Club diving Rib

[Pickled]

First post folks so be gentle with me.
Our Club are looking for a new rib ,this site has helped loads but if possible we need some help now.
Our normal load of divers some with twinsets is around 6 will a 5.85mtr take this?
Will it take us legaly?
At moment were thinking along the lines of the Ribcraft5.85 or the tornado 5.8 another option is a redbay6.1 all these with a four stroke of around 115hp -130
Weve talked to the suppliers of all of these ribs and they say of course your average mondeo/vectra type car will pull these,can anyone neutral say yae or nae?
One more for now are there any other ribs that you folks think we should look at?
Thanks in advance
Picks

[ashbypower]

We've just taken delivery of a XS Ribs 550 hard to beat in my opinion. Good quality.

Avereage car should to the size you mention. However I've seen a lot of smoke from from wheel drive on some slips.

What ever you choose enjoy.

Brian

[Charlie]

Pickled,
See thread " saloon car towing restictions", I got loads of helpfull advice ref towing with a car of the size you mention, a lot depends if the trailer is braked or not, and the kerbside weight of your vehicle. Also read thread about braked hubs, better if your club has access to a 4x4, solves all those
problems!! Good luck.
Charlie...

[Simon Hawkins]

I thought the question was would the boat cope with 6 people on board plus dive tanks. However it appears to have diverted to whether your car could tow the boat. I had a 5.85m Ribcraft and use to tow it with a two wheel drive 2 ltr car. Although this was ok on the flat when it came to hills it did struggle.


Consider where you will be launching from, ie gradient, condition of slipway. If the slip is steep then you could have problems. Also if the slipway is not used very often you may find it has become slippery when water level is not at its highest.

[Pete7]

Pickled hi, I used an Osprey viper 5.95m with Yam 115 2 stoke for many years to go diving. The boat coped well with 6 divers and twin sets, but struggled to get on the plane with 8 divers and twin sets and 30 gallons of fuel, but it did just.

Both Ribcraft and Tornado make tough boats suitable for divers as do Osprey and you will need that as ribs operating in the dive boat roll have a tough life, particularly when owned by a club.

I always towed with a 110 V8 landrover so that wasn't a problem. Good advice about the trailer above, I won't have sealed alko bearings again.

Pete

[Nick Hearne]

Hi I have to agree with Peter, I have a Osprey 5.75 Viper with a 100HP on the back & it has copped with 6 divers + with no problems lots of deck space, very stable at rest! When used by our diving club it was pulled by some small ish cars!
Great boat!
Nick

[tue]

We have a Delta 5.8m as our club boat and it will take 6 divers all with twinsets with a 90hp fourstroke. It takes a while to get on the plane though so a 115 would be better engine option. Very tough boat which as Pete said you need for diving use.

[Pete7]

Have you seen Daniels viper in the for sale section ?

Pete

http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8631

[Pickled]

Thanks for your prompt replies
Pete ,our club has recieved a lottery grant so the rib needs to be a new one in order to statisfy condition of the grant, thanks anyway.
At the risk of appearing totally thick what type of rib is a delta?

As most of you will realise I am a diver with very little rib experiance other than its the thing we get into to take us from shore to site..
Unfortunately I have been tasked with reporting back to committee on which Rib is best for us as divers.
We have in our club several " jobsworths" who like to make everyones enjoyment that little bit harder, hense the question of how many divers we can legally carry, the manufactures quote for persons and/or weight and we all know that were all not going to stand on scales before going afloat,so saying the boat will take 6 divers is fine,but will it legally take 6?
Another thing that has come to my attention is that of a four strokes weight being higher up and upsetting the ribs handling,where can i find out about this?

thanks once again
Picks

[Swifty]

Have a chat with the very nice guys at Barnet Marine. It sounds like you need some professional assistance rather than hear'say.

ATB
Tim.

[divelandy]

We brought a new 5.8m Tornado with a 115 optimax in August. It sits on a 1300kg trailer. From how i understand the regulatgions, even if the weight of the trailer and load is < this weight, you vehicle needs to be able to tow this weight within it's leagal load. It will fit 6 divers with twins. The max load is 10 people or a total load of 1000kg's, including engine. I have an '04 Passat TDi and this tow's the boat like a dream. I have not had a problem launching or recovering - if i don't like look f the slip - i add a length of rope to keep the car on the solid/sticky stuff.

Steve

[Ezgoing]

Hi pickled

I am a Redbay user and made the choice having had a previous rib and comming to the following conclusions:
Redbay v good on boat build & design. Boats are absolute tough stuff.
After sales is very good. I felt that some of the bigger companies were too busy to give the personal service and ability to tweak to individual needs.

I rib a lot on the west coast of Ireland and chose yamaha for sheer reliability and servicability.

Getting caught out on west coast in bad weather means I need a great sea boat. This I have got with Redbay.

go for 6.5m Redbay. The difference the extra length is enormous both in load capacity and seakeeping.

i had discunted the Tornados and Deltas on grounds that they were overpriced when I felt i was getting as good a boat from Redbay.

As regards towing I have a lot of expierence. Previous vechicles I have owned include Cherokee, Rav4. current steeds are 185bhp Saab and Freelander V6 2.5L. Reality is Cherokee made great tug. saab struggles and Freelander is not much better. for the longer dostance you need torque, ie pulling power. freelander has 240 which in reality is not enough on long journeys especialy the poor roads in the more interesting places. I am now looking @ discovery with 440.

big issue with towing is stopability. Moving up to redbay or tornado means you will be pulling extra weight and need some serious stopping power. you are unlikely to find that in a saloon car, especially in the wet. Go for 4x4 and get rid of any worries. There should be plenty of good second hands around for same price as family car(new). The day you need an emergency stop is too late for wishing,

do a search on reday on Rribnet and you will come accross some interesting posts.
Best of luck.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Pickled

Pete ,our club has recieved a lottery grant

Very nice

what type of rib is a delta?

Delta are made in Stockport, there is a links page to Ribnet which you might find useful, however they gave up selling to the public about 98 time when the Recreational Craft Directive came in to concentrate on the commerical market. To many clubs with grants requesting details for there boats and quotes only to go to a cheaper supplier was quoted as the reason.

As most of you will realise I am a diver with very little rib experiance ..

No problem, enough people with experience of running a dive boat on here.

Unfortunately I have been tasked with reporting back to committee on which Rib is best for us as divers.

Nightmare , been there done that and it was hard work.

we all know that were all not going to stand on scales before going afloat,so saying the boat will take 6 divers is fine,but will it legally take 6?

best to work out the weight once, of six divers, there kit and the fuel you intend to take. Then no one in the club can question it.

Another thing that has come to my attention is that of a four strokes weight being higher up and upsetting the ribs handling,where can i find out about this?

you have an advantage with all that dive kit in that its easily moveable around the boat to help balance the boat, particularly weight belts which can be stowed up at the sharp end were people shouldn't sit.

Pete

[Andy Gee]

The old "Rule of thumb" for weights were 12 divers with all the kit = 2000kg, however this changed with twins, wings etc but has noe slid back with the re-breathers....providing they dont have 7ltr o2 and dillutent
My old club have a 6.2m Northcraft fitted with a new Ficht, personally it's crap to dive off with very little space.
I had a look at the 6.5??m Redbays that were built for the Police in Northern Ireland and the looked great, however the majority of "Club" boats that we see on the Clyde at the weekend are Humbers.
Andy

[Simon B]

Do an average weight calculation, its interesting, we run a Delta 5.5 100hp Yam 4 stroke with our load of divers and gear we are almost at the limit. Also be aware of the fact that if you run near to the wieght limit trim and wieght distribution are critical to the boat planing, it shows errors that were concealed by the engine power previously.

The delta being a deep vee with a heavy motor on the back sits stern heavy when full (as you'd expect) this makes planing much harder as the lump to climb is higher (dont know the technical details)

Critical acclaim has been heaped on the new etecs from evinrude might be worth a look. Finally how easy was your grant to put together? we failed last time and could do with some pointers.

[Andy]

Hi there,

Personnally I think 6 divers and 12 cylinders, although doable with a 115hp etc is unwise. All you need is some water onboard and you will struggle. We like to keep some horsepower just in case ... and if you are pushing to the limits of your craft you have no slack if things go wrong. Over the years lots has gone wrong for me and I have learnt lessons.

Over the past 19 years I have run:

Humber 5.8 with 75 Mariner
Humber 5.8 with 90 Yam then 90 4-stoke Honda.
585 Ribtec with 115 Yam
6.8m Tornado with 200 Yam HPDI
600XS with 115 Merc Opti

If you wish to chat in detail about any of these or similar combinations please message me, I would be very pleased to help you.

[Pickled]

Thanks again some more interesting points for me to consider.

Andy G Our club dives the other coast,Firth of Forth so the Humbers would work here too ,but Why are they Humbers ,I am sure theyre great boats but were they offering the best deal at the time of purchase?Or is it a case of well Glasgow SAA has one so it must be good?
Simon..Grants.. Try showing how your club has grown or out grown your existing rib. Show that you train local divers ,do you train disabled people? you must prove any points you make .Our club does all of this and have outgrown our Ribtec535 That we used to take 6 divers out on regularly..Mega overloaded or what!!! (did I just Type that)

From what i can gather were better of with as big a Rib as we can tow but over 6 mtrs looks like a 4x4 job..Which not all of the club has and if you get one guy doing it all the time that dont work!
Width of beam is important for kitting up and helps make Rib more stable at sea?
Be careful how we kit her out as bottle racks can take up valuable space.

Engines or rather engine size= can of worms.

Bigger = better but weighs more so harder to tow and uses more fuel
4 stroke good because less fumes but not quite as nippy off the mark
Type One mans heaven another mans hell.
Please help me lord!

Thanks

Picks

[Andy Gee]

Originally Posted by Pickled

Thanks again some more interesting points for me to consider.

Andy G Our club dives the other coast,Firth of Forth so the Humbers would work here too ,but Why are they Humbers ,I am sure theyre great boats but were they offering the best deal at the time of purchase?Or is it a case of well Glasgow SAA has one so it must be good?

Thanks

Picks

Picks,
I think most chose Humbers because they were doing a good deal at the time when most of the Sport Scotland/Lottery grants were on the go. They also build good enough boats for the money. Our club ended up with a Northcraft because FYM had one in stock for immrdiate delivery
Andy

[Jackwabbit]

We were going through the same thing just over a year a go with our club; we were looking for something with a narrow enough beam that would fin inside a container for storage. Small enough to tow behind an average family car, & large enough for 6 divers & a Cox. To cut a long story short we decided on the Humber Assault 5.5m with a Suzuki 70hp 4stroke, this was after Humber assured us that this was suitable for up to 7 divers.
It is just about OK in flat calm sea’s with 6 divers with single cylinders, but if it gets a little lumpy we can only have 4 divers. Looking at Humber’s estimation on 7 divers against maximum load they would all have to weigh less than 7 stone.
It towes behind a Mondeo 2L without any problems, although you do know it’s there if you know what I mean! (I can get to Cornwall on a tank full of petrol without the boat, BUT with the boat it uses a tank & a half)
In my opinion If you are looking for something to carry 6 divers with twin sets you should be looking for a least a 6m Rib, & make sure the engine is large enough to get it up on the plain as quick as Poss. with a full load.

[tue]

IMHO the Humber Assualt is not a good dive platform. The 5.8m Humber Destroyer on the other hand makes a fantastic platform with a 100hp Yamaha Fourstroke. Quick to plane and fast with 6 divers. Its got a wider beam and sits a little higher in the water than the Assault range, which are realy only suitable for safety boats in Yacht clubs etc IMHO of course.