Excel 3.9m Aluminium vs Air Deck

[Tonus]

Hi ther,


What a great forum - I'm very new to this and have learnt so much on here!


I had a question - was going to buy my first Sib for local excursions, family days-out and maybe fishing - sea and river. I have four kids - 10yr old to teenage and was looking at Excel Volante 390 vs a 395 Vanguard XHD with an aluminium deck.

I have a ramp right at the bottom of my road on the south coast that is lapped by the sea at high tide... it's 100yds away so the plan would be to walk a boat dowm there on transom wheels and not get a trailer.



My question would be - is it worth getting the hard deck? There's £100 diffence or so...

Will I be able to lift the boat (minus outboard) on my own if I went solo? Will the air deck be easier to lauch and bring in because it's lighter? I wondered if the boat would be more rigid and be easier to lift when carrying it? Do the airdesk 'droop'?!



I'm not worried about inflating it frequently as am hoping to store it at my house inflated.

Also, I'm looking at getting a 20hp Tohatsu 4-stroke - does that sound sensible?


Many thanks for any advice!


Tonus

[Obsidian]

Hi and welcome!

Depends what you want to do, the airdeck is easier and quicker to put up (until you become adept with the alli floor version). But you said you will keep it inflated, so thats a point for the alli.

Even the alli one will pull 100 yards easily enough with good transom wheels.

So yeah, my advice, go aluminium.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Tonus

Hi ther,


What a great forum - I'm very new to this and have learnt so much on here!


I had a question - was going to buy my first Sib for local excursions, family days-out and maybe fishing - sea and river. I have four kids - 10yr old to teenage and was looking at Excel Volante 390 vs a 395 Vanguard XHD with an aluminium deck.

I have a ramp right at the bottom of my road on the south coast that is lapped by the sea at high tide... it's 100yds away so the plan would be to walk a boat dowm there on transom wheels and not get a trailer.



My question would be - is it worth getting the hard deck? There's £100 diffence or so...

Will I be able to lift the boat (minus outboard) on my own if I went solo? Will the air deck be easier to lauch and bring in because it's lighter? I wondered if the boat would be more rigid and be easier to lift when carrying it? Do the airdesk 'droop'?!



I'm not worried about inflating it frequently as am hoping to store it at my house inflated.

Also, I'm looking at getting a 20hp Tohatsu 4-stroke - does that sound sensible?


Many thanks for any advice!


Tonus

I own an Volaire (airdeck) but chose this route as a compromise on ease of assembly & transport. If I was leaving the boat built up & had an easy launch to hand, I’d go aluminium. Saying that, both of your choices will be very cosy with 5 pax on board. Our 390 Volaire is perfect for 2 with all the associated gubbins.
If you do go down the ally floor route, it’s still not a “fit & forget” option. You need to regularly dis-assemble the boat & clean out the grit & sand that will accumulate under the floor, otherwise you will end up with corroded floor boards & wear on the tube/hull material.

[Tonus]

Thanks for the advice both...


We are actually a family of 6 so would be even more cozy! But I imagine we'll only do the six of us on occasion - more often x2 or x4... pretty short trips to start.
Perhaps I should go with an aluminium 4.35 for that bit more room... do you still think I could drag/launch that on my own over 100yds?



Also, any opions on where I stand with the 20hp for these type of shenanigans?!


Thanks,


T

[paddlers]

Build yourself a tow dolly and with a decent set of transom wheels you can go anywhere. This is my 3.5 ally floor Honwave with a 20 hp Tohatsu 4 stroke. Aluminium floor's the way to go provided that you can leave it inflated .

[Tonus]

That looks great Paddlers!


I can def leave it inflated so am leaning the Aluminium way...


You (and Obsidian) mention 'decent' wheels... can you get nasty ones? And are they easy to fit?


These are the option from Excel (scroll down to the 350mm's!)


https://www.excel-inflatables.co.uk/...at-options.php




Thanks v much,



T

[Deno]

Or just get a launching trolley like what they use for sailing dinghies. Then the boat has something to sit on. I got one for 80quid last year that works on a small RIB.

Also maybe a RIB would be better for you, some of the Aluminium hulled RIB's are lighter than SIB's. Theres a good buy / fit out thread forming here: https://www.rib.net/forum/f50/quicks...ble-83925.html

[Tonus]

Thanks for the info Deno - yeh I was looking at that thread earlier... think the Ribs might be out of my price range though as I'm trying to get started for £4k or around that!!

[Fenlander]

Hi Tonus and welcome to the forum. Yep those Excel 350mm transom wheels are the good ones and at a fair price. They are made by Trem and in my opinion the best quality and strongest flip up ones on the market.

I would agree with others that if you are sure you will never want to carry this SIB in the back of the car and set up on a daily basis then alloy floor is the best way to go.

Once you get it all set up on transom wheels with/without a front dolly a 4m ish SIB with 20hp is OK to move as long as your route to the water is fairly easy.

[Tonus]

ahh great stuff Fenlander thank you!

[Tonus]

So can I ask - do you think a 3.95 will be too small for the occasional 6 person (2 of which are 10/12yrs) trip on the sea?

[Fenlander]

Well... on the occasion of your occasional 6 persons use... yes I think it's a hell of a load. You will see folks advising quite a decent size RIB needed for 6 folks. A bit depends on where you would go... a flat calm estuary as a water taxi is one thing but open sea is another.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Tonus

So can I ask - do you think a 3.95 will be too small for the occasional 6 person (2 of which are 10/12yrs) trip on the sea?

Yes!!

[Limecc]

I had an Excel 390/20HP with air floor and I never managed to eliminate an air bubble forming under the hull in certain conditions. When sufficiently large it would suddenly release causing prop slip. Very annoying. I don't think the alloy floor version would suffer this but the downside is extra weight and assembly time which was ultimately the reason I upgraded even from the air floor SIB to a RIB on a trailer.

[paddlers]

As Fenlander says Trem are the best transom wheels .I had Trem heavy duty on mine and they were super strong . My 3.5 Honwave would just plane 5 adults total 60 stone but was much better with half that.

[jeffstevens763@g]

i have the 435 excel with a 25 hp max is 30 hp with 6 in its doable but dont expect fantastic performance with a 20 hp.
a guy on here has just bought a 435, trailer & suzuki 25 hp for £5000 from excel recently

[SixtyNorth]

I had a 4.2m Zodiac Grand Raid with a 30hp Evinrude E-TEC and performance wise it managed quite well with 6 people. Not a lot of space though, especially with some gear. It really depends on what you want to do with it.

[Tonus]

Thanks again all for your advice on the HP, wheel etc.


Jeff I think I'm leaning toward a 435 XHD to be honest... looking at other forum member's boats with 5/6 people it looks snug but do-able. I must stress that I wouldn't be looking at doing a 6 person trip all the time... I don't think we'd get them all out there regularly and are losing one to university at some point. Just trying to find the balance between a boat that is not too big and can get us all out very occasionally at a low speed in decent conditions.
All very useful stuff though - thanks so much

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Tonus

......and are losing one to university at some point.....

Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. They come back[emoji849]. Usually bolshier, poorer & smelling like a badger.

[Tonus]

Haha - Yeh so I've been told!