I recently saw Orca boats (orcaboats.com, I think) and they have aluminum tubes instead of fabric. The concept sounds great; very durable and harpoon/knife proof. A RIB maker told me that the aluminum tubes defeat the purpose of having a RIB, as they don't absorb energy when you hit waves and therefor ride more roughly than a RIB with fabric tubes. Anyone have any experience with this type of boat? Thanks. john
Andy Micklewright's "Awesome" is a very well engineered all-aluminium RAB. Very soft ride (I can vouch for that), but Andy tells me that the boat is a little bit twitchy in a "beam" sea.
I'd forgotten about Awesome. Andy has certainly done some serious cruising with that boat.
It does thow up huge plumes of spray when the tubes dig in though. Perhaps it would it be better without the "tubes"? I don't know, but it would be interesting to build a conventional sided aluminium boat on the same hull design and compare the two.
Thanks for your thoughts, all. And where might one contact Andy re: Awesome? I'd love to know the manufacturer, etc. Ugly or not, it probably looks better than fabric tubes with a gaping harpoon gash in them....John
Is a great boat , think Andy said it took 400 hours to build but i may be wrong, He did a bloody good job of it as well, The boat perfoms really well in the rough as well. I saw this on our trip to Belgium a few years ago.
