Hey guys, love the site as i find myself here looking for answers.. im new to inflatables but not new to boating. I have a bombard 3.1 meter rib paired with a 9.8 tohatsu that i use out in the gulf for fishing and diving. i use about 3 gallons of fuel every 2 months(i go out 4-6 times a month) there are not many of us so please excuse the noob like questions that i have from time to time. you guys across the pond from me have so much better suppliers than i.. anyways heres some pics of the boat, also a pic of a buddy with a sib.
oh yeah, and cheap to operate. we have a thing here that you can launch a vessel under 12ft and 10hp from the beach.. i get out to the oil rigs that are 4-5 miles offshore and 25-30 from the nearest inlet in less than 10 mins. and the boats that can go to those rigs dont because they rather go to the rigs further offshore, its like a hidden fishing hole with almost zero traffic
Hi, CJK (correct me if the abbreviation is upsetting);
Do you dive the rigs as well? In SoCal, you need rather hard to get permission (at least last I knew); tried to get there once, but the load on the dive boat was somewhat below par, so the boat captain scrubbed the rig dive.
CJK is fine with me. we mostly free dive out there/ spear fish. the water is roughly 60ft so i dont really see the need to get dive gear on and do all that jazz. and we have really no reefs here and ive never herd anything about not being there.. heres some pics of a rig
Hello n welcome ceejkay,
Great pics, out of interest what depth are you freediving too, and how long do you hold your breath, not that I'm thinking of trying, it's way to chilly round UK waters for that sort of thing.
never really timed it to be honest. normally long enough to get down 40-50ft look around for a little bit and come up. or go down hit a fish wait for it to calm down and come up. when i lived in florida i would free dive for lobster, that was go down 30ish feet poke around grab a lobster measure it and come up. im no where near as good as most of my friends as i smoke. but i think i hold my own.. i tend to stay away from the last 10-12 ft because its really soft and merky and quite honest scares me a bit.
thank you. yes they are unmanned. an OSV normally goes out to them once a week to check up on things, we normally leave if they show up, as do the fish.