Vectis Underwater Explorers Club starts making use of its club boat – “Rogue 1” with a dawn dive to the wreck of the France Aimee

Vectis Underwater Explorer’s club boat “Rogue 1” made its maiden dive outing to the wreck of France Aimee just off Bembridge ledge on edge of the Princessa shoal, about a 1.4 nautical mile trip to the site from the ‘slipway’ at Bembridge.

The boat is Seapro 4.7m Inflatable that is equipped in accordance with the Combined Diving Associations Guidance for club boats. It boasts an A-frame on which are mounted a VHF DSC radio, a combined GPS/Sonar unit and storage boxes with safety equipment.

Inflatables, as opposed to RHIBs,  are a bit retro but they are a great tool to access sites close to shore and very cost effective which makes them particularly attractive for an active and expeditionary / project minded diving community like ours where access to a lot of places we like to explore is difficult and or expensive with larger boats.

Many of the island’s slipways are designed more for smaller boats so often have tricky vehicular access.  The fact the inflatable is so lightweight it can be launched and recovered by hand with a few divers and a bit of knowhow, gives us lots of flexibility to access more interesting sites just a stones throw from the shore but too far to shore dive.

They are also huge fun to drive and you can also feel good about minimising fuel burn and lowering your diving carbon footprint compared to other boats on getting to the dive site.

We also plan to use the boat as a tender to a liveaboard mothership on future expeditions.  That’s one to start exploring for 2027.

Thanks to Fiona, Richard and Alex for getting up so early for the dawn raid.