What RIB to buy

[Charlie C]

Advice needed.
After several years of messing about in almost all types of boats but RIBs, have decided to buy a RIB. Wife & I will use this mostly for cruising the Solent and local waters.
After much searching on possible boats have decided to settle for either a 6.5m Ballistic powered with a F150 Yamaha or perhaps a 6.5 Hydrosport powered with the new Honda 150.
Does anyone have any experience on either boats. Both appear to be well equipped and well put together. Can anyone either confirm or dispute this?
The Hydrosport has a stepped hull, is this just a gimmick or does it work? Have not yet had the opportunity to try one as the boat is down in Cornwall, so need to be reasonably confident before going down. However, on the plus side it is some £7k cheaper!
Of the boats I have tested some appear to slam much harder than others. What’s the general opinion on how soft the ride is on either boats?
Many thanks for any help/advice you can offer.

[Pete7]

Are u going new or second hand? oh and are you come to the Churchillian tomorrow night, friendly lot come along and say hi,

Pete

[Charlie C]

Hi Pete,
Like to buy second hand but have yet to find anything that makes me tick! That probably means that I'll end up buying new.
Re Monday night - am tied up on monday's so that will be difficult for me.
Charlie

[Mollers]

Where is the Hydrosport in Cornwall? I've not seen one.Oh, yes. Andrew Cox marine.

[Ezgoing]

Charlie

Best of luck wih your searching.

Look up my posts and it will lead you to simillar threads posted over the past while. You will see that i am biased. Look up www.redbayboats.com



Look up redbay on ribnet and it will also bring you to simillar discussions.

Define your needs, meet with lots of other ribbers, go for spins in lots of other boats, have a think about it, bring some experiened ribbers for a pint, go for some more spins(cost nothing and most ribbers are only too happy to help others) redefine your needs and only then go shopping. Form a relationship with a good marine mechanic!!!

Some boats slap because their under water profile is flatter than others. This often helps them to plane easierbut they are not as good a sea boat as deep v boats which carry the v shape the full length of the boat.

Honda engiine mentioned is good but heavy! check the power to weight ratio of some of the others. Whilst very good for its day i think the Honda design has been superseeded. I had a Honda 50 hp some years back and it was very reliable and quite economical.

Yamaha are my favourite engines.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy boating.

[Rogue Wave]

You probably won't get much feedback on your specific question because Neither RIBs are that well known to this Forum (this doesn't mean they are Bad) Riva on this Forum sells Ballistics so he might be happy to answer you questions. From what I have seen of the Ballistics they are of good quality and the Hull design is OK.

You have mentioned slamming, I'd be interested to know which boats did that. and what lengths and engines ets. Any Cobras, Avon Adventurers , Zodiacs or Prosports in your slamming group

Also whats your budget, everybody has there favourite boat and will push it , however there is a lot of sense in EZgoings thread

[Ezgoing]

Rogue : Interesting you mentioned the zodiac.

when doing my upgrade search I took the Zodiac out for a spin in a force 5. By my standards it is a real fair weather boat and I would not like to get caught out in in with the family. Zodiac agent agent thought i was a nutter wth crazy expectations. (Nice guy. got my revenge recently by taking him for a spin in a force 7.)

Charlie: don't forget to lie under as many boats as possible . After a while it will begin to make sense and when you have a spin in the boats you will begin to realise how thw different shapes perform.

Enjoy

[Charlie C]

Thanks for all your input.

On the test I have done in F5 I found RIBquest and Zodic the worst. Cobra was fine and so was the stinger which I found surprising. Have yet to test the Ballistic.

Budget is less than £30K (hopefully!)

Charlie C

[Andre]

Originally Posted by Charlie C

Thanks for all your input.

On the test I have done in F5 I found RIBquest and Zodic the worst. Cobra was fine and so was the stinger which I found surprising. Have yet to test the Ballistic.

Budget is less than £30K (hopefully!)

Charlie C

Charlie

I have two demo ribs in Littlehampton you can view and test. a Parker 630 Diesel, known as Seahawk 3 (just brought it over yesterday, 7 hours on the clock )

and a Parker 750 RS with Mercury Verado 225, this rib was brand new for Ribex 2005

checkout our web page and please call me on 01403 780470 if you are interested

[Mollers]

Charlie, check your Private Messages.