The company hopes to establish a European distributor via its presence at Seawork, as its focus is on heavy use commercial RIBs rather than leisure craft.

CPI's air collars utilise a bladder system rather than baffles, whereby each chamber has a bladder which can be removed, repaired and replaced. When a bumper application is called for, CPI's hybrid or air backed foam collars are often requested. The bladders are made of 40mm urethane film and CPI has a patent on the process by which they lock into the tube once they have been removed and repaired.

Each tube comes with a spare side and nose bladder so that a new bladder can be can be installed within some 30 minutes of being required, thus minimising down time for the workboat. Each bladder has its own air valve assembly which houses both the air fill and the pressure relief valve. It is the bladder that holds the air rather than the tube. The operator can always identify which chamber is leaking because it will be the only bladder losing air.

The outer sheath is made of 40 ounce urethane, making it extremely abrasion resistant. It is not often that an incident at sea would damage both the outside skin of the tube and the inside bladder. This is an advantage to the bladder system which makes it popular with the towage industry, the US Navy and many commercial builders in its native land.

CPI Marine will be demonstrating the process whereby a damaged RIB can be repaired at sea every morning at 11:00 on Stand S52 at Seawork 2008.