Does anyone use your rib for sailing?!

[matt120020000]

Ive just bought a tornado and kitting it out for mark laying for dinghys, was wondering if anyone else on here enjoys the power side of sailing?!

[bad_moose]

Yeah we use ours for it loads. We've got a dinghy (rs500) and we use the rib as a safety boat for it. Sometimes if it's really windy or very light we'll tow the dinghy out into open water, anchor the rib and then go out sailing. That way we've got a way of getting home easily if it get's too much/gear breaks. We used it during Cowes week this year to get from Hamble to Cowes after racing which was very handy. We're planning on taking it down to Hamble in the summer to tow a J80 across the Solent to Cowes for the Nationals. Hopefully going to be doing some coaching from the RIB later in the year too. RIB's are great for helping out with sailing, wouldn't be without ours now.

[matt120020000]

I did mark laying at the games so had one of those 7.8 ribcraft with suzi 200s which was sort of a treat 45kt, not that we could get them to full speed! I bought my rib for mark laying but im not convinced a tornado 5.3 is for the off shore mark laying, maybe i should've got one of the games protectors!

[Smithyyy]

It's what got us into ribbing, fed up with spending time at sailing venues while the kids went racing, much more interesting being out on the water able to watch and help out! The rib gets used for safety, for coaching, spectating, then as we got one a touch larger than strictly needed for sailing support, for cruising, water skiing and so on. So it's done everything from weeks at Hayling,Torbay, Abersoch, etc, to commuting daily from Howth which my brother lives near down to Dun Laoghaire while our daughter did an event there, to family trips across the Channel and round to Weymouth for the Olympics, waterskiing, taking Grandma from Chichester to Cowes as part of her 80th celebrations, and so on. Great bit of kit to get if you're a sailing family! Of course anything with an engine is a bit on the dark side for a sailor and parents with ribs take a certain amount of (sometimes deserved) flak but I'm really glad we got ours

[treerat]

It's a great way to spend a day out on others fuel. I spend a few days a year driving safety boats and its great fun. Had a nightmare last year with one series, wind shifts, fog and running outside of the boats wind limit meant carnage.

[JamesF]

I got into RIBs because of a lack of confidence in sailing dinghies.

I don't use my RIB for sailing — I don't own a boat, a car to tow one with or a place to put either of the above — but I do use the sailing club's. About 100 hours a year over the last nine years or so, I think, including the Topper Nationals in 2005, 2006 and 2008, various Laser national events and the Laser 2000 Nationals in 2010.

Might not get as much time in this year, but I intend to make sure I can be at the Scorpion Nationals.