Advice needed on buying a RIB

[chrisangus]

Thinking of buying a RIB for use with a few friends and need some advice, makes, models, equipment, rules and regulatons, everything really, and finding places to dive.
Would like the views from them that have done the same, any help would be appreciated.

Chris

[DanE]

Might be worth having a look at RIBNet.

We have a club boat, which is a 5.8m Humber Destroyer with a Optimax 135 on the back. Goes well, had 30kn with 6 on board, including 4 twin 12s, 1 twin 10 and 1 twin 7

Get some seamanship training and a VHF licencse!

dan

[Kent Tooling]

Try boats and outboards or find a boat

There are some boat magazines out their that may help you, if you find a boat take some one a long who knows what they are looking at who can ask the right questions regarding it.

What is your budget for the boat.

Best of luck in finding the right one

John

[Andy the Coastie]

Originally Posted by Kent Tooling

What is your budget for the boat.

Best of luck in finding the right one

John

Have you then , John ?






List to follow soon.

[chrisch]

A spreadsheet is a good starting point. Having worked out the cost you might (will) want to reconsider.

Fixed costs for a (properly equipped and insured) 6m RIB are about £800-1,200 (excluding depreciation) a year and variable costs about £1.20 per nm. (Towing to site and launch fees excluded).

The UK is crazy - there are no rules or regulations. However, when it goes wrong there are a new breed of no-win no-fee lawyers

No way I would bother if I lived in Leeds. (I love boats and diving and don't care about the money). The main advantage of your own boat is being able to visit new sites and if you need basic advice you're a while off that IMO.

What about joining a club with a boat - see how they go about things, find out the costs and stuff, maybe use them to get some training and experience (the experience is the main thing - you need a lot of it) before shelling out. The sea will be there in a year or two and hopefully so will be the 10 grand or so you need...

Sorry - I really hate to piss on people's bonfires (esp when its someting I love more than diving - boats) but it really needs some carefull thought. Another pisser is that someone always misses the dive 'cos they are cox.

Chris

[Finless]

Get a woman and demand she returns it to you.

[David G]

Originally Posted by chrisch

Fixed costs for a (properly equipped and insured) 6m RIB are about £800-1,200 (excluding depreciation) a year and variable costs about £1.20 per nm. (Towing to site and launch fees excluded).


Chris

I'm not doubting you here Chris, but could you break those figures down, as its not my experience of the cost.

Cheers,

David.

[glanrichbex]

Light a bon fire in your back garden and start throwing £20 notes into it.... same effect....

No but seriously don't rush into it, bear in mind your fuel costs will not be a consideration compared to maintenance costs. If you can do most of it yourself then excellent.

I bought a Valliant DR490 basically a 4.9m, I built a console for it and I put a Mariner 75 2 stroke engine on to it. I am really pleased with it except it's a shallow V and you have to slow down quite allot in rough water compared to say a Humber 5M deep V.

It is 9 years old and looks very reasonable. One day it rained allot and when the sun came out I noticed there was still water dripping out from under the back. You could imagine my horror to find the tubes were coming away from the hull!!! (you've got to be prepaired for the odd shock)

I stripped it and glued it back together myself 3 years ago and touch wood it's fine now.

The Mariner outboard engine I bought else where. I noticed it got harder and harder to go into forward gear. Eventually I was forced to strip the gearbox down. It cost me over £100 in seals and gaskets just to put it back together ( I won't tell you how much the parts cost ) and that's doing it myself!!!

4 stroke engines are quieter and a bit more economical but the service costs are much higher. There is alot of debate between 2 and 4 stroke engines.

2 stroke engines are on their way out sadly ....but have less to go wrong and take allot more abuse.

Find about about availability of parts -

In my experience people sell RHIBs secondhand either because they foresee problems or they buy on impulse and the buzz wears off.

People sell engines because they forsee problems looming, if you have an engine which you know is good it's unlikely you're gong to get rid of it.

At the end of the day a RHIB is a tool to get you to the dive sites, if you treat it as a pleasure craft that's a different kettle of fish.

Make sure others in your group pay their way and don't take advantage.

Good luck!!

[GaryC]

Originally Posted by chrisangus

Thinking of buying a RIB for use with a few friends and need some advice, makes, models, equipment, rules and regulatons, everything really, and finding places to dive.
Would like the views from them that have done the same, any help would be appreciated.

Chris

Really you need to figure out exactly what you are doing with it. How many divers will you get on a regular basis. That will determine the size of the boat then the power unit will come in a range.
Is it only private use. 4 Divers max may be enough. If it is for a shop or club then maybe you need to transport 8 divers and kit. That will be quite a big boat.
I spec'd mine up for 4 divers with 15litre bottles. Really thats out of date nowadays as alot of people dive with twinsets.

The main difficulty is getting people to dive with you. Can you get enough people to dive alot of the time and justify the cost. Are they going to be able to dive to the levels that you want.
Also where do you keep it. If you are lucky enough to have a garage that will take it. Mine is 8' with the A Frame and it wont fit in a Garage.

If you are getting a new one then I recommend that you visit the 3 main builders in the area. Tornado at Hull, Humber at Hull and Northcraft. They will let you look around their factories at other RIBs being built. Personally I found Northcraft totally useless. Phoned them loads of times but they couldnt be bothered. But alot of people like them cos they are at the cheaper end of the scale. (So I am told)

You will need to pay about £200/£300 a year for Insurance. £200-£400 for servicing the engine. £200-£300 periodically for the trailer and boat serviceing. They take a lot of cleaning. If outside then you need a cover. You may need to pay £200 or so a year for storage.

They also depriciate to half in about 3 to 4 years.

They ARE a money pit.

I bought mine about 5 to 6 years ago when it was approx 1/3 the cost of a house. I really wish I had bought a house instead.

But it is really great being able to pick and chose where to go. If I can get the crew.

Good Luck

Gary

[glanrichbex]

I spec'd mine up for 4 divers with 15litre bottles. Really thats out of date nowadays as alot of people dive with twinsets.

I didn't think twin sets was a sign of the times - most of us in our group got fed up with the sheer weight and space taken up in the RHIB that we went back to single 15s