How did you get into RIB's?

[JSP]

Everyone starts somewhere- So how did you get into using RIB's?
Mine was simple, got told they where good and as I was the only person in my family that didn't own a boat and I wanted something that the others didn't have I went for a RIB. Interesting enough I first looked at a 3m RIB with 10HP engine. The decided I wanted something bigger and looked at Flatacraft 4's. Then some bugger on here told me for the money I had to spend I would be best with a 4m Searider. Got one and got hooked. Now going onto a bigger tub.

So come on, how did you loose your RIB cheery?

[Nasher]

Easy one for me this.

When I was very little my father had one of the very first Flatacraft Force4's, and then swapped it in for a newer one every few years, so I just sort of grew up with small RIBs.
I inherited the last Force4 when we lost my father. I kept it for a few years then went for a bigger RIB to use for longer runs than were comfortable in the 4M.

Nasher.

[Nos4r2]

After a bad experience with a crap cabin cruiser a rib was the only way I could get the mrs to agree to me owning another boat

[A.MAC]

Advert from Babcock Disposals from litttle bro in med = fight with wife+purchase
of rib silent treatment for about two months
I would call that a result silence is golden if you pardon the pun Its f***in bliss cant hear a chirp job done

[codprawn]

Been brought up with boats since I was about 2. The first time I was in a rubber boat was an old Zodiac in Aden. I ended up with my own little SIB which was prob about 5' long - thing it's still in the attic - made from hypalon and bright yellow.

I remember going to Earls Court when I was about 10 and the ONLY boat I was interested in was a large military Avon.

In other words it started from a very young age!!!

[Tony]

After several trips out on Guernsey Rib Voyages, i was totally hooked. Had no idea what to buy, so after a few weeks on here and a bit of research for the correct rib for channel Island use, I ended up with a Scorpion 8.1

[jwalker]

Just a progression over the years really. As kids we used to swim in the local river... came across an old canoe skeleton in a garden nearby... bought it for 10 bob. Nailed hessian over it, got a tin of coal tar from the gas works and sealed it. Hooked. Wife re-introduced me to kayaking in my 20's... white water canoeing... canoe surfing... sea kayaking... inflatable... big inflatable... rib... bigger rib... now.

[Vintec]

This is a nice thread, it's fun to read about everybody their own way of getting into RIB's. Feels a bit like getting to know everybody a little bit like this.

Well for me, from a baby I went on the boat from my grandfather and was allways on the water in the weekends, remember I could hardly wait to get on the boats every week.
Then my parents bought our first 4m polyester console boat, a week later this was replaced for a 5m console boat (Elan 495 Family with 30 hp suuz). After that season we bought an Elan 20cc console boat with a 100 hp suuz (the beautifull V4, which I still love). With that deal I got my first SIB, a bombard tropic 305 with a suuz 8 hp.

Then 2 years later we sold everything and got a Grand Banks 42ft classic with twin caterpillar 10 ltrs V8 (210 hp version), we bought this (I was 15 years) in Hardlepool. Maybe somebody here knows that place...?
Anyways that winter I spend a lot of time working on the GB, and in spring for my "hard work" I got a new SIB, a Quicksilver 330 with 15 hp mariner.
After two years of boating my parents split up and we had to sell all the boats.

I couldn't afford my own boat yet, and 3 years ago I bought a SIB again. I just loved boating to much, especially rubber boats. I bought this SIB, a bombard typhoon 420, with a 15 hp mercury. This march I sold the engine and went for a 30 hp yamaha, tillersteerd. This summer on garda lake in Italy, I broke the transom of my SIB. That was when I decided it was time for my first RIB, so I bought my first RIB on 18 october of this year.
Had to mount the RIB myself, with a lot of help from my oncle. (console, steering, seating the whole lot) And now for the last month a new world opened for me, the RIB is just fantastic to boat on any kind of weather.

Quite a long story, but that's how I got into RIB's.

[samt]

Got given a rowing dinghy when I was about 12. Then had several inflatables. Started working for on hire and passenger boats at 15, became a boatmaster at 18. Found this site, discovered the avon searider, bought one as a project, used it for a summer. Started a marine engineering degree, ran out of money, had to sell the rib.

[Mollers]

The Old Man had a 2 berth ply cabin boat with a Johnson 50 Seahorse when we were kids. We had loads of fun with it and as I got older he let me and my mates go off on trips with it as long as we paid for the fuel.

In my early twenties I had a 14ft Shakespear with a Suzook 65 which prefered to run on 2 rather than 3 pots most of the time.

Bought a Rinker 206 Captiva in 94 and kept it for 9 yrs. We had great fun with that boat. The Rinker went for a Searay 250 Sundancer, the kids got into sailing dinghies and the Searay was hopeless for rounding them up when they'd blown off in the wrong direction.

Bought the 6.5m Vipermax in '05. I'd spent most of that summer researching which rib to buy, luckily ended up with a good boat. The 6.5 didn't have enough seats, went for a 7m with 6 jockies this year.

[PeterM]

Started off seeing / using a 4m searider when I was about 14. Completely awsome seeing it 3feet off the solent & screaming into Newtown ! Saw it have a spectacular accident ( throttle stuck / sideways into BIG wooden piles - was at Gunwharf when it was still a 'real' dock.) Saw that it only sunk abit with one tube blown & the hull with a 3ft split in it!

Got a jetski 10 years later , but with the kids getting bigger a SIB for the river ( sold) - then a 3.1 Avon -(sold) then a 4m Avon ( kept ! ) - and up to 7.5m this year to do longer distancein more comfort !

[Maximus]

Got into the inflatable bug in the early 70's as a lad ferrying my father and his chums on thier diveing jaunts! spent many hours following bubbles around Lyme bay![theres a sentance I thaught Id never write]
Back then, any thing with tubes petrudeing from the transome was realy cutting edge,from there onto various 'squidgies', club dive R.I.Bs a Flatacraft 5m, a Zodiac or two,then on to my Ribcraft,which I am very pleased with.
I have enjoyed every stage of my boating life so far,and I know from my experiance and others the fun to price ratio is nothing to do with haveing the latest bit of shine kit,or the latest super boat, with the obvious previso that your R.I.B is fit for purpose,I am about to tell you a long, and oft thaught unanswerable..the holy grail of Ribnet..the undeniable,irrefutable,unquestionable answer to WHAT IS THE BEST R.I.B!!!
Well my friends.....it is the R.I.B, INFLATABLE,BOAT,YOU HAVE IN YOUR DRIVE! YOU HAVE IT,LOOK AFTER IT, IMPROVE IT IF YOU LIKE,BUT ENJOY!!
[interesting thread looking forward to reading other Ribnet worthies storys]

[jyasaki]

Bought a SIB to transport my friends and I to dive sites. A few years later (after several rough water trips that were uncomfortable to say the least), one mile and a half return trip took 45 minutes due to chop and swell.

I had been looking into RIBs for a while (perusing things I couldn't afford, mostly), so had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.

Shortly after that, I came into some disposable income, and began a year long process of acquisition (I still remember the first phone call to Polaris in Canada.) A year later, I had my RIB.

jky

[JSP]

Originally Posted by Vintec

............................and got a Grand Banks 42ft classic with twin caterpillar 10 ltrs V8 (210 hp version), we bought this (I was 15 years) in Hardlepool. Maybe somebody here knows that place...?

Bloody beautiful boat. Been on one twice, once at the Southampton boat show in 06 and then out of Whiteheaven.

[JSP]

Originally Posted by samt

Got given a rowing dinghy when I was about 12. Then had several inflatables. Started working for on hire and passenger boats at 15, became a boatmaster at 18. Found this site, discovered the avon searider, bought one as a project, used it for a summer. Started a marine engineering degree, ran out of money, had to sell the rib.

And I remember being gutted I didn't buy it off you mate. It's on B&O isn't it at the moment?

[samt]

Originally Posted by JSP

And I remember being gutted I didn't buy it off you mate. It's on B&O isn't it at the moment?

Ah yes. Just seen it. Well thats where it went. The bloke wanted to use it at a sailing club safety boat. I sold it for £1400. He's asking £2000 and doesnt appear to have added anything to it.

http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F195505

Anyway, I'm happy with what I got for it, got a quick sale, and made a decent profit aswell . I hope to get another one when I've saved up enough again.

[Hightower]

I started out by going out with my Dad in an 8' flat bottom rowing boat with a small Seagull outboard on the back. We'd go out into Langston Harbour and do some fishing.

Then a few years later when I started earning I bought a 14' simulated clinker row boat with a 40hp tiller Evinrude mounted on the back. A friend and I would go all over the place fishing in that little speedser. People would be amazed at the sorts of speed we could get out of a Rowing boat . Holds some great memories for me and had some terriffic fun in her. She ended her days off of Bembridge when the crankshaft broke in half We got out the oars and started rowing for it. A passing Charted boat stopped and asked if we were Rowing across the Channel as the tide was pushing us off of coarse , he gave us a tow back to Eastney

Years went by and I hadn't really considered boats again other that the occasional charter trip, due to other interests. When my Koi pond bit the dust due to the Children arriving and I gave up ParaBuggying I needed something else to keep me occupied and started thinking of a family pursuit.

I started looking at RIBs because I wanted something that was truely Multi-Purpose. A boat that would cope with all weathers, could travel great distances in a short space of time and something I could fish from. Something that was as safe as houses.

The Kids love it, my 81 year old Dad's been out and various other family members. As to date I haven't managed to perswade the wife out, but I'm still hopeful

[IBWET]

Originally Posted by Vintec

Then 2 years later we sold everything and got a Grand Banks 42ft classic with twin caterpillar 10 ltrs V8 (210 hp version), we bought this (I was 15 years) in Hardlepool. Maybe somebody here knows that place...?

This might be Hartlepool?......if you google earth it, it's east coast of england 3/4 of the way up. if it is, it's changed a lot since you were there so unfortunatly little to recognise...

[IBWET]

Agreed with the girlfriend at the time, to buy two canoes to visit islands on loch lomond. came out of the dealer with a 4M SR,It had a Force 50 on it that wouldn't pull the skin of a bannana, so that got changed within the year for a Merc 60. That managed 6 people in the boat and i chubster in a doughnut to get on the plane with a 13" prop. (that prop is still sitting in the garage if anyone wants it)

The boat had been squeezed between two big cruisers and had stress fractures on the chines so no one had shown any intrest in buying it, so I got it for a good price. These cracks were still there when the boat got nicked 18 years and a lot of good times later. New rib built 2006, bigger, can carry more people,can't really see my family without one now.

[Jono]

Originally Posted by jwalker

Just a progression over the years really. As a kid I used to swim in the local river... with my Mate Noah…one day we came across a fisherman casting his nets from a Coracle…bought it for 10 bob. Nailed hessian over it, got a gourd of Goat fat from the local village and sealed it. Hooked. Noah reckons he heard some voices that told him it would be a good idea to get into a bigger boat…. And the rest is history…

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