Boat size

[Jari Hjerppe]

Need an opinion. What would be the minimum size of the rib to travel from Helsinki to Tallin and back?. Sea is usually pretty calm and 90% of the year you can count it in the class D of the EC class (less than 2 metre waves). Of course the bigger the better but because of the thin wallet can't get a 8 mtr RIB. Opinion from all professional (and other) RIB users are welcome. The Distance at the minimum is not more than 30 NM.

[Jari Hjerppe]

sorry, ment a class C

[Brian]

My humble opinion is that it is TOTALLY dependant on the weather, your preparation and your onboard equipment.
Assuming "perfect" weather, and you have a radio, GPS and compass, have figured out your course and have paper details plus chart, then almost any size of boat with adequate fuel reserve should do it. In the UK they are about to do a round Britain, say 1600-1800 mile in a group of sub-5m boats. However, they will all be properly prepared, supervised and suitably cautious.
Good luck !!

[John Kennett]

In the UK they are about to do a round Britain, say 1600-1800 mile in a group of sub-5m boats.

And it remains to be seen how successful they are!

I have no doubt that it is feasible to go round Britain in a five metre RIB, but I reckon it is very optimistic to only allow ten days. That's an average of around 160 miles a day, every day. The longest day is planned to be 230 miles, and that will be seriously hard work even in good conditions. It will only take a bit of shitty weather to really affect their progress. I am happy to be proved wrong, but I can't help wondering if they may have underestimated just a bit.

Coming back to the question in hand, I would suggest that a five metre boat would probably be OK, given good conditions. I don't know this area, and I don't know how reliable the weather forecasts are, but bear in mind that the smaller the boat, the less margin you have for dealing with unforseen conditions.

John