To go diesel or petrol

nickjaxe · 21 September 2003, 14:23

Hi all, My RIB use is to do with the sub aqua club I belong to, we have at present two 5mtr Ribs, a tornado with a 65 suzuki, the other boat is a chinook with an old suzuki 48hp, we are thinking about getting rid of both boats and getting a bigger boat as room is important with all our gear, around the 6mtr to 7mtr mark maybe, to let us get out and back a bit further more safely, and would prob be second hand, the thing I would like advise about is, do we go diesel for economy or petrol, at present our boats only gets used maybe ten w\ends per year, so I am thinking the diesel may be uneconomic due the higher outlay to start with, and then the prob of getting red derv, is that much of a prob, most of our diving is around anglesey with trips of maybe 8miles each way, anyway what do you think.

Nick in cheshire.

Alan · 21 September 2003, 14:40

This has been debated before here so you might do a search for some comment. Its also some analysis I went through a few years ago before buying a bigger RIB. My conclusion was that petrol was better than diesel for the amount of cruising I wanted to do and the budget I had.

Given the info on your dive clubs useage I would emphatically go for petrol rather than diesel. Your useage wont recover the extra investment in the boat for many years. Also a diesel RIB has less space for dive kit than an outboard one. IMHO what you should go is for a 6-7m boat with a new tech four stroke or injected 2 stroke (Ficht, Optimax, HPDI). Fuel consumption much reduced over your suzuki 2 strokes!

HTH,
Alan

Aging Youth · 21 September 2003, 18:00

Hi Nick,

Based on the info provided IMHO I would go Petrol. However, If you went diesel with the cheap cost & availability alomost anywhere would it not encourage you to do more Ribbing/Diving?

There is so much more to this sport than just using the boat for diving.

I was out on the water Yesterday in a Parker 6.3m Diesel Rib, engine a 1.7 ltr 120 Hp mercruiser.

My Friend and I went from Littlehampton to Southampton Boat Show & Back via cowes for lunch.

I understand that this was over 150Nm round trip and we used less than 100 lts of diesel @ 25p per litre. We were cruising at approx 25-30knots all the way.

That is a lot of dive trips or just going out for the hell of it.

Decisions!!! Decisons!! Decisions!

Good luck.

P.s My next boat will DEFINATELY be a Diesel.

Richard B · 21 September 2003, 18:21

In the ever-emerging discussions of Diesel v Petrol, safety never seems to be a considered factor.

If you add this into the equation, then Diesel lookes even better!

Unfortunately, in the process of chosing my own RIB the "buzz" factor was important, which priced diesel out of my reach.

Garygee · 21 September 2003, 20:19

Hi Nick

As a Diesel RIB owner, I love them and would not move to a petrol RIB for me.

HOWEVER

I think from what you say you should go petrol, as has been said before you wont recover the extra cost on the diesel.
This toghther with the considerable reduction in space, my engine box must be 4 foot long, which could be used to carry a lot of dive gear on a petrol outboard RIB.

The other thing is what are you going to tow this with, a diesel RIB will be quite a bit heavier than the same power petrol, bay maybe as much as 2 or 3 hundred KG's.

One thing you may consider though as long as you can always can do the trip on one fill, which is susspect you will, would be LPG, does not cost much to convert a 4 stroke, is available at many garages now and is not much more per L then diesel.

Regards Gary

Brian · 21 September 2003, 21:34

There are only two arguments for going diesel. Price and availability.
As you are a diving club maybe even the price argument is not too strong either. I believe there is a scheme whereby you can recoup the VAT / duty on your petrol if you fullfil certain criteria? Any experts comment?

Availabilty does not seem to be a concerning factor for you either-so petrol it is then.