Yachts are a wonderful way to travel but when you arrive at that perfect anchorage it’s the toys in the tender garage that can make all the difference to your own enjoyment as well as your guests. For a charter yacht, it’s arguably even more important with some clients basing their choice of craft as much on what’s inside the garage as what’s outside.
Having personally tried all of these toys, I’ve selected my favourites and rated them for both fun and ease of use – after all it’s important to have some toys the whole family can enjoy regardless of age or skill levels.
Best watersports toys for 2025
Jobe Binar
Fun factor: 5/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Price: €380
Everyone loves an inflatable toy and, on the assumption that most motor yachts of 70ft or more will have a big enough tender to tow one, you might as well get a good one. The Jobe Binar was the unequivocal winner of our recent group test of the best towing tubes.
Large enough for two people to ride on at once, it delivered the perfect combination of thrills and spills. The key to its appeal is a stable, comfortable base with plenty of handholds for nervous riders to hang onto – you can even use it as a floating sunlounger at anchor.
However, for more advanced riders, it also delivers some serious adrenaline kicks, leaping off wakes as it swings from side to side and landing big jumps without ejecting its occupants. It does rely on the driving skills of the person in charge of the tow boat to get the best from it but for the money nothing else comes close.
Two Bare Feet Inflatable Stand up Paddleboard
Fun factor: 3/5
Ease of use: 4/5
Price from: £450
No boat is complete without at least one inflatable paddleboard tucked into the tender garage. It may not pack quite the same punch as some of the powered toys featured on these pages but there is something wonderfully relaxing about paddling across a flat calm bay staring down through the gin clear waters at the fish swimming around beneath you.
Crucially, guests of all ages will be happy to give paddleboarding a try, not last because they can still have plenty of fun kneeling or even sitting on it while they paddle away. The more flexible among them can even try the current trend for yoga paddleboarding.
There are dozens of different SUP manufacturers but I’m a big fan of Two Bare Feet boards, which seem to strike a good balance between build quality and price. I’ve got the 10ft 6in model as it’s an excellent all-rounder giving a nice stable ride with easy paddling in a comprehensive package that includes a decent paddle, pump and carry bag for under £500.
Cayago SeaBob
Fun factor: 4/5
Ease of use: 5/5
Price: €8,865
This has become such a ubiquitous toy that many boat manufacturers now design storage lockers and charging points specifically for them. It’s not hard to see why; they don’t require any great skill to use, they are suitable for almost every age and ability and they are a lot of fun.
You simply hang on tight to the two handles, press the thumb throttle, scroll up through the gears to increase speed and use your hands and body to point it in the direction you want to go – even under water. The most powerful model has a top speed of 22km/h (12 knots) on the surface and can dive down to 40m once you’ve programmed it to override the 2.5m safety cut off.
The only real downside is that although they have a small amount of natural buoyancy in the water, they are exceptionally heavy to lift in and out – even the new ‘lightweight’ F9 weighs 21kg while the top of the range F5SR tips the scales at a bicep-busting 35kg.
Flitescooter
Fun factor: 5/5
Ease of use: 3/5
Price from: €12,523
In my humble opinion e-foiling is about as much fun as you can have in the water with your clothes on. The feeling of flying above the waves at speeds of up to 48km/h (26 knots) while you carve around a turquoise bay on an electrically powered surf board is truly exhilarating, made all the more enjoyable by the fact you’re not disturbing anyone with your noise or wake.
The only trouble is that they take a bit of mastering, requiring a combination of balance, bravery and bruising before you start to get the hang of things. That’s where the new Flitescooter from Australian e-foiling pioneers Fliteboard comes in.
With its big inflatable board providing a more buoyant, stable, forgiving platform and a set of handlebars providing a much easier means of balancing and steering, it’s far easier for beginners to get the hang of. And once you’ve become sufficiently adept, you can remove the handlebars and surf it like a pro.
Buy it now from Fliteboard.com
Kawasaki SX-R 16 JeTski
Price: £11,799
Fun factor: 4/5
Ease of use: 2/5
Kawasaki launched the first commercially successful stand-up jetski in 1973 but it proved so tricky to master that it was soon overwhelmed by the easier to ride sit-down models that continue to dominate the market today. However, for the true purists nothing matches the thrill and skill of this latest stand-up model.
Packing an astonishing 150hp from its high-revving 1.5-litre four stroke engine, it is a true superbike of the seas with acceleration and speed to match. And like a superbike you can’t just turn the handlebars at full throttle and expect rider and machine to come out of the turn as one. The only way to avoid a humiliating and potentially painful parting of the ways is to bank the jetski hard over so your elbow is skimming the wave while the G-force is pinning your feet to the deck.
That’s the theory at least. When I tried it it usually resulted in a hasty bail out and an embarrassingly long swim to retrieve it. However, being smaller, lighter and more challenging than a sit-down PWC, it makes a much more rewarding challenge for the more experienced adrenaline junkie.
Awake Ravik 3
Fun factor: 4/5
Ease of use: 3/5
Price: €10,900
If the idea of e-foiling feels a little too extreme for you, e-surfing is like its more civilised older brother. You still get a silent but powerful electric motor, you still get a cool looking carbon-fibre board and you still get plentyof thrills but it’s far easier to get the hang of.
I managed to get up and running at the first attempt but unlike something as simple as a sit-down jetski, there’s still plenty of room for development when it comes to carving through a turn with conviction.
Swedish manufacturer Awake makes some of the best electric surfboards around with the Ravik 3 being an excellent all-rounder. A powerful 11kW motor driving a fully enclosed waterjet will accelerate you from 0-50km/h (27 knots) in 4 seconds, while the removable battery should give 60 mins of running time before needing to be replaced or recharged.
Although it weighs in at 23kg, its slimline shape makes it relatively easy to stow on board a motor yacht.
