I would definitely not recommend Funcats. My friend and I hired stand up paddle boards from them and as we were about to hire them we observed one of their catamaran that was not being used sailing away into the river. The lady behind the counter almost joked about it saying "oh one of our boats is running away" and my friend and I replied somewhat concerned but she said it was fine and their staff would go and get it. It was quite windy this day and it was my first time paddle boarding so I was a little worried with how quickly I had gone out into the deeper part of the river so I was turning myself around and coming into shore when I was struck by another one of Funcats catamaran that was not properly secured to the shore. It all happened so quickly as the wind made the catamaran turn quickly and come for me that I did not have time to think what to do. The front point of the catamaran hit my upper thigh with a lot of force. It pushed me under the catamaran and I was scared that my head was going to be hit as the catamaran sailed over the top of me. Luckily I wasn't hit on the head but when I got to shore my leg was already starting to swell and very painful and I was visibly shaken up. Thankfully kind onlookers who witnessed the incident came to see if I was okay and offered me water and ice. Before a member of the public gave me ice from their esky, someone asked a Funcats staff member if they had any ice and they replied that they didn't. I just think it was really poor the way they handled the incident. For starters it never should have happened, as they should be keeping more of an eye on the boats and pulling them in straight away after customers return them. This obviously isn't a one off situation since we witnessed two separate boats sailing off unattended within the space of half an hour. Secondly, they should have ice and a first aid kit and should have been properly checking that I was okay. I only had a half-hearted sorry from two of the junior members of staff. The lady behind the counter never came out to see if I was okay and my friend eventually had to go and see her to ask for a refund. Several of the witnesses were shocked at Funcats lack of concern and told me to report them. I contacted them via email afterwards to try and resolve this situation but they were amendment that they did nothing wrong and it was the fault of the customers that hired the catamarans for not pulling them into shore properly... It is now 10 days since the incident and I still have a huge purple bruise on my leg. I was in so much pain the day after that I couldn't even sit down or go to work. While I was paddleboarding there was a man with his young child on the front of another paddleboard and it is scary to think what could have happened if the catamaran had hit a child or even if it hit me in the head, I am just grateful that it hit me on a fleshy part of the leg as I can't image the pain I would be in if it had hit me elsewhere. Clearly customer and public safety is not at the forefront of Funcats concerns which is a worry given they are operating a business on open water, and their customer service is appalling.

Even for those who don't like sailing hiring mini catamarans is a lot of fun! You don't need any experience and help is always close by if needed. It's very easy to learn the basics and by the end of it you'll be struggling to pull yourself away!