Speed Tubes

[theboysmiffy]

Hi all.

The last time out we went up the River Tyne and encountered a fair amount of wind driven chop on the more exposed sections of water. I reduced the throttle and tried to navigate the chop so as not to hit it head on and also suggested to my passenger to move sternward to reduce his bouncing around! However he still wasn't completely comfortable with the experience and it meant we had to turn round and look for sheltered waters.

Now I am quite happy to be chucked around a bit and come off the water feeling tired and exhilarated as I think it's part of the sib experience but it is becoming evident that some of my passengers prefer a more cushioned ride. A new boat is out of the question so I am looking at ways to improve their experience, though if I can't then sod them they can stay on shore!

I have ordered some closed cell foam mattress that is 50mm thick to act as a cushion when sitting on the floor. I was also wondering about installing speed tubes as per the Futura. Do the Futuras and other sibs with speed tubes suffer so badly with chop handling or do they offer a degree of clearance? Also does anyone know of a tube manufacturer that produces hypalon speed tubes/hijackers that I could install on my MkII Classic? Has anyone out there retro fitted speed tubes to their sibs? Any ideas would be appreciated. Cheers

Adam

[Bighag7]

Hi Mate,
You can get inflatable seats that install into a Zodiac and fixings for a hard deck. HP decks have them on already. They're right angle seats and are muchos comfy, cost about 90quid and keep the weight of the load nicely centred.
As for speed tubes, they do as they indicate and a don't offer a smoother ride in chop as you have to slow down anyway. If you blast it through chop with speed tubes you tend to start flying!
Try these guys, they have EVERYTHING and offer a great service. Download the pdf and browse at leisure.
http://www.ibs-boats.com/download/ib...talogue-08.pdf

[jyasaki]

I always preferred sitting on the tubes. Nice and cushioned, but you've got to have at least waterproof pants, and a jacket if you want to stay really dry (I was diving, so didn't care about getting wet.)

Having a line tied forward to hang on to helps, and having one anchored across the boat gives the passenger a feeling of security with respect to flipping backwards out of the boat.

jky

[theboysmiffy]

Thanks for the replys. We went out today on the Tyne again sailing all the way under the bridges finally. It was great unfortunately we forgot the camera again! Tom sat on a life jacket on the floor this time and had far fewer complaints about the ride so it looks like the mattress will be a good idea. I'm also going to attach some good rope hand holds for passengers. We had to come off the plane a few times to deal with chop that was about 2' high which did slow progress. When we got to the mouth of the river the chop reduced and the swell increased which was quite fun to launch off! A good days boating all in.

Adam