Winter RIBBING!

[Alan]

OK, so is anyone else out there boating during the winter or are we just the foolish ones?! We're planning to go out on Sunday with a local dive club for an informal boathandling day and the long range forecast talks of Wintry showers on the East Coast! Ribbing in a blizzard will be a first for me!

Alan

[John Kennett]

Alan

I hope you've got plenty of warm clothes, and a really good pair of gloves. I went for a ride on my push bike today, and that was quite enough!

Brrr

John

-- This is the cue for Youri to pop up and tell us warm it is in California at the moment!

[Alan]

I think you can safely assume I'll be wearing numerous layers of fleece under my drysuit, a balaclava, skiing goggles and gloves. In fact a fair impression of the Michelin man!

Alan

[Powerboat]

Our RIB Allycat became an ice breaker ( a role normally reserved for her owner at
parties !) last weekend at Hodson Bay on Lough Ree.

Got some nice pics with the digicam .

We had to break through about 10 metres of one inch thick ice to launch at
/ break out of Hodson Bay . For those who, like me , haven't had the
pleasure of ice breaking in a fibreglass hull before this , it makes a
really weird noise as you plough through - sort of like someone breaking
bottles off the bottom of your hull . It was an absolutely beautiful , sunny
, flat calm / glassy day on Lough Ree with another 5 or 6 boats also out
enjoying a bit of January boating . Water temperature wasa nice and warm +2 degrees C midlake .

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[Alan Mckewan]

Being involved in yacht & dinghy racing in the summer means that we do most of our ribbing in the winter, from running powerboat courses to trips across the North Channel to Portpatrick (Scotland). Last year four RIBs from Bangor N.I. were the first visiting boats to Portpatrick in the new year. At one stage icicles were forming on our faces from the freezing fog! The hot ports went down very well that day.
At least going somewhere gives you a goodd reason to be out. We also run dinghy racing every Sunday through the winter, and sitting about doing rescue can be MUCH colder...
I've found that mittens are a much better job than gloves on a RIB - your fingers seem to help keep each other warm. One thing I havent cracked yet is how to do 30 knots in a hailstorm without you face getting beat stupid...

[Alan]

"One thing I havent cracked yet is how to do 30 knots in a hailstorm without you face getting beat stupid..."

I guess that is one of the times when wearing a helmet with full face visor is a smart move. Trouble is I don't like that idea for all sorts of reasons so I make do with a balaclava and skiing goggles. Still bloody hurts sometimes though!

Alan

[hugh holmes]

Having raced old class 3c offshore & used
both open face with a visor & fullface helmets I would feel that my head would be
even more top heavy than it is. As in most
rib,s there is little or no neck support.
I would like to try the sort of helmet that downhill snowskiers use.Somthing that like
that may be the cure for face stinging rain
& hail.Any other thoughts out there.

[Jari Hjerppe]

In Finland we have a lot of snow mobile riders and they have pretty nice and WARM equipment for snowmobiling. I think those masks, underwear, gloves, collars etc. could be very useful for winter ribbing too!

[Powerboat]

I have found The Zurich range of Powerboating / Ski sunglasses sold by Ravenspring www.ravenspring.co.uk to be excellent at protecting the eyes in hail / sleet .

Be sure that you get the gradated ones though ( so you can see where you are going on dark winter days !).

Best wishes ,
Stuart

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www.powerboat.org

[John Kennett]

I'm not keen on wearing a helmet either.

My preferred solution is to use dirt-bike goggles (just like ski goggles, but with clear lenses), a Musto hat with fleecy ear flaps, and a polartec fleece tube to cover the neck and mouth. That just leaves my nose exposed, but I haven't worked a way round that yet!

Goggles and glasses (and windscreen and instruments) all get a good application of Rainex to keep the water off.

John

PS So how was it Alan?