Table of Contents
Introduction
RIBs ONLY member Mårten Danielsson from Sweden contributes with the history of the now dissolved Scandinavian Inflatable boat Club which was active between the years 1988-2004.
He also translated previous articles that are interesting historically or other RIB stuff that is constantly current for which I’m very grateful. I am convinced that this is a really good idea to “secure” all this knowledge and hope you enjoy it too. The floor is yours, Mårten!
A little history about the Scandinavian Inflatable boat Club …
1. The club
A joint inflatable boat club for Sweden, Denmark and Norway had come to stay, and that it was a completely independent association, which really worked seriously to raise interest in the inflatable boat.
The club was founded in 1988 by Fred Lundberg in Sweden and was then called the Swedish Rubber Boat Club (see photo above).
The reason was largely the problem of getting good product information from boat dealers about rubber boats and RIBs.
It turned out that most boat dealers had little or no knowledge of inflatable boats and RIBs, and then it felt important to form an interest organization to improve knowledge of and interest in this type of boat.
Because the boat magazines were kind enough to insert notices about the club’s formation, we were soon a number of members, it became Scandinavian.
After lots of work and support from some generous importers/agents, the club began to grow and in 1992 interest came from Denmark and Norway.
A meeting was arranged and the Swedish Inflatable Club was given its current name, the Scandinavian Inflatable Club.
The club’s area of work now became Sweden, Denmark and Norway membership in the Swedish Boat Union In 1994, the inflatable boat became “clean” and the club was admitted to the Swedish Boating Union, SBU, as a full member.
However, it was not without problems as SBU had never before received such a request from a club that was built like ours. The fact that the club work area extended beyond the borders of the Scandinavian countries was completely new and unique for a boat club.
2. Enormous amount of knowledge
There is still an enormous amount of knowledge in the SGK archives and the club magazines that I have tracked, and everyone can figure out who over the years found out, and compiled almost all the information and pictures that were available about Inflatables and RIB.
All credit to Fred Lundberg’s hard and solid work.
Note
Mårten Danielsson has received approval from Fred Lundberg to spread the knowledge, images and history about RIB and the ancestor – the rubber boat – on to RIBs ONLY members.
There will be several interesting articles and historical pictures and other practical and knowledge-raising content about both RIB and inflatable boats in the future.
