WELL..... what can i say!! EXCELLENT
The beast handles like a dream. We launched at 7am full of fuel , all very keen to see how she would perform. Everyone very nervous. The Cummins technician turned up at 9.am and we fired the engines. The roar is unbeliveable, however when the Cabin door is closed the flybridge is well insulated as is the lower Cabin and is very quiet inside. the stability is very good and "yes" she is still a RIB. The tube is very low of the water giving the boat very good stability yet it doesn't quite touch the water when standing so we can avoid the problem of growth in the tubes when moored up in a harbour, a very serious problem when moored on the black sea. You would not believe how quickly growth appears on boats in that area.
We took the boat out at around 11am, and for the first hour or so just had the engines ticking over, very dificult to do..... I mean the temptation to just push the throttles forward and let the 1200+ HP loose was tremendous
!!!
after all paramters of the engine where noted and inspected by the cummins tech who was plugged in with a special diagnostics laptop all the time gave the thumbs up and with a smile on his face said "let her rip!!!" i slowly throttled up heading towards Gdańsk, where we had meatings set up with the military and the Border gaurds.
The RIB did a maxium of 37 knots with 24 people onboard.
We had a force 4 to 5 wind blowing head on, with a maxium wave height of 2,5... 3m. The boat didn't even feel the bumps.... cutting smoothly through all waves.
I could see the smiles appearing on everyones faces, and the team started to RELAX....I could see by the grin on our technical managers face what he was thinking. "WELL DONE LADS!! WE HAVE GOT OURSELVES A SEXY LOOKING RIB HERE, THAT NOT ONLY LOOKS SEXY!! IT PERFORMS ASWELL!!
the twin QSM 11'S coupled with the ZF gearboxes and Hamilton jets in the PARKER 1400 INTERCEPTOR JUST make it an awsome package. "A must have for comercial use, patrol , rescue, Pilot etc..."
oN The other hand, with the sleeping quaters below deck with 4 bunkbeds shower toilet, kitchen and the saftey aspect of it being a RIB!!! well.... gimme one for my holidays.... Cruise round the BALTIC lovely... or maybe a trip to the UK... ??? Plenty of room for a nice flat screen LCD TV AND audio system. maybee some teak on the deck..... will have to play with a few of those ideas..... perhaps some quad VERADO 300'S INSTEAD OF THE DIESELS...
LOT'S OF THING THAT CAN BE DONE. NOW THAT WE KNOW THE HULL IS A KILLER, WELL DONE COLIN
Unfortuantely I don't have any of the pics taken from the escorting boats as the camerman and photographer left early. I will post those photos later in the week when i can get my hands on them. I will also post the video (youtube link). Here are a few we took from the
PARKER "INTERCEPTOR" 1400.
