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I guess peoples input to this and advice will be different depending upon experience, a newbie looking to buy a rib would have different preferences to someone who has plenty of experience of ribs, same as any boat buying experience car buying experience etc.
I would consider myself as being experienced having owned a rib for over 10 years or so and having an interest in boats and ribs in general and seeing developments in rib design have a number of observations.
Why buy a rib over another form of boat of equal size?
Top points
Sea keeping qualities – generally more able in the rough than a normal hard boat, buoyancy tubes act to stabilise the boat and help with buoyancy if the worst happens. Normally fitted with mechanisms to easily get rid of volumes of water if you stuff the rib into a large wave.
I would look at reviews and comments from other owners before thinking about a particular rib, would also look at things like MCA reports in case of any inherent safety issues with some designs.
We all know marketing is just fluff.
What I would look for if purchasing a new rib.
Top Points
Designed for use and not for style, so many ribs and other boats seem to be designed to look cool rather than function, things like the absence of handrails around the boat, might look sleeker but some handrails are useful in the rough. Other things like really fancy console designs but nowhere to put down your gloves or a can of coke, some consoles are looking more like something out of star trek than a boat in design, other things like steps to help you get in and out of the boat made from GRP, might look great but a big trip hazard if placed in dumb places.
Pet hates – overuse of self-tapping screws, I replaced around 80 self-tappers from locker surrounds etc, they wear badly and damage the GRP and are excellent at ripping boat covers and your hands.
Limited locker space – its amazing how much stuff you should and do carry onboard even for a day out many rib and boat designers don’t have enough lockers to store things.
Overpowering – there is a tendency for newer ribs to have multiple engines of a high power, 30 years ago 100hp was deemed to be a large engine now its 500hp (2x250hp) which is often the norm and even bigger, is so much power really needed?
Pricing – The price of a new rib with many manufacturers has gone through the roof, they are killing the market in my opinion, they need to be more sensible around pricing.
Chart plotters – often it seems like engines bigger is best, have seen some huge chart plotters on modest ribs, you could read the plotter from several boat lengths behind the rib, also a tendency for touch screen plotters which is fine in summer months but what about in autumn or winter when you may have gloves on.
Manufacturing, look at the small detail, how are electrics wired, does it look neat and logical, how is hull and elsewhere constructed, how are seats and console secured to the deck.
So, my short answer would be function and manufacturing excellence over design. Heritage and reviews all play a good part.
Anything missing in the rib market compared to other boats, probably the only thing I can think of might be something more affordable which has a small cabin.
Also I would not personally unless I was rich buy a new rib or any other boat new, plenty of decent priced used available which with a bit of TLC can be even better than many new ribs and other boats.
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Black Hawk
Ocean Devil
