FunAir

• Category: inflatable slides, sea pools, climbing walls and docks for yachts
• Founded by: Eric Goldreyer, who remains chief executive
• Based: Austin, Texas, with design and engineering in house
• Yachting side: led by managing director John Courtney, who joined in 2014
• Team: about twenty people
• Slides: FunSize at 1.5 m for yachts to 20 m, up to Riser at 9.5 m and beyond for yachts over 60 m
• Slide materials: 0.6 mm and 0.9 mm 1000 denier PVC with fire retardant and ultraviolet ratings, 316 stainless steel hardware
• Deployment: under 15 minutes for the smallest slides, about 20 for a standard Hanger, about 60 for a Riser
• Sea pools: typically 5 m by 5 m, about 30 minutes to set up
• Sea pool warranty: five year limited
• Netting: welded or removable QuickZip, with a 1 cm weave option for jellyfish
• QuickShip: finished units held in stock at multiple locations worldwide for delivery within days

A lake house idea that became yacht equipment

Eric Goldreyer started FunAir after looking for something more interesting to do at his own lake house. The yachting side of the business is the part that grew, and it has been led since 2014 by managing director John Courtney. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, employs about twenty people and keeps design and engineering under its own roof.

That size is worth noting. FunAir is a small specialist supplier serving an industry of very large customers, which is why the company sells through direct relationships with captains and build managers. It works in the same way a custom canvas or a passerelle supplier does. The products look like pool toys and are engineered as marine equipment.

The slides, size by size

The slide range is organised by the drop from the deck to the water, which is set by the yacht. FunSize is a 1.5 m slide for yachts up to 20 m. Hanger Mini covers 2 m to 3.5 m for yachts up to 30 m. The standard Hanger runs 4 m to 6.5 m for 30 m to 50 m yachts, and Hanger Extreme reaches 7 m to 9.5 m for anything above 50 m.

Above that are the Riser at 9.5 m and beyond, designed for top deck entry on yachts over 60 m, and a self-lifting version aimed at busy charter yachts. Bow, stern and curved slides run 3 m to 12 m and solve particular geometries, with the bow slide aimed at sailing yachts. The Flume is fully custom and can be run from almost any position on almost any yacht.

The slide is the photograph, and the sea pool is the thing guests actually use twice a day.

Sea pools

A sea pool is a floating enclosure alongside the swim platform, and it has become the most requested product in the range. A typical unit is 5 m by 5 m and takes about half an hour to set up. Netting comes welded in place or as a removable QuickZip system in white, blue or black, and a 1 cm weave is available where jellyfish and small marine life are a problem.

There are several formats. The Beach Club version adds a deck around the pool for lounging, the Lagoon is ultra compact for yachts short of stowage, the modular and stacking versions break into sections that contour to the swim platform, and the FunSize Beach Club is up in under 30 minutes. Sea pools carry a five year limited warranty.

Climbing walls, docks and the rest

The climbing wall is the second signature product, offered in custom and QuickShip forms including water entry versions where the climber falls into the sea. Inflatable docks cover jet ski docks and work platforms, which is the least glamorous and most used part of the catalogue. A jet ski dock keeps a personal watercraft off the swim platform and gives crew somewhere to work on it.

Around those sit floating islands, beach furniture, aqua parks and sports equipment. The pattern across all of it is the same. Each item is sized to a specific yacht, made from the same materials, and designed to be deployed and recovered by crew without specialist equipment. Nothing in the range needs a crane.

How they are made

The construction specification is more marine than it looks. Slides use 0.6 mm and 0.9 mm 1000 denier PVC with fire retardant and ultraviolet ratings, 12 oz 1000 denier baffling and 316 stainless steel hardware. Sea pools use drop stitch or 0.9 mm PVC with the same stainless fittings. Those materials are the reason a FunAir product survives seasons of Mediterranean sun where a consumer inflatable would not.

Fire retardant rating matters aboard a yacht in a way it does not on a lake, because anything stowed in a garage or a lazarette sits within the vessel's fire arrangements. The 316 stainless hardware is the other tell. Salt destroys ordinary fittings within a season, and the anchor points on a slide are load bearing.

Deployment, crew time and wind

The published set-up times are the honest constraint. A FunSize or Hanger Mini is up in under 15 minutes, a standard Hanger in about 20 and a Riser in about an hour. An hour of two or three crew members before guests can use the slide is a real cost on a charter day, and it is the reason the self-lifting version exists for yachts that deploy daily.

Wind is the other limit. An inflatable slide is a large sail, and above a moderate breeze the deployment becomes awkward and the recovery worse. Slides and sea pools are anchorage equipment for calm mornings. Owners who cruise in exposed places will use them less than they expect, and captains will make that judgement without asking.

Stowage and what it displaces

Deflated, a 9.5 m slide is a large and heavy bag, and FunAir does not publish weights on its product pages, so the figure has to be requested for the specific unit. That number decides whether it lives in the garage, in a lazarette or in a deck box. On a yacht where the garage is already full of tenders, personal watercraft and foil boards, the slide is often the thing that has to go somewhere else.

This is the argument for the compact formats. The Lagoon sea pool and the FunSize slide exist because stowage is the binding constraint on most yachts under 50 m. An owner specifying at build stage can have the volume designed in. An owner buying for an existing yacht is fitting the product to the space that is left.

Buying, lead times and QuickShip

Custom units are engineered to the yacht from measurements and drawings, which takes time. The QuickShip programme exists because charter yachts do not have time. FunAir holds finished units in stock at multiple locations worldwide and can deliver popular designs such as the Hanger Mini and FunSize within days. Sea pools, climbing walls and beach club pools all have QuickShip versions.

Prices are not published and are quoted per unit. What an owner should establish before ordering is the attachment arrangement, because a slide has to be anchored to the yacht's structure and the answer is different on a rail, a bulwark and a sun deck. That engineering work is where a custom order earns its lead time.

Against the rest, and who should have one

The competing names are NautiBuoy Marine in the Netherlands for platforms and docks, YachtBeach, AquaGlide and Superyacht Inflatables, all of which appear in the same superyacht supplier catalogues. FunAir's position is the slides and the sea pools, where its size range and its engineering are the deepest. For docks and simple platforms the market is broader and the price differences are wider.

Safety is the part owners underestimate. A sea pool with netting is genuinely safer for children and weak swimmers than open water off a platform, and a slide with a 9.5 m drop is not. Crew supervision is what makes these products work, and a yacht that does not have a spare pair of hands during guest swimming should buy the sea pool and skip the slide.

Who it is for: Owners with young families or a charter programme, enough deck crew to deploy the equipment and somewhere to stow it when the wind gets up.