New to this, advice?

[smeelith]

Hi guys,
just read through the past 27 pages of this forum (phew), it's exam revision time so i'm procrastinating and most of my questions have been answered. Just after a bit of advice really, I have a 2.4m airdeck SIB with a 4hp johnson 2 stroke ouboard, bought them together on ebay for £300, was hoping to get out into the rye/dungeness coastal area (no more than a mile out!) for a bit of fishing over the summer with a friend. Am i right in thinking that 4hp may be a little under powered? I'd only go out on really calm days, keeping the tides in mind, lifejackets, waterproof phone (coastguard on speed dial) and oars just in case. This is something i'm really quite keen on but dont have the cash to buy anything a little more gutsy. Absolutely any advice welcome. Will 4hp be enough on a calm day? Is there anything else I have overlooked?
Thanks in advance.
Leigh

[smeelith]

actually, come to think of it a mile seems like a very long way! make that more like a few hundred metres at most.

[Nos4r2]

4hp should be fine. It may even plane when light.

[smeelith]

great, i was hoping that would be the case and that i hadnt just bought a £300 worth of rubber and metal. Do you know of any licenses or legislation i have to comply with?

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by smeelith

great, i was hoping that would be the case and that i hadnt just bought a £300 worth of rubber and metal. Do you know of any licenses or legislation i have to comply with?

Depends where you are. Some harbours won't let you launch without insurance, but apart from that there's nothing.
However, it's a very good idea to learn the colregs and generally assume if it's bigger than you it's a good idea to stay out of the way!

Might be worth doing a PB2.

[smeelith]

ok, cheers for the advice. I would probably launch from the beach tbh, i doubt it will be too difficult to carry it the 50m or so from the car park to the water with 2 of us even if it took 2 trips.

[Nos4r2]

I would get some insurance if you're beach launching. Swimmers/tourists are usually very short on brains.

On a busy day at Studland I often wonder if they'll run out of new and inventive ways to potentially get themselves killed.

[smeelith]

Haha, duly noted. Ill look into it. Any insurance companies you can recommend?

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by smeelith

Haha, duly noted. Ill look into it. Any insurance companies you can recommend?

All much of a muchness really. I use Craftinsure, just because it's easy to do online. A lot of others use Porthcawl.

[Polwart]

it's exam revision time so i'm procrastinating .......Absolutely any advice welcome.

Advice: you'll only get one chance at the exams, but RIBnet will still be here after you've done them

Originally Posted by smeelith

Haha, duly noted. Ill look into it. Any insurance companies you can recommend?

Porthcawl are generally popular on here - but search insurance and you can waste a whole evening looking at competitors. Porthcawl also run Insurance-4-boats. Noble are also trade members on here so should get a mention.