Woodfree ribs ?

[Jono71]

Does anybody know if there are any rib manufacturers that use a mainly wood free construction ? I guess if all the wood is perfectly sealed it should last indefinitely, however I'm thinking in the real world wood free might have benefits. I think I once saw a pic of a redbay hull using foam core stringers but could be wrong.

Jono

[willk]

Originally Posted by Jono71

Does anybody know if there are any rib manufacturers that use a mainly wood free construction ? I guess if all the wood is perfectly sealed it should last indefinitely, however I'm thinking in the real world wood free might have benefits. I think I once saw a pic of a redbay hull using foam core stringers but could be wrong.

Jono

If wood is used correctly it should have a very long lifespan on a RIB. Foam cores are fairly commonplace now. Redbay certainly use them in a wide range of craft. In addition, a number of their smaller ribs are constructed with fully moulded decks - reducing the places where timber and water can meet. They also use plastic "cellular" sheeting like Nidaplast as a light timber substitute in some applications. In some of the small RIBs, the only timber will be in the transom.
Often the issues with timber occur when fixings are inserted through the final finish into the timber and not properly sealed - i.e. transom holes and deck fittings like seats and so forth.

[cptsideways]

Ribeye do ally hulled ribs

Ribeye rib TS480 aluminium hull semi inflatable sport boat tender. Brand New!!!! | eBay

[paulbrown22]

Various aluminium offerings from Ribeye and Highfield at the more leisure end of the market, through to Zodiac Milpro, Flugga Boats (does anyone still make the OceanDynamics RibWorkers?) and the like aimed at the more commercial user.

[Exe treme]

Originally Posted by cptsideways

Ribeye do ally hulled ribs

Ribeye rib TS480 aluminium hull semi inflatable sport boat tender. Brand New!!!! | eBay

I think the TS 480 is the largest and going by its weight (130kg) is it more of a large tender?

Have a look at these if you want to consider an aluminium RIB, I like mine a lot...

http://www.seaswift.co.uk/highfield.html

[otilly]

scorpion doesn't use any wood.

[Jono71]

Less wood sounds good to me as a rib for me would be a bit of kit that spends most of its time doing nothing so extending its lifetime can only be good. The tubes are another matter but retubing doesn't fill me with dread as much as chopping out rotten wood. Also the recent thread on humbers got me thinking about the wood situation. Less the better for me.

[captnjack]

waterlogged foam isn't any better than waterlogged wood.

+1 for all aluminum construction

[Bigtalljv]

AL can corrode badly and quickly under the wrong situations, wood can rot, foam can get water logged. There isn't exactly an ongoing problem with wood based boats. Even the poorly made ones will last decades before they have issues. The rebuilds you see online with wood core boats are usually decades old. basing you decision on one thread that is lacking in details and history about a single boat seems like a bad idea. Unless of course money is no obstacle.

[Jono71]

Yeah it's not the be all and end all, just an option to consider. In the real world something solid and workmanlike like an XS Ribs boat is probably a front runner, but I won't discount looking at other options price is always an issue. My gut feeling is that a set up like the Ribcraft ply matrix is probably as strong as you're going to get, obviously full of wood but hopefully well sealed.

[Jim Robinson]

Originally Posted by Jono71

Does anybody know if there are any rib manufacturers that use a mainly wood free construction ? I guess if all the wood is perfectly sealed it should last indefinitely, however I'm thinking in the real world wood free might have benefits. I think I once saw a pic of a redbay hull using foam core stringers but could be wrong.

Jono

We have tried as much as possible to stop using wood. The quality of today's ply is not what it use to be and it only takes one screw hole to set off the water ingress. All the boats we have built in the past four years have only had wood in the transom the rest is HD foam. We can use very hard foam sheet in the transom if requested but it cost absolute fortunes. We also partition the sheets every meter so water can't go through the entire structure.