what a dilemma ?

[wolfie]

So I buy this old Avon rib cause I wanted the engine, great, but what to do with the rest of it, now its a 4 chamber tube, which has had many repairs over the years and deflates on the starboard front within 24 hours, the tubes are very badly stained/faded/ marked.
So do I save up 2-3000 and retube, or have some fun as I have a few gallon of resin and matting in the shed, blow the tubes up hard and glass the lot to build a rigid tubed rib..?????? Or would that then be a RTB ?

[ShinyShoe]

Can you find the leak?

[wolfie]

I could find the leak, but the tubes are so very badly faded/marked that I have spent several hours cleaning scrubbing etc but nothing works and it looks like a patch work quilt

[Neil Harvey]

Are tops of tubes in worse shape than bottom?
I recall seeing a rub with new hypalon covering the entire top sides for tubes. Guess cheaper option than a full retube of leaks fixable.

[ShinyShoe]

Patch the leak its an extra patch on the quilt. RTB will have zero value. Patchwork quilt would have some value.
But you wanted the engine so presumably is in use elsewhere so now you need another engine? Or patch and flog on fleabay

[whisper]

Pics dude, we need pictures to tell you what to do

[spartacus]

Don't even think about coating the tubes in fibreglass. The whole outfit will be worthless as a result. Your re-tube price seems a bit low at £2-3k, I'd have thought it was nearer £4-5k.

Sell it on, now you've got the engine. Alternatively purchase something like this and save yourself the hassle.
Avon SeaRider 5.4m RIB (Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat) Sea-rider | eBay

[wolfie]

Well to be honest, I got the whole thing, rib, engine and rotten trailer for less than I would have paid for the engine alone, so trailer went to metal heaven, engine in garage, so rib owes me nowt, why I thought about covering in glass was cause I saw this. And thought that looks good,

http://www.menaimarine.plus.com/mena..._540%20RTB.htm

[paintman]

Link no worky.
Did you mean this one? Menai 540RTB 5.4m rigid tube rib

ETA Your link now working & yes you did!

[wolfie]

Yep that's the one

[ShinyShoe]

There is nothing wrong with rigid toobed boats as such... Most have foam filled toobs. But you need to work out what the toobs are supposed to do are the buoyancy? Are the giant fenders? If the are buoyancy filling with foam would be wise because they certainly won't be fenders when you come alongside something with no internal structure they would crack.

You'd add quite a bit of weight.

You won't get a decent finish glassing over toobs.

If I was having a rigid toob it would be made of polyethylene either rotomoulded or poly toobs bolted on. Both are butt ugly in my opinion. But functional.

Never felt the need to buy an engine and keep it in my garage... Does your garage get on the plane with it? :ROFL:

[wolfie]

Ha ha LOL well the garage has got more than enough HP stored in it to get it going, sad really......... the engine was a 40 Mariner, and I now have a pair, both ex RNLI low hour units, these are for a future project, then there is a 70 yam auto lube which might go on the aforementioned patchwork quilt / RTB if I go for it, then we wont mention the rebuilt Penta inboards which I rebuild for a hobby or the other classic Penta outboards. Anyway if I go for a RTB I would build lockers into the 'toobs' and replace the baffles with plates to give it anti crush capability, and plenty of d strake and big wear patches like the one in the link.

[wolfie]

Well I have decided to patch and play, so do I go for the single 70 yam, or drop the twin 40 mariners on ?????? Also rather than buy huge amounts of expensive hypalon to cover the tops of the tubes, is there a cheaper alternative ?, as I have started the 'tube fund' for sometime next year.