Valiant or Humber ?

[Jon H]

I am after a bit of help
I own a 380 Bombard Aerotex 15hp combo, dead light, easy to launch, tiller steering, great fun
I live in Northampton so really only use it a 2 or 3 of holidays a year mainly around Purbeck / Poole area, although last year went up to Benerloch (Oban)
What I really want is something with a bit more poke that I can use to whizz over to Isle of Wight, maybe also have a bash at water skiing
I have found a 4.3M Humber assault with a 40Hp Honda and a 4.9m Valiant with 70Hp.

I don’t much at all about RIB’s but any advice welcome.

The Valiant looks pretty, and is clearly more powerful. The Humber is (I am told) a better make, but less power. The Humber also has lots of electrics Garmin GPS Map chart plotter with external mushroom antenna, VHF Marine DSC Transceiver Radio with GMDSS, Garmin Fishfinder 120 (depth indicator)
The Valiant is clearly heavier so will be harder to launch and recover (I have little experience)

So any views gratefully received

[Tim M]

Thats a tricky one. The Humber is a better made boat, and will probably be a lot more comfortable than a similar sized Valient. I think I would probably go for that over the Valient. Valient's tend to be designed for cruising round the med with a couple of lovely girls lying on the sunpad at the front. You might struggle to ski with a 40 though.

That said, a lot depends on the price and the layout of the boats. Are they around the same sort of price? Do you have any photos?

[ian parkes]

But they are not a similar size are they , also depends what model humber , some have a flatter v than the valiant .

Don't worry about wieght for launching they are both very light . However i would consider 4.9m would outwiegh the sea keeping of the 4.3 whatever the make .
Humber are stronger boats , but the valiant won't give you any problems for family fun use , ours was still solid as a rock at 6 years old

[ADS]

Depends on the hull on both counts.
I think from memory the Assault is quite a shallow vee, which would be comparable to a Valiant Vanguard. If its a Valiant Patrol (PT) however (these are usually orange) that is a completely different situation and I would take the Valiant as that is the deep vee model.

[Jon H]

[Good points

I think the Humber is a deep Vee Hull but as I say I am not really sure

I did a bit of research and 50HP seems to be the biggets I can put on it

[Jon H]

I am told it is a Vangard

[Jon H]

[At the end of the day I am not really going to be taking the boat out in the real rough, but on the other hand you never know do you !

[Jon H]

Guys

I really do appreciate your help

Its a question of where to stop, isn't it

I just found a brilliant looking Yamaha 500 R 90HP and Humber Assualt both at circa 6K


"get behind me satan"

[ADS]

Probably neither of those then!
That Humber looks quite a shallow vee and as mentioned above by Tim the Valiants are more of a med style boat. I have a few seasons experience with a brand new Vanguard V520/ 75hp Mariner 2 stroke. For what it was it did the job very well and was a very sociable boat, we only used it for towing wakeboards/ ringo's/ skiers, messing about off the beach and you could cram loads of people on it. I took it accross to Yarmouth (IOW) a few times no problem. It all depends on what you planned to do with it, it wasn't particularly well put together a few bits fell off but nothing serious, I could see the console coming adrift though in the future. In terms of rough weather it slammed abit and wasn't a patch on my current 4m Searider.
I assume your budget is £6k?

[ADS]

A few other options:

Gemini 4.8 @ Ribshop: http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23245

Valiant Patrol 5.20 50HP Yammie 4 stroke: http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/MBS343

Very tidy Humber, previously owner by a ribnet member: http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F165843