Twenty years ago, in August 2006, a new BRIG appeared at the Southampton Boat Show. The Eagle 645.
At the time, it was simply the newest member of the Eagle family. Nobody looking at it on the pontoon could have known that this particular boat was about to start a story that would run for the next two decades.
The Eagle 645 was a little different from what many people expected a RIB to be at the time. It had the seaworthiness and confidence you wanted from a proper RIB, but it also had room to slow down and enjoy the day. There was space for the family, for friends, for all the things that somehow find their way aboard, and for those increasingly important moments when the engine goes quiet and the boat becomes a floating picnic spot. It was a boat you could take seriously without having to take yourself too seriously.
The idea proved to be a good one. In 2012, the Eagle 650 followed, evolving the formula and taking it further. It went on to become one of the most successful boats in BRIG’s history, with more than 1,100 sold in six years. Then came the Eagle 6.7 — a new hull, new proportions, new technology and a new generation of design, but still recognisably part of the same family.
And here’s the remarkable part: the E6.7 has gone on to sell at a level comparable with, and in some periods even better than, the legendary E650. That makes the story more interesting than a simple tale of an old bestseller being replaced by a newer model. The E6.7 has achieved that performance through a very different world: the disruption of COVID, the cooling of the global marine market afterwards, and, for BRIG, the extraordinary circumstances of building boats through a war in Ukraine. The fact that the Eagle has continued to find its way into people’s lives is something we are genuinely proud of.
Look at the three generations together and you can see twenty years of boatbuilding in a single picture. The hulls evolved, the technology changed, the boats became more refined — but the underlying idea stayed remarkably simple: build a RIB that people actually want to spend a whole day on. One that can make you smile when you open the throttle, but is equally happy sitting quietly in a sheltered bay; one that can carry a family, a few friends and probably far too much equipment.
And perhaps that is the real legacy of the Eagle 645. Not the specifications. Not even the sales numbers. The summers. The first time someone learned to waterski. The children jumping off the tubes. The long lunch that somehow became dinner. The little beach you found and didn’t tell anyone about. The days when the forecast looked questionable, but you went anyway — and were very glad you did.
Twenty years later, there are still E645s out there doing what they were built to do. Some have stayed with the same families. Some have changed hands and countries. Some have probably accumulated a rather impressive collection of stories along the way.
We’d love to hear them. If you owned an Eagle 645 — or an Eagle 650 — we’d love to know where yours went, who came aboard and what you remember most. And if you have an old photograph, please share it with us. Especially the slightly faded ones: the ones with the old cameras, questionable hairstyles and children who are now considerably taller.
Because boats may be built at the factory, but their real stories are written afterwards.
Twenty years ago, the Eagle 645 started this chapter. The E650 carried it forward, and the Eagle 6.7 has shown that the family still has plenty of life in it. Three generations, twenty years, and a remarkably consistent idea of what a good day on the water should feel like.
The boats changed.
The reason for going out didn’t.
Happy 20th, Eagle 645.
Not bad for the granddad of the family.