Already on an ambitious trajectory with a new 37-foot outboard-powered sport catamaran and a 39-foot center console in the works, Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats also has been quietly working with veteran offshore powerboat racer and Cougar Boats legacy Steve Curtis on an outboard engine-powered rigid inflatable boat. Now, the management team at the Bristol, R.I., custom high-performance V-bottom and catamaran company is ready to reveal plans for its first RIB—a 36-footer dubbed the SR 36—that it hopes to have completed by the end of the year and on display at the 2021 Miami International Boat Show.

The team at Outerlimits is working closely with marine industry veteran Steve Curtis on its first rigid inflatable boat.

“We partnered with Steve Curtis on this project, and though the hull is based on one of his original Cougar designs, we are changing the top deck and console,” said Dan Kleitz, Outerlimits’ sales manager. “It will be a twin-outboard model with anything from Mercury Racing 300R, 400R and 450R engines, as well as outboards from Mercury Marine.”

Pricing for the new model with various power options has not been set. However, Kleitz said they are “trying to hit a certain price” and as such will offer a “standard package.”

“If someone wants to do a really custom one, of course, we’ll do it,” he said, then laughed. “We are a custom boat company, after all.”

Curtis, who has decades of experience in the RIB world, sees the platform as among the most versatile on the water.

“They’re like the Range Rovers of the sea—I like them so much I own one,” he said. “It’s a super-safe, all-around fun boat, and the Outerlimits SR 36 should come out at a great price point.”

With the coming introduction of the SR 36, the Outerlimits team is hoping to expand the company’s marine industry reach beyond the custom go-fast powerboat world, where it is already well-known. (The company is taking the same approach with its upcoming 39-foot center console, which will be targeted toward the offshore fishing market.)

“RIBs are really popular in Europe, but they’re also popular in Florida and, of course, the entire yacht tender and sailing world,” Kleitz said. “They’re everywhere from right up the road in Newport, Rhode Island, to Newport Beach, California.

“Adding a RIB gives us an avenue to expand our brand and what it’s associated with,” he added. “An Outerlimits SR 36 RIB buyer will be able to say, ‘The same guys who build 170-mph catamarans and 150-mph V-bottoms built my RIB.”

Curtis said RIBs are like the Range Rovers of the sea.

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