About Us

Overview

ifloat^® is an independent, innovative, unique marine leisure products affiliate marketing website.

We offer a sophisticated and powerful approach to finding marine leisure and boating products from our own comprehensive database and aim to provide the single most valuable boating products resource on the internet.

At ifloat^® we offer an extreme depth of information on the products we list. The primary source for this information is from the manufacturers of the products we present and put as much of this as is reasonably possible at your fingertips. There is no need to look elsewhere for specific product information, which is time saving; all information in one place. It is this level of detail that allows us to provide you with tools to differentiate and filter products with unprecedented speed and power.

Once you are ready to buy what you have found, we make it easy to find the best price from our partners - senior suppliers in the marine leisure market, with large inventories and a solid track record of delivering quality products and service.

It couldn't be simpler - find, buy, float.

Our History / about the founders

The founders are both are qualified to advanced university level and have long-serving backgrounds in engineering and humanities. This allows a blend of 'numbers' and 'letters' with the focus being on the practical, simple and efficient ways of creating a boating resource.

The family's history in boating goes back over 80 years, from a sea-scouts saling cutter to the ownership in the '1930s' of the now-historic classic Mahaki B-class schooner (sail number B8), built by Arthur Logan in 1895 in Auckland, New Zealand (and still sailing). First sailing was self-taught at age seven in a ten foot clinker dinghy with a simple gunter rig, leading to a self-build by one of the founders, at age 15, of a Moth. Later on windsurfing became the draw and then on to modest doses of cruising.

Moving on / how ifloat^® came about

ifloat^® was born from our experience into the sailing gear that we needed to buy for an ocean voyage. We found the amount and consistency of product information was highly variable and affected our confidence that they were making good choices of the products on offer. Market research confirmed we were not alone in our product selection experience. One UK cruising yacht owner interviewed confessed to spending between 15 to 20 hours per month on the internet trying to find products needed to support his sailing. As a result, a gap in the market gap was identified and we were determined to create a simple, straightforward and knowledgeable resource to present manufacturer information with leading retailers' product offers, and so give back wasted time that could be better spent out on the water; the result is ifloat^®. The ocean voyage will come later.

What we've created / the ifloat^® Web Application

The site is supported by an innovative technical design and all available manufacturer product data is put at the centre of the user experience. In addition to the powerful Find option, which acts on all the user data entered, there are over 300 property icon-driven filters that give full control to the user over every piece of product data they have in mind to find what they want. All measurements are seamlessly selectable in either Imperial or SI/Metric systems (both are displayed) and for clothing, all manufacturer sizes can be directly selected to show every item of that size instantly; no more size table lookups. Any product for sale can be found quickly and easily.

All products can be selected (without limit) for side-by-side differentiation, bought immediately, or stored for future purchase. For increased buying confidence, large detail product images are used (many in high-resolution size) so you can 'visually touch' the products and then access the available technical documentation and other supporting materials. Once ready to buy, you are taken to the selected retailer site (the ifloat^® site including the find box remains visible with seamless switching between sites) to pay and go.