Parker 660 Pilothouse

Peter Poland test drives the Parker 660 Pilothouse

- Peter Poland

Before the introduction of its range of sports fishing boats and fast cruisers in the early 2000s, Parker Poland (parkerpoland.eu) had been one of the leading suppliers of RIBs since the early 1970s. To this day, the company still has one of the biggest and most successful RIB brands built in Europe.

Over the years, the Parker RIB range (both open and cabin versions) has evolved to include numerous models spanning from 5.1m right up to the 15.5m Parker 1600 Interceptor capable of carrying four crew and 26 passengers. That’s a big RIB!

Parker’s many RIB clients include leisure buyers as well as police, rescue and military users. And then there are the commercial operators specialising in the fast growing business of running ‘sea safaris’ around the world’s finest coastlines. Indeed, the most exciting high-speed RIB trial I have ever enjoyed was along the Jurassic Coast of Dorset in a Parker 900 (9m) Baltic RIB used for Sea Safaris operating out of Poole harbour.

Sports fishers

Parker remains a prominent player in the RIB market. However, it also used its extensive experience to branch out in the early 2000s into the market for GRP sport, leisure and fast fishing boats.

The ‘sports fishing boat’ has gained great popularity over the last decades. Indeed in some harbours it has almost taken over from what we used to call ‘speed boats’ or ‘sports boats’. In many ways this is easy to understand.