Babcocks Disposals

Pete7 · 25 October 2002, 15:09

Babcocks have some more ribs in stock for sale. Anyone been down to have a look at what they are like ?

http://195.224.113.154/disposals2/Home.htm

Pete

Christopher · 25 October 2002, 17:59

For anyone considering buying one of the ex MOD boats you can tell the year of build. Each boat has a four digit number. The first two numbers represent the year of build

Chris Hornidge

Pete7 · 25 October 2002, 19:45

Top tip, thanks Chris,

toby.budd · 26 October 2002, 16:25

Thanks for the tip. Toby

Jizm · 26 October 2002, 17:27

Chris,

do the ex MOD ribs have much life left in them? Considering the life they have had? I only say this as the tubes in the pics look a bit tired.

Link below for picture.

http://195.224.113.154/disposals2/It...p?ItemID=18463

Christopher · 26 October 2002, 19:29

Jizm

Whilst I can advise on the tubes I don't profess to be an authority on the actual hull's.

In my experience the majority of the hulls that I have seen, have always been in excellent shape, and have gone on to give many years of good service. However I am mainly refering to P22, A22, and A28's built by Halmatic. Having seen many hulls being constructed by them over the years, I doubt whether you would find a more robust construction. One word of warning though, is that a batch of hulls built in about 1991 could have been built by the now defunct Victoria Marine, and I know that the MOD did not go back to them for a repeat order. They reverted back to Halmatic.

As for the tubes, despite what they may look like, they can normally be repaired. Things to watch out for are whether the inner baffles are intact, and obviously any major leaks. All Seariders and Halmatic's are built with Hypalon coated fabric tubes and can easily be repaired. If however the tubes are beyond economical repair I know a company that can supply new ones!!!!

Pete7 · 26 October 2002, 19:41

The advantage with ex mod kit is that it was serviced on time regardless of cost and repaired by trained staff. Disadvantage is that they were driven by every tom dick and harry. And being service the standards of boat handling in the MOD isn't great. However a lot of boats spent years sat on ships decks or as in the case of the pacifics in Portsmouth harbour doing not a lot. Many had addtional skirts on the outside of the tubes as a sacrifical piece.

Chris what is a ball park figure to replace a set of Pacific tubes ?

Pete

Christopher · 26 October 2002, 20:00

Pete

A new tube for a P22 to MOD spec including all handles, 3 widths of rubbing strake,fittings and pockets etc and in heavy duty 1500gsm fabric will cost around £4500 plus VAT. However a cheaper alternative is in 1200gsm with one rubbing strake and without all the extras fitted to a MOD tube would cost around £2800 plus VAT. Perfectly adequate for normal use, and the 1200gsm fabric is what 95% of RIB's are built from.

dbillyboy · 26 October 2002, 23:22

I used to throw them out of a Hercules!!
TLS.