Novurania?

[sugatam]

Any Novurania owners here that can tell me what the deadrise is on their DL series? In particular the larger 550/660 DL? Novurania advertises a "deep-V' hull in their marketing literature, but I haven't found any numbers on the net.

[Commander 21]

I am the owner of a 2001 DL530 with a Yamaha 115 four stroke. If your thinking about buying a Novurania, which by the way is an excellent RIB with great sea handling ability, you should consider several things about Novuranias' or other RIBs coming off of a Yacht.

First if the boat is over 5-10 years old you need to know that Novurania gas tanks which are aluminum are notorious for developing leaks. The tanks are installed in a supposedly sealed compartment surrounded by foam. My Novurania which is 9 years old has had two tanks and I am now putting a third in.

I recently purchased my Novurania from the Novurania company which had accepted it on a trade-in and after having a shop thoroughly go through the boat with a number of engine and tube issues found and repaired by the previous owner, five months later I found a leaking tank. The cost of having the tank replaced is $1600, however since the fore deck was laid with teak, that had to be removed and replaced which was an additional cost. If you buy a RIB with a foamed in tank, have your shop pressure test the tank as well as check the condition of the filters for any clue as to how the tank was maintained.

The tank I just removed was a stainless steel tank and due to what I believe to be poor tank maintenance a hole was eaten into the bottom of the tank by electrolysis. When I received the boat the filters were half full of water. the tank had obviously been replace as Novurania does not install Stainless Steel tanks.

The moral of this story is to understand that a RIB coming off of a mega yacht has spent a lot of time with fuel in it's tanks sitting on the deck of the yacht. Of course the key is to make sure that phase separation does not occur in the tank, that the gas is kept fresh,
and that the gas tank compartment is kept dry.

I was fortunate to have purchased the boat well below market at around 10 grand with a good Yamaha four stroke, and I had a good cushion against any repairs that may have been found such as the gas tank problem. Any RIB with a foamed in aluminum tank will in all probably have similar problems if not meticulously maintained.

If you have any other questions do not hesitate to contact me.

Dave Michel
djmichel@earthlink.net

[Barks]

I have a 2003 530 DL tender with twin Yamaha 50's that came off the 100' Yacht Christine out of the Bahamas. I bought it in 2014 and all was fine until last year when I went to fill the 40 gal. tank before launch and as I was filling it up at COSTCO on the way to the marina the fuel was pouring out of the transom drain hole. Holy shit!
Well, after draining and washing out the tank, which is installed under the deck, from the rear of the center console to about 6" under the forward seat (about 75" long) I found there is no way to get the tank out without cutting out the floor including the center console. So, since I had the forward deck hatch open, I decided to cut out the entire top of the tank, using the hatch opening as a guide, having a new tank built, leaving the old tank in place and dropping the brand new custome tank down into the old tank. All for about 1200.00 and my own labor which at 74 years old was not all that bad. Now I have a brand new 18.5 gal. tank, all new hoses/fittings and it dropped right in place and was back out on the water in August of 2019. I have all the CAD drawings to have the custom tank built and a custom tank builder (for 75 years) nearby in Michigan. Yes, I don't have the 40 Gal. of fuel anymore, but I saved my wonderful boat from the scrap heap. You can't get the old tank out, without destroying the boat.
I did the research and found that the 2003 Novuranias had defective fuel tanks installed, but the company would never admit to it, so we are left replacing the tank or scrapping the boat. The new 18.5 Gal. tank sits snuggled inside the old tank, right under the forward deck hatch, securely fastened to the old tank, thereby keeping the hull structure strong as the old tank remains as the hulls backbone. The boat is lighter and doesn't sit so low in the water at the stern. Wonderful! I'll share all drawings, photos and details with anyone who wants to save their boat. I don't know how to attach the photos I downloaded to my RIBNET photos manager?[ATTACH][ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH][ATTACH][ATTACH][ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH]
John C. Barker
barkerworld@yahoo.com