New Member Kent Help Needed!

[BigLeo]

Hello all.

I am really new to this past time / way of life. I did my level 2 powerboating licence reluctantly, having been scared of the sea about two months ago and i love it!.

Looking at getting my first boat, and am considering a 2002 ribtec 740.

The only thing that is putting me off this particular boat is the seating layout.

So the questions are:

How easy is it to remove the current side by side double jockey seats and replace them with 4x single seats? They are apparently screwed and glued.

I dont have the know how to do this myself unless its really easy so am looking for a reliable shop to undertake this, so any ideas on cost of seat removal? (only a rough guess).

Anything I need to be aware of on this Rib.

Thanks for reading

[Unknown]

Hi and welcome to the world of boating and ribbing in particular.

The Ribtec 740 is a rather big boat for a first boat, my grandad did always said ‘go big or go home’ though ��.

Seating is easily changeable but is quite labour intensive (if your supplying the new seats to fit that is) so the cost will be difficult to gauge as everyone’s prices will vary greatly. If the new seats use the same bolt pattern then swapping them is extremely easy but from experience, things never go that smooth and new fixing points may need to be added. Again, a relatively easy job but that’s where the labour intensive bit comes in.

I know you say your in Kent, but if you have a trailer to move the RIB on then I know an absolutely fantastic family owned marine service company in Norfolk that would do this for you and may work out cheaper for them to do the work than a local yard down south.

[horacebat]

Hi Leo, and welcome also from East Kent too.

I agree with Uknown, 7.4m is a "biggun".

The big question would be if you've got something that size is you are fairly restricted for where you can launch it. I don't know if you've been up to the Sandwich Water Ski club but their maximum is 5.4m, and I believe that's teh max at Sandwich Quay itself too.

You may want to think about how you want to use it, tow it around and launch it, and if that's the case your limiting yourself to places like Whitstable, Sheppey (when the tide is right) or Herne Bay that's big enough to launch easily or keep it in the water for the summer.

I have a bigger boat (6.5M Redbay), and had it in Ramsgate for a bit, but it's not very well protected in the harbour, and have to say it suffered leaving it there for the winter, so would think about what you have and where you store it.

Mine's now in Chatham for the moment, which is a bit of a trek from the East Kent Coast, but it makes it easy, and plenty of interesting places to go.

For local help, Wayne Maddox has always been good for me, he's very good reliable and knows his stuff. We've had problems with some other companies in the past.

Hopes all this info helps in some way (although recognise it doesnt really answer your question!). Please report back on how you get on.

PB.

[paulbrown22]

I'd definitely check it out thoroughly - not abnormal on a Ribtec of that age to need deck work doing. Where they often didn't seal them underneath at the factory they can rot and become very flexible...

Diesel inboard or petrol outboard? They did the 740 with both, and whilst the diesel would presumably be a Yamaha or Yanmar engine, both of which are pretty solid units, they do take quite a bit of maintenance, and depending on how well they've been maintained replacing some of the ancillaries soon mounts up. Outdrive legs also take a lot of maintenance.

I absolutely love my Ribtec 9m and find it a superb sea boat though, and it eats up passages with ease.

[Brian]

I'd be interest to know why you want to change the seating layout?
What's wrong with it? It seems a fairly standard layout to me.

[paulbrown22]

It sounds like a similar layout to mine with 2 long double jockeys (although mine actually seat 3, and have an extra backrest partway so they each seat 1+2).

I'm not a big fan of them either if I'm honest - the typical Ribtec double length jockey setup is a long double pod, and only the person at the back gets a backrest (and something to hold on in front). Especially in reasonable seas, I wouldn't really want multiple people sitting on the one seat and sliding/bouncing into each other. But given they are so rarely used with more than 1 person in each section on my boat, I just left them "as is"!

[BigLeo]

Hi All.

Thanks for the replies.

The one I`m looking at has 2 double Jockeys, and behind them is a dive bottle rack. Which will be totally redundant.
Would ideally want a backrest whilst stopped just for "comfort". The other option I have thought about, is there an aftermarket backrest that bolts in-between ? I've had a search but couldn't seem to find anything.

Was thinking of launching at Hearne Bay as it seems pretty secure there for leaving the car and trailer.

With the Sandwich Quay slipway, I was down there at low tide the other way and there seems to be a two foot drop at the end of the ramp, that look to be disintegrating. Think you would have real problems dropping a trailer wheel off of that.

Anyway thanks again.

[paulbrown22]

You could certainly put on an intermediate backrest. In the above pic of my Ribtec 9m, the single seat backrest immediately behind the helm leaning post is actually a removable one that just slides into some fittings part way along the 3-man jockey pod, so that you can still open the lid and get at the storage inside.

I don't know if you can buy off the shelf, but is a very simple bit of stainless work for any fabricator.

[Wizzywizz]

Hi Leo,
Just adding to the other comments, I made some enquiries about reconfiguring the seating on my Rib when I got it this summer and all were in the general Solent area. No one came up with a price at the time and I have decided to stick with my seating arrangements and spend the money on some updated electronics. I was told recently however that Cory Yachts in Sandwich undertake repairs and refurbishments as well as boat building so may be worth a call.
I went for a bigger Rib (mainly based on a good price) and would add that storage and general manouvering on the trailer is the biggest problem that for me is offset by its sea handling and extra room and comfort on board.
Good luck