Starting to Spec a New Dive Club Rib

[rads]

Afternoon all.

My dive club is now in the position to replace our existing 6.5m Tornado (twin Mercury 90s).

To my mind, the boat has been great, and would happily swap it like for like, but think I ought to investigate the altenatives.

My list of candidates are:
1) Tornado
2) XS
3) Ribcraft

All of which I know reasonably well, then:

4) Avon
5) Humber
6) Halmatic (or are they mainly military commercial?)

Anyone else I should be talking too?

[Chris]

Osprey

http://www.ospreyribs.co.uk/

Chris

[Pete7]

You could also add Parker to that list:

http://www.ukpowerboat.co.uk/parker_rib_sales.php

Good luck with the choice though, especially getting it past a diving club committee, been there, still have the scars but the tablets help.


Pete

[Ian M]

Originally Posted by Pete7

You could also add Parker to that list:

http://www.ukpowerboat.co.uk/parker_rib_sales.php

Good luck with the choice though, especially getting it past a diving club committee, been there, still have the scars but the tablets help.


Pete

Yes, know whet you mean, I've got similar scars. Our committee gave up on all the sensible choices and went and bought a Pac 22!

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Ian M

Our committee gave up on all the sensible choices and went and bought a Pac 22!

Rubbish choice for a dive boat, better off with an old Cobra, loads of room and doesn't matter if it gets scratched.

Pete

(Was going to add Ribeye to the list but the London chapter are a bit techy at the moment)

[ashbypower]

If your coming along to SBS, then pop along to the XS display they'll be a couple static and I'll take you out on the 850 if you book it.

[bedajim]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Rubbish choice for a dive boat, better off with an old Cobra, loads of room and doesn't matter if it gets scratched.

Pete

(Was going to add Ribeye to the list but the London chapter are a bit techy at the moment)

At the moment

[keelhauled]

I often thought about the right configuration for setting up a dive rib and seeing as most recreational diving is carried out in inshore waters why not a big beamy 8 meter with no centre console and a 225 hp tiller handle on the back with steering dampers of course and some sort of seat post for the cox'n.

[ccopith]

my dive club is currently in the process of specing out a new boat aswell. like that we went to all the usual companies for quotes. we were looking for something in the 6.5-6.8m range and it had to come in on a budget of aroung 40000 euro. all the quotes came in very close to each other so it was really just pick one. the club went with a 6.7m excalibur made by gaelforce ventures in ireland. i went down to visit the factory and was very impressed with the setup and the knowledge of of Joe the head man. they have recently started making dive boats for clubs around ireland. they might be worth a look espiceally with the exchange rate between the euro and sterling.

I bought a ribcraft 6.5m with a 200 hpdi for diving in july and although it is a good boat and i'm very happy with it but i was abit dissapointed with some of the finishing off of the boat if you want i can send on some pics of the ribcraft for a look, i got the console pushed well forward for more room and also the bottle rack is removable and i can put 4 seats in if i want. it's a good boat for carrying alot of divers.