Another Total Noob W/?'s

RIBcurious · 14 July 2005, 19:33

I am looking into the possibility of buying a RIB. It would be used primarily for camping excursions, but also diving and fishing. I live in Washington State, on Puget Sound and would use it to explore the San Juan Islands, Olympic Penninsula, as well as the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. So, onto the questions.

1. How large of a boat could be beached? Since camping on the beach would be a primary use, it would be nice to have something that could be driven all the way in and tied up. I take it an aluminum hull would be better than fiberglass for this purpose?

2. What size would you recommend? Normally loaded with two adults, two large dogs + camping and/or diving gear, but could accommodate up to six adults?

3. It seems most manufacturers of RIBs are European. Besides Polaris, are there any other domestic, preferably Northwestern builders?

Thanks for any helpful information.

EdwardH · 15 July 2005, 03:16

well someone else - more knowledgeable - will be along to answer the questions soon... but i will just chuck in my tuppence worth...

Beautiful part of the world btw... i used to work off and on in Redmond and used to get out to san juans etc... whenever i could.

in terms of size - for those waters, for that load and camping gear i would go for a 6.5metre as a minimum.

In terms of beaching, well, do u really need to fully beach or can you moor just off the beach with a bowline attached (its what i do here)? But i have found the alloy keel strip on my Gemini is fine and i don't need a full hard hull.

Try Zodiac - i believe the hurricane range are good boats.

pettal · 15 July 2005, 10:13

I'll chuck in mine whilst I'm here!

We regularly take six people, two dogs and diving gear and we are tight for space on a 7.25m, although we aren't the most organised bunch in the world!

I'd go for (as above) 6.5m as a minimum, beaching a boat of this size is relatively straight forward (I do this quite regularly) but as suggested maybe anchor by the beach and take a small 1 man blow up dinghy and row in.

You can always go bow first into the beach and unload and then retreat to anchoring ground. Otherwise your tide dependant as you can't push a 6.5m RIB between two people for love nor money! So you'll have to wait for the tide to come back in to float again.

Hope that helps