
A davit rating is not an installation
Arm spacing, centre of gravity and movement at sea can matter as much as the kilograms on the sticker.
Gabriel's note 02
Trial the awkward five minutes
Board, come alongside, climb in from the water and recover the boat. A flat-water lap is not the test.
Gabriel's note 03
Price the system, not the hull
Engine, freight, cover, wheels, storage, service and resale decide the five-year cost.
Start here
Seven markets, not one
A buyer looking for a 2.5 m tender for a 34 ft sailing yacht is shopping in a completely different market from a yacht club buying a rescue RIB, or a fisherman looking for a 4 m open tinny. Start in the right one.
Market 01
Packable Yacht Tenders
Roll-up and air-floor inflatables that deflate into a locker or a foredeck bag. The default answer for monohulls without davits.
Market 02
Rigid Inflatable Yacht Tenders
Aluminium and fibreglass hulled RIBs from 2.3 to 4.7 m. The davit-hung workhorse of the cruising fleet.
Market 03
Inflatable Catamaran Tenders
Twin-tube, open-transom tenders. Huge stability and payload per kilogram, a completely different ride.
Market 04
Aluminium & Polyethylene Dinghies
Tinnies, punts, car toppers and polyethylene tenders. Hard boats that shrug off oyster racks and boat ramps.
Market 05
Sailing Dinghies
Class boats for training, junior development and racing. Buy the fleet, not the boat.
Market 06
Club, Rescue & Commercial RIBs
Coach boats, regatta support, rescue craft and marina workboats from 3.8 to 10 m+.
Market 07
Premium & Jet Yacht Tenders
Jet-drive and luxury console tenders for yachts with a garage, a crane and a crew.
The shortlists
Best of — by buyer, not by brand
Every shortlist starts from who you are and what the boat has to survive.
Buyer type
Best Dinghies for a Small Sailing Yacht
No davits, limited locker space and a foredeck that has to stay clear for the anchor.
Buyer type
Best Tenders for a Cruising Couple with Davits
Davits change everything: the tender no longer has to fold, but it does have to hang.
Buyer type
Best Dinghies for Full-Time Liveaboards
A liveaboard's tender is a car.
Buyer type
Best Tenders for a Cruising Catamaran
A cruising catamaran can generally carry a larger tender than a comparable monohull: the davits are wider, the transom steps are easier and the weight matters less.
Comparison set
Best Aluminium RIBs in Australia
Aluminium hulls dominate the Australian tender market for good reason: they save 15–30% over comparable fibreglass, they tolerate rock and coral landings that would gouge gelcoat, and they hold value.
Comparison set
Best Fibreglass RIBs in Australia
Fibreglass buys ride quality and finish.
Anchor brands
The names you will actually be quoted
41 brands are profiled in full. These are the names that come up in Australian shortlists.
France / China
Highfield
The aluminium RIB benchmark
Ukraine
BRIG
Fibreglass refinement, tender to flagship
France
Zodiac
The name that defined the category
Australia
Island Inflatables
Sydney-designed, nationally supported, sharply priced
New Zealand
Takacat
The open-transom revolution
Australia
Quintrex
The tinny that taught Australia to fish
Australia
Polycraft
The tender that will not mark your topsides
United Kingdom
RS Sailing
One supplier, the whole pathway
Australia
Performance Sailcraft Australia
The home of the ILCA in Australia
Method
The number nobody publishes
Brochure hull weight is not the number your davits care about.
Every manufacturer publishes a hull weight. Almost none publish a ready-to-use weight — hull plus outboard plus fuel plus battery plus anchor plus rode plus safety gear plus wheels plus lifting bridle.
The gap between those two numbers is routinely 60–100 kg. That is more than enough to take a tender from comfortably within your davit rating to dangerously over it, and it is the single most common reason a carefully researched purchase turns out to be the wrong boat.
So we publish both, we explain how to calculate it for any boat on this site, and we score every model against the job it is actually being bought to do rather than giving an entire manufacturer one number.
Core method
The Most Important Number: Ready-to-Use Weight
Brochure hull weight is not the number your davits care about. Here is how to calculate what you will actually be lifting — and why it changes shortlists.
Methodology
How We Rate Dinghies
Every model is rated for the job it is actually being bought to do — not given one score for the whole manufacturer. Here are the three weighting systems we use.
Sizing
What Size Tender Does Your Yacht Need?
The honest answer is smaller than you want and bigger than you can store. Here is how to resolve that.
Format
Inflatable vs Inflatable Catamaran vs Hard Dinghy
Three genuinely different answers to the same problem. Most buyers only seriously consider one of them.
Sailing
Buy the fleet, not the boat
A perfect sailing dinghy with no fleet within 300 km is a garage ornament. Thirty class pages, written around that one rule.
