Hi from coastal British Columbia

[AlpinetoOcean]

Hi RIBNet Community,

A quick hello. I am a new and hopefully to be proud owner of a 1993 (yes I know a bit aged) Zodiac MarkV HD. I work guiding in coastal British Columbia and in the Antarctic on small expedition ships where we use a variety of SIBs and RIBs of which the Mrk V is definitely the gold standard.

My interest is in recreational boating but also opportunities seem to be opening for instructing on marine guiding training programs which led me to figure owning a MarkV would enhance my employability for that.

It's early days. The trailer it arrived on is destined straight for the scrap heap so I haven't been able to get it in the water yet.

The trailer I found to replace it needs the bunks lifting and extending. It's a tight fit for the Mrk V but I'm optimistic it will work at least for the short term.

I hired the local hardware store truck to lift it across to the new(er) trailer yesterday so once it's insured I should be able to get it into the water for its maiden (to me) voyage.

Meanwhile my assessment is that despite its age the material seems to be in generally good shape. The worse signs of wear are on the protective strips on the base of the speed tubes and the rub strake. The tubes themselves and as much of the seams as I can see seem like they have life in them.

The motor it came with is a 90hp Yamaha 2-stroke (2001). I'm much more used to 50 or 60 hp 4-strokes on the Mark Vs I work on and I wasn't thrilled at buying this one with the 2-stroke. But it only has 350 hours on it so it seems sensible, and makes economic sense, to run with it for a while and see how it goes. I imagine the resale value of a 23 year old 2-stroke is pretty low so it's worth more to me on the boat for now. I don't mind admitting I'm trying to get this boat operable on a budget.

I'm sure I will have many questions as I work through getting her organized but at the moment my main interest is in getting the trailer sorted out. I anticipated the 8' bunks on the trailer would be too short so I screwed two 10' 2x6s on top which brought the support back to just past the transom and lifted the hull that additional 1.5". The tubes are still pressed onto the wheel fenders so I am going to have to put higher bunk brackets on and see if I can get it another couple of inches higher.

If I had a specific question at the moment it would be regarding the positioning of the bunks. Based on another thread I found here I have them set just under 50" outside edge to outside edge so that they lie just on the inboard side of the speed tubes. The forward bit of the speed tubes and the taper still lies on the bunk. Any feedback as to whether the bunk should be outboard of the speed tubes (which would mean a wider trailer) or is inboard providing enough support over 10'?

Thanks and happy have an obviously active and helpful community to be a part of.
Phil