The Beuchat PDT is a premium personal dive tender designed for spearfishing in the open water. Float boats on the market were traditionally simple tubs with canvas covers, and Pacific Blue Sports saw the chance to build something better.
Working with Blender, they developed a float boat engineered from first principles to meet the core needs of the end user, and to carry the heritage Beuchat brand into a product line it had never offered before.
EXPERTISE
- Industrial Design
- Mechanical Engineering
- Naval Architecture Collaboration
- Prototyping
- User Testing
- Design for Manufacture
- Manufacturing Support
CHALLENGE
Swimming against the current.
Spearfishing divers spend hours in open water. A float boat supports the diver across all aspects of the experience: a safety flotation device on the surface, tethered to the diver, holding the day’s catch, carrying their gear, and flying the flag that tells other boats and water users exactly where they are. It needs to keep the catch fresh and out of the water, keep valuables dry, stay upright in a swell, and be easy to reach and open while you are treading water.
For a sport that has grown steadily in skill and equipment, the float boat itself had barely changed in decades. They provide negligible insulation, poor ergonomics, and open areas allowing ingress and egress. Fabric covers act as sea anchors when capsized, allow catch, blood & guts, to fall free, and are difficult enough to operate that divers routinely leave them unsecured.
Pacific Blue Sports distributes the heritage Beuchat diving brand across New Zealand and Australia, and knows the sport personally as divers, retailers and distributors. They wanted to introduce a genuinely premium dive tender, the first of its kind, as a flagship product for the brand. Doing it properly meant bringing industrial design, marine engineering and real manufacturing knowledge together in a way no other float boat had attempted. They turned to Blender to make it happen.
APPROACH
Engineering a sea change.
Blender approached the PDT not as a smaller boat or a better tub, but as a new piece of marine equipment. Every compromise divers had learned to live with was treated as a design problem to be solved, and every component had to earn its place. Rather than bolt accessories onto a hull, Blender designed the hull, the cover, the storage and the handling as one connected system, where a decision on any one part had to support the others.
The primary innovation is the multi-layer EVA foam cover, unlike flimsy fabric covers, this heat-pressed foam construction provides structural integrity and thermal insulation, simultaneously preserving catch quality during extended dives. The cover’s design minimizes water ingress and eliminates the gap-and-stretch failure modes common in canvas alternatives. Complementing this is the single-handed speed-tag bungee system, a purpose designed interaction that allows corners to be easily secured or released independently, or in combination depending on preference.
SOLUTION
Setting a new high-water mark.
The Beuchat PDT is now in market, distributed under the Beuchat brand through Pacific Blue Sports across New Zealand and Australia, with a clear pathway into Beuchat’s international distribution network.
Key Features:
- Straight & steady: The trimaran hull is designed for diver safety, buoyancy, low-drag towing, as well as stability and manoeuvrability.
- Stays tight, stays safe: The cover’s tight fitment ensures catch and blood are kept out of the water, maximising diver safety from predators.
- Keeps the catch fresh: Multi-layer EVA foam cover with ballistic nylon underside keeps the internal temperature down during extended dives and resists damage from kina spines and sharp catch.
- Open and close it in the water: Easy-pull speed-tags release one at a time and work with cold or gloved hands, so the cover actually gets closed between dives instead of left open.
- Keeps valuables dry and sealed: An integrated dry locker at the bow opens single-handed and keeps a phone, keys or wallet safe through capsize and active water.
- Built to last in the sea: A UV-stabilised rotational moulded HDPE hull and premium 316 stainless steel hardware stand up to sustained marine use.
The Beuchat PDT is built for spearfishers who take their sport seriously, whether they are chasing a personal best on a quiet weekend or in the midst of competition. It brings genuine design and engineering to gear that had been overlooked for decades, and makes a long day in the water safer, easier and more rewarding. Because the people who spend all day in the sea deserve gear that has been thought about as carefully as the dive itself.
