Boats built for anything that life throws at you. That’s the motto for Inventech Marine Solutions (IMS) and their brand Life Proof Boats. Life Proof Boats has been a Port tenant for four years in the Olympic View Industrial Park and they have grown exponentially in the last several years producing boats for the Department of Fish and Wild Life and other government agencies, local companies like the Seattle Boat Company as well as local Native American Tribes. When Port staff toured the facilities last summer, Life Proof Boats were in the process of finishing a boat for the Stillaguamish Tribal Police. The Tribe performs canoe races and the new Life Proof Boat would be used as an escort boat if something happens in the race to ensure safety. They fabricate everything there at their shop in the Olympic View Industrial Park. To date, they have over 20 styles of boats ranging from 13 feet and up to 40 feet.
On every Life Proof Boat is a collar system which alone makes the boat virtually unsinkable. This system is part of Inventech’s brand, FAST, which provides unique floatation collars to their Life Proof boats. FAST stands for Foam Air Stabilized Technologies. The foam they use is no typical foam. The Expanded Polyethylene Foam (EPE) provides over 60lbs of flotation per cubic foot.
The EPE allows for 1lb bags to float up to 62 lbs – using thermal bonding and radio frequency wielding there is very little gluing to make the manufacturing process as environmentally friendly as possible. The leftover foam material is used underneath the decks of the boats.
Life Proof Boats can cater to unique requests and can be equipped depending on the customer with all the amenities including shock absorbent seats, a head (toilet), one-way privacy glass, and bow doors that fold down to help you get out to explore when you come across a new beach. One costumer’s boat in the shop wanted a family boat to travel to the San Juan Islands and after looking at similar manufacturers out of Canada and New Zealand, they chose to get outfitted by Life Proof Boats instead.
Life Proof Boats began with 12 employees, today, they have over 20 employees and the goal to not grow larger than 49 employees – to maintain Life Proof Boats as a brand.
To learn more about what makes Life Proof Boats the pioneer in foam-stabilized watercraft visit their website, http://www.lifeproofboats.com/
