Gemini Ribs ?

Matt Lemon · 03 April 2002, 14:13

Does anyone have anything (good or bad) to say about Gemini Ribs ?

I bought one for my dive centre at the end of last year, its a 6m waverider with a Honda 130 and a 17" pitch prop.

The boat handles great when there is only 3-4 passengers in it revs to 6000 rpm and does 35 kts. When I load it with 8 divers and gear the engine won't go over 4500 revs (10-12 kts).

I know that by reducing the pitch to 15 it'll probably be much better but then I'm lumbered with a boat that might not do more than 25 kts.

Aside from this it seems to take on a lot of water !

GraemeCooper · 03 April 2002, 15:55

Hi Matt

I did look at the Gemini range last year when considering my new RIB, mind you I think I looked at just about EVERY make of RIB.

I found the Geminis totally unsuitable for me personally - the demo I took was in moderate seas and we were thrown all over the place.

I would have also thought that the Honda 130 may be a little heavy for a 6 metre boat unless you have all of your wei
ght far forward - I have had to do this on my Avon.

However, there was a Gemini that did the RB4 challenge last year - I believe it was a cut down 5 metre - but that seemed to cope OK with the UK conditions.

You could always try a variale pitch prop and alter it acording to the weight / use of the boat?

Matt Lemon · 15 April 2002, 08:02

I think that I have found a resolution. I worked out the weight of 8 divers plus a driver and it was right on the limit of the published load for the boat. The time that I tested the boat was in fresh (calm) water and over short distances and I've come to a few conclusions :

1 - The boat was slightly overloaded !
2 - Travelling such a short distance with not much chance to build up speed, the bailers weren't getting chance to empty the hull fully.
3 - It's harder to get a boat (on the limit) to plane in flat calm water.

All this said, I took 7 divers + kit + driver out in Dublin bay on Sunday with 2-4 ft seas and the boat was doing 26kts. As I opened the throttle the engine revved to 4k and then as the bailers started to do their job the revs picked up all the way to the 6k limit :-)

FYI. The console is about 1/2 way down the boat and all the tanks are in a rack that stretches from just forward of the transom to the back of the console. All the weight belts and 'bits' were at the bow and the divers sat on the tubes about where the cockpit is.

Thanks,

Matt