BWM ribs

[leeprice]

hello all

im just adding this post to say that i have noticed a few people saying BWM ribs is no longer trading

in fact we still are and at this time we are relaunching the deep sea and rapier range, have a look at http:www.ribs.ws or contact me for more information

we will soon be launching our new boat with many new features so keep checking the site for news

thanks for reading this

lee

leeprice@ribs.wsribs.ws

[Alan]

Hmm, interesting. Any further information on who's behind the new company that you'd care to share? As an ex-BWM owner I know the hull designs are great. If you can get the build quality and pricing right then you should do well!

[Hightower]

I spoke to a previous owner of BWM RIBs in Emsworth last year sounded like the old firm had difficulties with suppliers and so went into receivership.

Lee, I would be interested if you could give me any more info in the history of BWM and why my BWM RIB is a Deepsea 17 and not an 18?

PS: Is the current BWM linked to Solent RIBs or Fairweather marine? PM me if you like!

Good luck for the future,

Andy

[leeprice]

Alan its the same company but just been out of action for the last year as they have been refurbishing and constructing new range of Ribs (watch Press) New partner now doing the construction and they have moved to Southampton. Hightower - the previous owner was not from Emsworth that was someone who used to buy ribs from BWM and sell them as his own

[Alan]

The iteration (and I believe there have been several) of BWM I dealt with had a gentleman IIRC somewhere near Chichester way as owner of the BWM name. Building was carried out by Loxton marine in Bridport. (Who I understand went bust.) and sales and marketing by the inestimable Mr Lemmer. This was in 1998/9.

[gavin]

Last summer a cabin yellow BWM arrived in Dun Laoghaire approx 7.4 or 8 m it apparantly had a 400 hp diesel inboard I looked up its name and found a pic on the net of it, does anybody know this boat cheers gavin

[John Kennett]

Originally posted by leeprice
in fact we still are and at this time we are relaunching the deep sea and rapier range, have a look at http:www.ribs.ws or contact me for more information

Is there anything actually on the site yet? All I could get was an annoying flash animation then a page with a revolving logo and the message "flash detected" . . .

For the record, can anyone give a run down of who has owned, built and sold BWM RIBs and when? It would be interesting to piece the story together!

John

[Daniel]

Originally posted by John Kennett
can anyone give a run down of who has owned, built and sold BWM RIBs and when?

My small part of the story would be from approx. 1992-1995 BWM sold hulls with tubes to South Coast RIBS (now make Scorpions) who fitted them out and sold them.

I too would like to know the full story, but-by-bit so if you know something, or think you do SHOUT...

[leeprice]

hi all thanks for your comments

as i dont own BWM ribs myself i will get the full rundown from the owners

but to the best of my knowlage the business has been aroung since 1982 but over the last year has been through a revamp

BWM's achievements are: Guinness World Record for circumnavigating the UK held for 10 years, once held the fastest inshore boat speed record held on lake Windermere, winners of Formula 1&2 of the BIBOA racing championships.
Some organisations we have sold Ribs to are; Diving Org, Safety Org, the Marines, the Coastguard, the River Police, Poole Police, Harbour Masters, DERA (Gov Marine Research Dept.), TV, Racers

as for the web site its still in development but all the links should work you may just have to scroll down a bit on the page or set your browser to full screen

anyway like i said ill get some more backgrond info and post it here soon

[simmons0]

whoa, scary intro on the website!

JK - you click to logo to access the site....

Have you got any pictures of these race boats? Id just be interested to see them. Im asuming they are a different hull to the deep sea's or rapier's?

[Pete7]

Not sure about scary but that web site is rubbish. Keep it simple and give people pictures, specs and prices.

Lee, Is the new company claiming the royalities for the name and moulds/desing shape.

You have your work cut out, there seems to be lots of other people making BMW boats.

Pete

[John Kennett]

Originally posted by simmons0
JK - you click to logo to access the site....

It's not clickable for me (using Win98 and IE6) The only link on the page when it loads is the advert for the web design company -- which leads to a truly dreadful site!

Ho hum . . .

John

[Hightower]

Still like to know the history of my RIB! The tube differs from that of Daniel's previous RIB Grayswish a little and has the words supplied by Blue Water Maritime printed on the rear and on the inside of her tubes. Would be interesting if my hull is the same design as "today’s" specimen though.

Only piece of info is that the hull might have been supplied to South Coast RIBS in and around 1995 based on the layout of the consol and seat pods.

Here's a picture of her to jog any memories.

[Hightower]

here's hoping!

[Dirk Diggler]

Originally posted by John Kennett
The only link on the page when it loads is the advert for the web design company -- which leads to a truly dreadful site!

Ho hum . . .

John

Hey JK, I'm supposed to be the nasty one. Have you checked out Lee's occupation, I think you might be criticising his baby.

Although I would have to agree, it is a most awful site, goes well with the ribs though!

I can think of one achievement that he left off of the list!

[John Kennett]

It's OK, you han have a day off from being nasty

I hadn't noticed Lee's profile (thought he was a boat builder), so no offence meant!

Lee, tell us more about the new setup at BWM . . .

John

[Mark Halliday]

JK

Here is what I know or believe is to be true.
BWM used to trade from Dolphin Quay, Emsworth and then moved to Thornham Marina. During this time, the hulls were moulded by Porter Plastics. Circa 1997 BWM stopped trading, and Porter were left with the moulds and a few debts. They retained the DS21 mould ( I dont know about the others) and have used it to produce the Renagade 6500. I have the prototype, which was bought from porters by 2 friends of mine at about 1 yr. old in 1998. I have now bought one half share in said boat.
It has a good soild but heavy hull, which gives a smooth, soft ride and a really usefull length for the solent chop.
I may be seeing Mike Porter in the next day or so, and see if I can find out more.

Porter's URL is http://fp.pvss1875.plus.com/htc_host...ers/index.html

[Nigel]

Having looked at the new BWM site I see that the sample picture of the Deep Sea 18 is me driving my new boat when it was built back in 1997!eek:
Good to see then back in production - the hull design is excellent

Nigel

[leeprice]

Hello all and thanks for your comments

The website is by no means complete as yet and as we get the newer boats built we will be updating it and adding lots of features that take it away from a mainly boat sales site.

I will also take full responsibility for the site design and im quite will to take on board any comments or features people would like to see.

As I say the site is in its early days and there is still a lot of work to do on it but once again thank you for any constructive comments

Lee

[andymr]

Thank you for all of your comments - As a few are interested in the history of BWM, I will bring you up to date.....I owned Loxton Marine with Steve Loxton, I met Paul Lemmer who was down on his luck - We did a joint venture with him - shortly after Paul wanted to bring other people (From Chichester) as the profit margin was tight the joint venture did not work. The people Paul brought in took most of Paul's profit (I do not know what this arrangement was, as this was nothing to do with us) Paul went broke the other people were claiming the rights for the BWM range, we ended up going to court - I ended up with the rights and the moulds which I had paid for. 2 years ago Steve Loxton moved to New Zealand, before he left I brought his share and retained the company. I met with an old friend of mine and we joined forces - Rod Ross-Smith, on the understanding that he ran the company - I have put all of the rights, moulds, equipment etc into the JV and Rod spent most of last year refurbishing and constructing new moulds - We are very excited about the future as the new models look great. We have re-branded and given the whole company a compleat make over and we have some exciting projects on (you will have to wait for the press, maybe Feb - early March) Our aim is to make a high quality product for the right price. If you want more info you can contact me on ... andy@ribs.ws.........Sorry about the book!!