So, As I promised to Olly that I'll write a story how it all went...
Background: As I live here north, in Finland there are not very many options available, considering RIB boats, and buing one here was far too explensive for me this point of time. I've had a "rib" once. It really was a shitty one (sorry for U brig owners), A brig 450, rigged with all 25 horsepower Johnson... I don't actually want to talk about it. It's gone now....
I use boats for diving and wreck hunting. So I wanted a rib that was over 5meters, but not more than 6meters. Easy launch, easy to tow, but to able to carry 2-4 fully rigged technical divers from point a to point b. But also a boat that would be stable enough when driving with speeds under 3-4 knots when towing the sidescan sonar fish.
Choices: I didnt have any preferred model when I set the advertisement. But soon I realized, that someone writing a WTB advertisement from Finland to mainly British forum, does not get many replies. I got some and thaks for those. You all were in my mind when I was finaly arriving to UK territory. But then I tired to be active on buying side and in ebay. After many thougths I made my mind quite strictly to Avon SeaRider 5.4's. They seem to be something I was looking.(They are very rare here, only ones I've seen are in military use)... I did see also boats outside this forum, but condition vs. pricing did not met. Most of the sellers did not take me seriously, did not answer their phones or something. but I saw 5 different boats, and I was not forced to buy one, unless the price and condition meets. Nobody wants to call back to foreign number even you set a voicemail... But thats how it sometimes goes.
What I got: I got the searider that Olly had been refurbishing. It had some wounds, but overall it seemed to be in ok condition. So She left to fraraway north with me. Even Olly felt a bit sad, that I didn't care too much about his pride and joy, the Evinrude, tha he had brought back to life ;o) All I wanted was the boat!
How did it go: After the very first towed kilometers, to get the lightboard for the trailer, we broke the bearing, from right side of the trailer... With a lot of imagination, on a saturday night...we managed to build a new bearing from old bearings, and washers...(washer we took out from Ollys other seariders, yammie's propeller axle) Anyway, we got the lightboard working, bearing fixd, and I was ready to hit the road. After the first 300 km on the royal brotish ground, I was still very concerned about the bearings... I tried to get a spare one, but getting one on sunday, was a bit problematic... But I thought that if it lasts for 400 km, it will last some more, until I get to Germany, where I know the places where to get spares. So it went... that bugfixd bearing lasted from Portsmouth to Stansted, Stansted to London, and from London to Dover... From Dover I got ferry to Boulogne. No problemos, France highways, following the Belgium, and Netherlands... And I forgot the whole issue... There I was driving along, no extra sounds etc.
I spent a night in germany, and ofcourse I slept in the boat floor in sleeping bag (Car had alarms, boat did not) Then we went on, through germany...
But in Nothern Germany it started to happen.... I was happy to arrive there, buy some cheap beer to bring home, sleep in a hotel, with guarded parking lot....
Everything went fine until in the morning... Some one needed desperatly vw transpoter headlights, extra chromebumper and really wanted to take a look inside the cabin, through co.driver door, pickin up stereos, fire extinguisher etc. even the trailer had been lift off from the ball, but my extra steel lock had kept it connected to carbody.... So there I was... forced to take a ferry from Rostock to Helsinki, because of lost headlights etc. BUT Still happy about the stupidity of the theft...
I would like to send priceless greetings to the guys who attacked my car! The trunk was filled with beer, but also holding underneath of all camping equipment, two pieces of scubadiving rebreathers + a lots of other very valuable diving gear. worth 20K Eur...
The finnish legislation: You can import a boat without any extra taxes paid. This one was easy, I even got her registrated yesterday... but the trailer is going to be a hard part, well see more next week. In Finland thre are strict rules for trailers, and even class 01 neds to registered...
But the boat, how is she doing? As I said, she has now finnish registration number painted to tubes... I have glued the wounds she had. And my opinion is thart seems to be in a better shape I excepted. Tomorrow well go to the sea, finally. Lets see Olly, how the Evinrude runs...
Future: She was originally comissioned as diving platform to north sea, now she well get back to her old duties. Serving as diving platform again.
After cople of months the baltic sea will be frozen, so she will go into my garage for some new modifications. Iam planning to build an a-frame to suit my needs, an autopilot system because of the sidescan sonar towing and so on.
Some minor fixes to tubes & hull,but I want to keep her look "a bit sunburst" not to get anybody interested to stealing her....
So, meanwhile the winter comes, I might be interested of some electornics, mainly radar stuff which is quite pricy here in finland. Offers welcome.
If someone is interested about the diving stuff... We host a website called
www.regulaattori.com Go there and take a look.
Maybe I post some pictures abour the boat in the baltics if someone is interested.
// Antti
