In one week, John Tomlinson logs more seat time in offshore race boats and high-end go-pleasure boats than most people will spend in a lifetime.

by Matt Trulio

Yet when it comes to his personal boat, the world-championship-collecting throttleman and owner of TNT Custom Marine in North Miami owns an R-8 Airship from Adaptive Composites of Vermilion, Ohio.

That’s right, “JT” owns a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat).

“It’s super tough and just a lot of fun to run around in,” said Tomlinson of the center-console model. “It’s functional, you can take out a bunch of people in it and it’s just easy. I love it.”

Adaptive Composites uses hull tooling created by Cougar in England. Cougar built the Miss GEICO team rescue RIB, which was on hand during the Fort Myers, Fla, leg of our 2008 Performance Trials (see main story). The Adaptive Composites folks wanted to show us something from this side of the pond, albeit a little smaller—the R-8 measures 27 feet, 6 inches long to the Miss GEICO 32-footer—and a whole lot more stock. So they sent a standard version of the R-8 with a 250-horsepower Mercury Racing Verado outboard engine on its transom.

Stock it was, barebones it was not. The boat was loaded with stainless-steel hardware including flush-mount cleats, lifting eyes and grab handles. A beefy tower shadowed the center-console, which was outfitted with SmartCraft instruments and a Raymarine C70 GPS. A fiberglass fairing deflected the wind from the driver and co-pilot, who enjoyed their view from a double bolster with dropout-bottom cushions. For additional passenger seating, there was a rear bench.

Each of the two tubes for the RIB had five chambers, Leafield relief valves and air inlets and a rubrail. The resin-infused hull was constructed with quad-directional fiberglass and foam coring.

Tomlinson has logged plenty of hours in his R-8, so when it came time for us to spend a little quality time running the boat off Fort Myers Beach, it was all mine. And aside from a constant pull to the right, thanks to the torque and propeller rotation, the boat was a total gas. Running wide open at roughly 60 mph head-on in 1- to 3-footers, it felt indestructible, as if it could go through anything. (Of course, no boat is indestructible.)

But it didn’t pound. It rode softly. Perhaps because of the inflatable tubes on the hull, I had expected the boat to feel light and loose. It did not. In everything we encountered, it felt solid and connected.

The R-8 also turned and tracked well in both directions. It was particularly fun in aggressive slalom turns. In fact it was so fun that at one point Tomlinson, perhaps tired of getting thrown around the cockpit, said, “Take it easy, buddy.”

Easy for him to say. He owns an R-8. I’d just like to.

Click to enlarge.