zodiac futura s mk2

[andy cooper]

I am looking to buy my first boat and have heard about a 2002 3.8m zodiac futura s mk 2 fitted out with a 40 yam motor on a snipe trailor . the boat was supplied as a new package this year and has had about two weeks use asking price £4,000.
Has anyone got any views or coments thanks.

[klt599]

I think you may be talking about the Mark 2c which is 3.8 metres just sold my mark 2 futura (4.2m) after having owned it since 1997. I had a 40hp merc fitted.

The boat is great, fast and handles like no other (thanks to the speedtubes) and is very light. But its main flaw is it is not very good at handling waves or chop. Due to its inflatable keel and light weight. I noticed for 2003 they have made the seat much more padded which is nescessary (around 5 inch)

But in conclusion a very fun and manouverable boat. I am now considering a Yachtline Zodiac as my prior experiences with my Zodiacs has been good

[Red Fox]

I had a 3.8 mk2 c with aluminium floor, steering consol and a 30hp Mariner. It was great for me and a young family...towing a tube and inshore touring. As my lads got older the engine could not cope so well with the extra weight and so I went for the rib that I now have. With a 40 on the back, I would probably still have the mk2 c. It will fly and have power to spare, but it will bounce a bit unless it is flat calm and for the driver that is no problem, you have the steering to hold on to but the passengers may not feel so happy. On the trailer you will find it easy to launch and land and the price seems OK. I sold mine (5yr old) for £2500 and paid £3800 so they don't lose too much over time as long as it is in excellent condition i.e.no patches anywhere and a full service history on the engine. If it is what you want, go for it, you will smile and have lots of fun!

[Keith Hart]

Sounds like a good boat at an affordable price. Believe me you can do MUCH more in a little boat than people give them credit for.

If you later decide you want a bigger boat then the Zodiac would be easy to sell.

Keith Hart

[Richard B]

Andy,
It depends on what you want to do with the boat. £4000 is a lot of money for an inflatable. I recently sold my old SIB for about £1600 which was a 3.6m + 18hp + trailer. 40hp is a huge engine for this size & weight, it will go like stink, but you'll only be able to use that power on flat water.
The hull profile of the Futura is much flatter than that of a RIB and so these boats are not as capable at dealing with choppy water at speed.
If it were my £4000 I would look at a small RIB, or try to up the budget to something like this http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2932 which is a superb RIB for the money.
One advantage of SIBs is their portability (you can deflate/fold/pack into car boot) but with this rig I guess that there are remotes and steering to de-rig so you may not get the full advantage of a SIB.

[Daniel]

Originally posted by Richard B
which is a superb RIB for the money.

Cheers . Grayswish is 99.99999% sold to someone on the Forum... i've had a substantial deposit and await collection!

Back to your question Andy, it really does depend upon what you want this boat for, but i can't really see any advantage of this over a small RIB with a similar price tag (accept, that this is much, much newer than any RIB you could get for under £5k).

It's on a trailer and the engine will be too heavy to really man-handle on and off into, say, a boot. 40hp - is that tiller steer? That would be quite a handfull too i would think. In summary, still have to tow it, trailer launch it (ie need good slipway...) and it'll be 'interesting' to handle with little or no 'V' to the hull. Compaire this to a smaller SIB which you can store in the boot (or in Brians RIB in Keith's case) or a RIB, albeit older, but with a console, steering, romotes, electic start, better sea keeping, able to ski off...

That all said i'm NOT a SIB expert, and it'll still be great fun!

Let us know what you intend to do with it and prehaps we'll change our mind???