Clay Builder, co-founder of NautiBuoy Marine, ran flotillas for Neilson active holidays for several years back in the day. It was during one of those summers he told an Irish lady a joke about potatoes. “Have you always been such a Naughty Boy?” she replied. And lo and behold, the first seed was sown in creating the company as it is known today.

Now for the hard part

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What was the product? After countless seasons onboard a number of busy superyachts as Bosun, Mate, Officer and Chief Stew, Clay along with his partner-in-crime, Nina Anderson, identified a need in the market for a floating platform: not just any floating platform mind you, but one that was multifunctional, compact, quick to inflate, and had that uber-luxury feel of real teak that owners and guests would swoon over. There was no one product on the market that moonlighted as a floating beach club, a dock for water toys, and a secure maintenance platform all in one. Quick to deflate, easy to haul out at just over 40 kilos, and super compact, NautiBuoy’s platforms are also the most stable on the market.

Protyped to perfection

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The dynamic duo spent 12 more months on yachts, travelling Europe and South East Asia scoping out opportunities for development; at the end of the season, they left the yacht in Singapore to launch two prototypes onboard a 65 metre Feadship and a 40 metre Dubois. After spending a year with the products, cruising every corner of the globe, the crew of both vessels provided carefully detailed feedback allowing Nina and Clay to perfect the product, which was launched in 2012.

Award winners

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After just a year on the market and with an international DAME award for design and innovation in hand, Nautibuoy’s floating platforms started gaining strength as a standard accessory onboard busy charter yachts. Whether you tether them to the yacht or anchor them off the beach (a favourite for the kids), the team’s tenacious drive has led them to create a seemingly perfect product that delights both crew and guests alike.

The top sellers

These three designs are by far the most popular items in the Nautibuoy range, both for superyachts and smaller recreational vessels looking to expand usable space when out on the water.

The Voyager 800 Teak

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Perfect as a water sports base, this is the Aston Martin of floating platforms with the largest area available on the market of 4×2 meters. Multi-functional is the key word here as it is popular as a large leisure space for sunbathing and relaxing off the stern, and it can also be transformed into an L-Shape tender dock. This model has connection straps on every side with their unique Air Toggle System creating endless combinations (L-Shape, T-Shape, end-to-end and side-by-side). Add the luxury leisure pack to outfit the platform with luxury headrests and lounge chairs and voila!… your own private beach club at the ready.

Sport 525 Teak

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Slightly smaller than the Voyager 800, the Sports 525 Teak can be connected end to end or connected to another platform to create a custom T-Shape jet ski dock. It will also limit any damage to your transoms and jet-skis with the added benefit of providing and easy-on/easy-off dock space. Add in the maintenance pack, and there’s space for four deckhands to work on a stable secure surface on the side of the yacht when in port or at anchor, offering immediate access to the water line.

C-Dock

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Today the C-Dock offers a custom “homeport” for one of the hottest yacht toys out there in the market. “We love Seabobs, and they are hugely popular with guests. Therefore, we wanted to come up with a way to integrate them into our platforms, making them easier to use and protected in between play,” Clay told us. The C-dock eliminates the need for repetitive lifting of the Seabobs out of the water, making this a firm favourite of yacht crew. Beginners are able to practice their skills in a safe environment with instructors at a hands length. Today the drive-in/drive-out solution is compatible with the F5, F5S and the new F5SR Seabobs. (They can be used individually, connected to each other, or connected to any of the NautiBuoy platforms. A simple addition to the modular system.)

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So what’s next for NautiBuoy? Twelve top secret projects that we begged, pleaded, and bribed the team to show us – but to no avail 🙁 !

You can check out NautiBuoy’s full line of products on their website at www.nautibuoymarine.com.