Re-powering a Ribcraft 585

[CJL]

Evening all,

Well it's taken a week of hard work and a lot of money but we've finally re-powered our Ribcraft 585.

Two weeks ago we sold (via the power of Ribnet) our 90hp Mariner 2 stroke and packed it off to it's new life in the Orkneys. The buyer had quite a struggle arranging a good haulage firm to pick it up but in the end it all worked out.

Then we stripped the boat pretty much bare and sent it down to Yellow Penguin in Poole who fitted a brand new and very shiny Mercury 150 four stroke over a week.

We picked it up on Friday, re-wired the entire boat and re-designed the console on Saturday. Completely exhausted we decided we needed a quick trip on the Thames to make sure it still floated and sample a beverage at a nearby public house!

Anyway here are some pictures of our journey:

Chris

[whisper]

Originally Posted by CJL

Evening all,

Well it's taken a week of hard work and a lot of money but we've finally re-powered our Ribcraft 585.

Two weeks ago we sold (via the power of Ribnet) our 90hp Mariner 2 stroke and packed it off to it's new life in the Orkneys. The buy had quite a struggle arranging a good haulage firm to pick it up but in the end it all worked out.

Then we stripped the boat pretty much bare and sent it down to Yellow Penguin in Poole who fitted a brand new and very shiny Mercury 150 four stroke over a week.

We picked it up on Friday, re-wired the entire boat and re-designed the console on Saturday. Completely exhausted we decided we needed a quick trip on the Thames to make sure it still floated and sample a beverage at a nearby public house!

Anyway here are some pictures of our journey:

Chris

Well done Chris, looks awesome

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by whisper

Well done Chris, looks awesome

Should Go Well too!:

[Searider]

Hi Chris,

I'd be very interested to hear how the boat performs with the new 150 4 stroke. Have you had Optimaxes in the past?

[CJL]

Originally Posted by Searider

Hi Chris,

I'd be very interested to hear how the boat performs with the new 150 4 stroke. Have you had Optimax's in the past?

Erm, a 135 Optimax, a 150 Optimax, a 135 Optimax and then a 135 Verado!

We did consider an Optimax again due to the low initial cost but sitting at tick over for a long time isn't an Optimax's best friend so a 4 stroke was the way to go for us.

Interestingly when we had the Verado a friend had an Optimax on an ever so slightly small boat and despite the same trip and loading he did get better MPG than the 4 stroke Verado!

There isn't much in it in my opinion as very few leisure users use their boats enough to make fuel economy the principle reason to go for a 4 stroke. We did it this time for comfort and longevity of the engine.

If I won the lottery tomorrow my 8m Delta would probably have Optimax engines on, well possibly a four stroke, then again may be Optimax - oh hell !

Chris

[CJL]

Originally Posted by Searider

Hi Chris,

I'd be very interested to hear how the boat performs with the new 150 4 stroke. Have you had Optimaxes in the past?

Oh and it does 45 mph, four up, trimmed right in with a stock 19p prop!

Chris