It the death of the rib on the horizon?

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by jwalker

Hehe. Did you take me seriously!?

Then, of course, there'll be no plastic so we won't have a rib to power anyway. You can't have a wooden one cos we'll need the trees to absorb the CO2. And if there's no plastic our clothes will disappear so we'll need to go back to wool and cotton and jute. And with all those sheep, imagine the amount of methane they'll produce farting - oh no! we killed all the cows because of that so we can't have leather anymore, jings we'll need to make our shoes out of bark..oops, that's trees, ok we could use grass instead....

How about this for an idea, we take our boats & mount a ruddy great stick in the middle of the deck, we then get some kites & tie them to the big stick with bits of string, wait for the wind to blow & off we go, free power. I think it could catch on[emoji848]

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

How about this for an idea, we take our boats & mount a ruddy great stick in the middle of the deck, we then get some kites & tie them to the big stick with bits of string, wait for the wind to blow & off we go, free power. I think it could catch on[emoji848]

Nice idea. Perhaps we could get the rules changed so these new Eco boats have right of way over the smokers? That would be an incentive...

[Dan Gurney]

Originally Posted by jwalker

Hehe. Did you take me seriously!?

Ahhh, the old "I was only joking" defence.

[jwalker]

Originally Posted by Dan Gurney

Ahhh, the old "I was only joking" defence.

Well, tongue in cheek might be closer.

[kerfoo]

Originally Posted by Poly

I’m not sure ribs are “light” by those standards. They take a lot of power to get on the plane, and stay there. Bear in mind also that there is no energy recovery from braking possible on a boat so they will always be less efficient than a car.

Now PWC might be able to be viable. Because 1. People tend not to use them for longer distance/endurance. 2. They are lighter for the size. 3. The %age of space used by the engine is big (which makes battery space as electric motors are smaller). 4. Acceleration matters a lot to them. 5. Most are brought out on trailers each day and so can be relatively easily charged.

I was thinking more comparatively, that as boats go, Rib's are light compared to say a fiberglass power boat or a keeled sail boat. I don't expect to see efficiency figures of a car, but that's not a reason to not explore the possibilities and improve on what's in place.

PWC's - you could do it, but then you're not going anywhere - you're just doing donuts for kicks and heading back to your trailer - exploration for a party of 1 or 2.

The foil conversation is an interesting one that I've thought about. Kite foils are a lot of fun. With longer masts you get higher flying heights and more wave clearance but you also get into active altitude management - see the america's cup videos for what happens when you get too high and your foil losses lift. SeaAir has a cool start but how do you work with longer motor legs and bigger heights?

[Poly]

I’m sceptical that ribs are lighter than fibreglass hills of similar purpose? If you want light you’d probably go aluminium or perhaps fancy carbon fibre.

A keeled sailboat is not a particularly meaningful comparison. Not least as it has sails and so an even more eco form of propulsion but also because few keelboats are intended to plane - therefore the weight is only an issue in acceleration not achieving lift. Actually “sailboat” use is a logical place to use electric power. 1. They like to have ballast to reduce c.o.g so heavy batteries aren’t necessarily bad. 2. They don’t need to go that fast, and often don’t even need to go that far under power. 3. Many are kept in marinas where trickle charging is feasible. Others might be able to charge on a mooring with a wind Gen between use. 4. The noise of an engine grates against the peace and tranquility of sailing. 5. They suffer a lot (or at least worry a lot about) fuel contamination. The downside would be many use the engine (or at least diesel) to heat the boat and water so may need some other aspects. I suspect the weight/balance difference is so big it would only make sense on new builds or major refits not an engine swap.

The comparison though is the difference between a classic milk float and an off road vehicle.

[kerfoo]

I hear what you're saying Poly. If you want to sail - electric propulsion may work well. As a sailor, I still ended up going with a Rib for all of the exploration opportunities it provides.

Maybe I should have qualified that I have a light aluminum RIB that's probably around 1245 lbs on a 590 with a console (no engine) - maybe 2000 lbs before gear. I didn't find much in that weight range for ocean going fiberglass boats. I know the zodiac 733's are at least twice that once you get into commercial tubes so it all depends what you're running.

Hydrofoils - this isn't a RIB - I think it's lots of carbon but it's coming along in terms of foil height.
https://candelaspeedboat.com/

[Rib_Tickler]

Hydrofoils are intriguing. Check out this French Rib with retracting foils. Anything to get the RIB's butt out of the water to reduce drag.
The other one is the hysucat which combines cat and a bit of foiling to improve fuel performance.
Was gonna ask you guys/gals to point me in the direction of inboard vs outboard threads if I could. Sorry for hijacking your thread!

Thanks

D

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Poly

Nice idea. Perhaps we could get the rules changed so these new Eco boats have right of way over the smokers? That would be an incentive...

Stick some tubes around one of these and off you go. Shallow draft and slippery shape, perfect for a cruise down to Yarmouth for lunch.

They seemed to be quite seaworthy given the voyages they made. No records of the ones that didn't make it unfortunately.

Sails should "stand on" over powered vessels who "shall keep out of the way"

So what's not to like

Just don't be going and buying any big diesels:


https://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/ne...on-diesel.aspx