Advice On Choice Of Ribs

[Aegean Lady]

Hi

I am a total newcomer to all this RIB business - my time on the water has all been done in boats with big white flappy things.

We run an RYA recognised sail cruising centre in Greece and plan to become recognised for powerboat courses as well, hopefully by the end of this year.

Our intention is to buy about three ribs and, in addition to courses, to run 2-3 day rib-treks to some of our neighbouring islands.

Our Principal is a PB Instructor with lots of experience and he will make the final decision on what we buy. However I am also a Director of the company and want to be able to discuss the choice of boats intelligently.

So please can I have your comments on what we should be looking for in a) training boats b) boats to go off for a few days.

Please assume I know nothing as that is the case.

I know there are some Greek members so I'd be especially interested in their comments on suitable makes, and reliable dealers/agents in the Athens/Piraeus area.

Many thanks.

[codprawn]

For good cruising boats you should look at the Picton Cobra range. They have sold quite a few to Greece and they are good value.

http://www.pictonboats.com/Nautique.htm

If you want more of a performance boat look at Revenger

http://www.revenger.co.uk/

For teaching purposes you would be better with smaller boats - prob in the 6m range - I am sure many people on here will give loads of advice.

[havener]

Being my usual biased self, talk to Delta (www.deltapower.co.uk) for a number of reasons -

The build quality is superb, you won't get inexperienced students knocking bits off,

They'll listen carefully to what you want to use it for and make helpful suggestions accordingly,

After sales support is second to none, although not sure if they have a Greek distributor.

Certainly not the cheapest around, and the only other drawback I can think of is the high bow may be offputting to newcomers.

Otherwise, Humber (Quinquari) or RedBay are well worth looking at.

One last suggestion, go for a central helm position - makes changing student drivers around much easier.

[Roy Smith]

Scorpion or revenger, i think both have agents in greece.
I would recormend Scorpion, bais as i am, we have a 8.1 went to Cowes to day from Chichester blowing force 7 was amazed at its sea keeping.
good luck on what ever you get.

[toby4594]

We were out also from chichester harbour today crossing the solent but never encountered anything like a force 7,our little zodiac would have shaken its head at that, but found it not to bad ,just got a little bit wet thats all,all part of the fun.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by havener

Otherwise, Humber (Quinquari) or RedBay are well worth looking at.

One last suggestion, go for a central helm position - makes changing student drivers around much easier.

The Quinquaris are great for commercial passenger carrying if that's what you want to do - very well proven and they can assist with your business plan etc.

http://www.quinquarimarine.co.uk/

They have shipped boats all over the world so Greece shouldn't be a problem.

[Aegean Lady]

Thanks for the useful information and links. I will contact these companies for more information on their ranges.

We were thinking of something around 6.5 - 7.0 m in length. I think this would be a good size for training - not too big - but large enough to be used for the 2-3 day cruises we plan. The idea is that students could come here and learn how to drive a powerboat for a few days, then take their friends/family out for a trip to other islands with our Instructor in a lead boat.

What type / size of engine would be appropriate? I imagine we'd want two engines for safety reasons but I see you can get diesel or petrol. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each as far as ribs are concerned? (I'm sure this is very basic, but I want to appear knowledgable when speaking to our Principal) Diesels are easier to maintain I think, aren't they? And the fuel is less flammable?

Initially we thougth we'd start with a variety of second hand boats, & see which we liked best for the job. However, we've found that it will be far easier to register new boats for commercial purposes here. As we'll have to spend a lot of cash, we obviously want to get it right.

[rugrat]

if your planning to instruct then i would go for a single outboard installation. because an inboard can be a bit confusing for inexperianced helms
and a twin rig would over complicate things.
so yeah, single outboard probably fourstroke around the 200hp mark (imho)

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by Aegean Lady

What type / size of engine would be appropriate? I imagine we'd want two engines for safety reasons but I see you can get diesel or petrol. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each as far as ribs are concerned? (I'm sure this is very basic, but I want to appear knowledgable when speaking to our Principal) Diesels are easier to maintain I think, aren't they? And the fuel is less flammable?

I'm relatively new to it as well but have done a fair amount of research on here and elsewhere (if you do a search on RIBnet there is tonnes and tonnes of information and discussions from people much more knowledgeable than I will ever be). From my research I suppose you could say the basic plus/minus points seem to be:

Diesel: expensive to buy but cheap to run and as you say less volatile fuel. Probably more reliable? Almost always inboard I think so will take up space in the boat, if that is important to you? Also (not 100% sure about this) I guess they are likely to be a fair bit heavier.

Petrol: cheap to buy but expensive to run (esp older 2 strokes as I am finding out!) so range could be an issue if you are going long distances and cost could be an issue if you use it every day. Almost always outboard; I guess you can get petrol inboards but they seem rare so I suppose most people think like me - I'm twitchy enough with a petrol tank between my legs never mind sitting on the bit that makes it explode too

Petrol 2 stroke vs 4 stroke: 2 stroke cheaper and lighter but older ones are MUCH more thirsty than the new ones; 4 stroke expensive and heavier so you won't get the same HP engine before you get to the limit of what the transom can carry. Is performance critical for what you want? probably not.

Single engine: less cost to buy but when the fan stops then so do you, you can use a small auxiliary engine e.g. 4-6hp as many do, this is what I am doing, but the "get you home speed" is likely to be a bit dull, probably only 5 kts or so!

Twin engine: much more expensive to buy and maintain and it seems that you lose out in terms of performance i.e. two 75hp motors will probably not go as fast as one 150hp. However if properly set up with twin fuel systems/electrics (so that fuel contamination doesn't kill both engines) you have much less chance of breakdown as you still have half the power to get home on instead of bumbling home on 4hp.

If I was buying a new rib and could afford it I would probably have twin 4 stroke petrol outboards... or maybe a diesel inboard. As I can't afford a new RIB I have ended up with a single 2 stroke thirsty petrol outboard, and a 6hp four stroke aux. To be honest this probably provides just as much fun for a lot less money, I love it anyway, it's a boat and it whizzes along nicely and those are the two most important bits for me

I also like the size of mine (5.8m) because I can handle, launch and recover it single handed with relative ease now I have had a bit of practice, and without getting my feet wet (well maybe 6 inches of water at most - ordinary welly boot depth anyway). I'm not sure I could do that with anything much bigger, but then I've only been doing it for six months so maybe I will get better at it

This is basically a distilled version of what I have read over the last six or eight months both before and after getting my first RIB so you should probably wait a while and see if anybody violently disagrees with it before taking any notice of me

[codprawn]

The main things concerning choice of engine has to be cost of fuel and availability. In the UK diesels are popular as you can run on untaxed fuel so it is a hell of a lot cheaper than petrol. Commercially things are a little different becuase you can claim back the fuel duty.

I don't know what the situation is in Greece - if the fuel costs are about the same go for an outboard - if there is a big difference get a diesel - fairly simple choice as far as I can see.