Noobie with new boat, a few niggles and loads of questions :-)

[JakeT]

Hi All,
A friend and I have just bought our first RIB and picked it up from Falmouth at the weekend. Our first weekend trip in it threw up some niggles (I hope that's all they are!) that need addressing but need the collective wisdom of the forum.

ok first off:

The boat is a 1996 (we think) Ribtec 655 with twin 1996 Yamaha 90s. The boat was advertised as being capable of 55+ knots. This is very fast and would rarely if ever need to go that fast but when we took her out could only get 30 knots dead at WOT. There were 4 people on board and around 100+ litres of fuel. When we recovered the boat onto the trailer on Sunday we noticed the bilge bung was missing - DOH! Schoolbay error! Needless to say whilst on ramp water streamed out of the hole for 45 minutes! Question is this: How much water would the bilge likely hold and how much would this slow the boat down by? Also anyone know where to get a new bung from? It has a screw thread and I know this incarnation of Ribtec no longer exists.

Secondly:

There are screw holes on the transom (see red squared bits on pics). They do not go all the way through the hull as I have poked a wire into them and they are about 1/2" deep. Anyone know what would have been screwed into these and if I should fill them to prevent water damage to the ply inside?

Thirdly:

The storage compartment under the starboard side rear jockey seat has a circular unit of some description in it (see pic). When we first got in the boat this conpartment was 6" deep in water and when I felt inside I felt this unit and a cable coming from it. Thought it might be a drain plug so pulled it and it snapped. Only to discover it was an electrical wire - 2nd DOH! Can anyone tell me what this unit is?

Finally,

After about an hour of cruising the Port engine cut out and discovered there was no fuel in the primer bulb. There are two filler caps so assume there are two separate fuel tanks. My mate put about 70 litres in one tank and 30 in the other. Reckon therefore just ran out of fuel. However is the unit under the jockey seat with the now snapped wires relevant to this - ie is it a fuel balancing pump or some such?

Thanks for your patience reading this long list guys. Great Forum BTW! Jake

[Xk59D]

as a rib newbie myself you'll find this forum invaluable for advice. i'm no RIB expert but i can maybe answer a couple of your points. the other experienced guys will chime in i'm sure.

the holes you should definetely fill in-the guys here will advise the best way to do so.

the speed of 55 knots plus seems very far fetched to me for a 6.5m boat but i'm sure someone will confirm.

how much will a flooded hull slow down a boat-well it's difficult to say but i'd bet it would make a difference but not your missing 25 knots.

cheers

[willk]

Welcome to RIBnet.

Fill those holes with Gelcoat filler or Sikkaflex. They're probably from an old transducer or paddlewheel.

I think you just wigged the cable off the fuel sender unit on your tank. Don't worry too much - they're a PITA anyway.

Twin 90's won't give you 55kts, with that hull (empty ) I'd guess you'd be doing well to get over 40kts.

Bilge bungs often are a two part unit, hull fitting and bung. They're an easy buy on the internet - just get the dimensions of the hole in the hull and get a unit to fit.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by JakeT

The boat is a 1996 (we think) Ribtec 655 with twin 1996 Yamaha 90s. The boat was advertised as being capable of 55+ knots.

this is your first important lesson in RIB ownership - when selling a RIB you should always mix up kph/mph/knots in order to sound better! e.g. at a real push very lightly loaded (with a following tide) on a flat day you might just get that boat to 47 knots which would be 55mph! You were managing 30 knots - which happens to be about 55 kph...

When we recovered the boat onto the trailer on Sunday we noticed the bilge bung was missing - DOH! Schoolbay error! Needless to say whilst on ramp water streamed out of the hole for 45 minutes! Question is this: How much water would the bilge likely hold and how much would this slow the boat down by?

quite a lot!

Also anyone know where to get a new bung from? It has a screw thread and I know this incarnation of Ribtec no longer exists.

Ribeye are now making them - they might be able to help - but as Willk says should be able to find either a replacement bung or certainly a complete assembly at most chandlers.

Now - it might be worth getting a nice man from the RNLI to come and do a "sea check" on your new boat.

[Kernow Buoy]

That looks like 'Tinsel' to me. Saw her for sale at Rock marine a while ago. As aready said no way will you get near 55 kts, I'd agree with Wilk, 40 will be about it. I'd guess those holes are for a previous transponder or possibly from the current one thats been moved.

[Mollers]

I know this boat, it belonged to an estate agent. Nuff said.

A pal of mine had it in storage, I made a rather derisory other for it.

[JakeT]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. I new 55 knots was going to be unrealistic but would be nice to be able to do about 40. I checked out a speed survey done on here on one of the threads and from the graph that was done it looked like about 42 knots was about right, bearing in mind that twin 90s should be the equivalent of a single 140/150. I was more hoping that if it could do 55 with those engines then it would cruise happily with low revs and give me decent fuel consumption figures. If it is going 30 at WOT then things could be expensive!

I'll get the holes filled in with Gelcoat filler then. There's a few other little nicks in the gelcoat that need looking at anyway.

Am i right in assuming there are likely to be two independent fuel tanks and that the reason the engine cut out was that one was empty? The engine buzzed at me, then cut out. Prior to that the tell-tale was strong and there is plenty of oil in it. It would intermittently start after that, run for about five seconds, then beep and cut out.

If there is two separate tanks then shouldn't there be two sender units, Didn't see another one anywhere. There is two fuel gauges and one appears not to be working so that would fit with me yanking the wire off :-(

I want to go round the boat with a fine tooth comb and get it all ship-shape before she goes back in the water. I figure the more I know the boat inside and out the more likely I can fix something on the water if I need to. As well as the fuel sender the Tachometers are not working. The displays have power, (they are yamaha digital lcd jobbies) but are illegible and the trim indicators are not working. Not sure if the oil warning lamps are working or not. Any ideas as to how best to fix them. Is it likely to be a corroded wire somewhere or is it a new unit job? Where does it connect to the engine?

Finally,
the transponder fitted on the rear has a little paddle wheel on it. Presumably this is for speed through water but it is above the level of the bottom of the hull so don't know how efficient it is likely to be. Not that bothered about it as have GPS but depth would be useful. Is this same unit going to be the one with depth sounder in it. There is depth on chart plotter that only seems to work intermittently and would be useful for anchoring etc.

Kernow:

yes it's Tinsel! Good Spot. Do you know any more about the history of this boat? Let me know if you know anything, even if it is bad. Would rather know on dry land than find out the hard way. Boat seems very seaworthy and handles well, even when bilge is full of water! Bought her for £8750 in the end which I thought was pretty good value, but I'm sure others will comment.

Thanks once again for the input guys. Looking forward to getting out on the water and doing some cruising. Long term aim is to improve the boat over time and build up to doing a channel crossing. Is this a sensible option with this boat?

thanks

Jake

[Kernow Buoy]

Originally Posted by Mollers

I know this boat, it belonged to an estate agent. Nuff said.

It's not your 'Tinsel' Kerns.

I'm sure thats it, it's got 'Tinsel' written on it too! Was for sale when I bought mine last August.

[Kernow Buoy]

Hi Jake, sounds like Mollers know's it better than me, she was for sale last August for £15k!

[JakeT]

It was bought from an Estate agent, like you say, nuff said. came with Brenderup road trailer but had to spend close to £1250 with Tyrone Snell to replace most of the running gear on it. not been looked after very well :-(

[Into The Blue]

Originally Posted by JakeT

Finally,
the transponder fitted on the rear has a little paddle wheel on it. Presumably this is for speed through water but it is above the level of the bottom of the hull so don't know how efficient it is likely to be. Not that bothered about it as have GPS but depth would be useful. Is this same unit going to be the one with depth sounder in it. There is depth on chart plotter that only seems to work intermittently and would be useful for anchoring etc.

thanks

Jake

Jake,
have a look at the file here; probably not the guide for your exact model but might help. The earlier screw holes suggest that the TXD has been reloacted.
http://www.airmartechnology.com/uplo.../17-247-03.pdf

It's an instalation guide for paddlewheel transducers, from what I can see you'd not get a very good speed reading where it's currently mounted

ITB

[MustRib]

how did you find the folks at Tyrone Snell?
they must be getting used to us northerners coming down to buy Ribs, they patched up my trailer a few weeks ago when I bought the Gemini from a bloke in Truro.... it was on a De Graaf trailer, had to replace hubs , road wheels, winch and a wobble wheel!
They were super busy and did it all in two hours for me while I waited.

Good luck with the new rib, like you am finding out my purchase is rather more of a project than I had imagined (its being re-tubed at the moment!)

[JakeT]

yeah they were very helpful and all the work they've done is great, though seems expensive though I have had no experience of trailer repair costs before. Figured it's not something to mess about with as I didn't fancy the boat overtaking me on the motorway so better to get it all done properly. Yeah it is turning into a project but quite looking forward to learning about all the inner workings of it. Whilst hoping for the best when we bought it, knew a boat of that age and price is likely to need some TLC. Who's doing the re-tubing and what is that going to set you back?!

[Mollers]

Super Hero Tyrone retired and sold the business a couple of years ago. The new guys appear to have carried on 'as was', inc, writing out a bill.

[MustRib]

Humber are re-tubing for me.
All the baffles were down or blown in the original tubes. There were a few bad repairs, but in a couple of places the seams were coming apart between the sections, big enough gaps for me to put my hands through !! To get all the baffles (five section tubes) repaired would have involved opening it all up, quite an expensive repair that was beyond my skills, and at the end I would still have had an old set of tubes. As the hull was in such good nick, I figured a new set of tubes would give the boat a lot more years and increase its value. I did ask several of the trade members here to quote for retubing. I wont go into exact costs, but RibRaff (Ed) on here was by a very small amount cheaper than Humber, a saving which would have been nullified by driving down to the South West and back from Newcastle. Hull just took me a couple of hours instead of 9 ! I know lots of people on the forum have opinions about tube manufacturers, and time will tell if Humber were the right choice, but so far they have been good to deal with, there was a good vibe at their premises. I get the boat back in mid September when I get back to the UK from working away. I will post pictures then.
Good call on getting the trailer sorted before setting off.... !

[MarkL]

Hi Jake,

I have a 1996 Ribtec 645 (currently in 6 pieces but that's another story...) with a Honda 130. With a clean hull and 2 people on board it'll do 38kts at WOT so I'd expect you to be getting something in the low 40s with your setup.

It'll have two tanks so I'm guessing that one of them ran dry - fuel gauges are notorious for their ability to be utterly incorrect... although at least the one you pulled the wire off will now be consistent

Rib Shop sell the bung for the transom :

Transom Bung

Cheers,
Mark

[JakeT]

Cheers Mark,
thanks for the bung link, it's just the right one I think!

If I can get 40 knots will be very happy, and will be more than enough. Will also hopefully mean can cruise at 25 knots without WOT and thus not burn so much fuel.

Need to do so some research on prop sizes and whether the twins are setup right or just been plonked on as two singles. They are not counter rotating props so they may be just off the shelf. Am I right in thinking that with a twin 90 setup I should have a higher pitched prop than a smaller boat designed for a single 90 setup (if you see what I mean)? The current props are 18P and from a rough measurement with a ruler look like 12" diameter, are these about right?

It does get onto the plane very quickly (even with the bilge FULL of water) but the tachos are not working so need to fix these first. Anyone know how to fix 'em?

[Poly]

Originally Posted by JakeT

the tachos are not working so need to fix these first. Anyone know how to fix 'em?

depends what is wrong with them! The two most likely things if they have stopped working all together are either a dodgy connection on the wiring to them or the internals are goosed (possibly having got wet). If its the later its unlikely to be ecconomical to fix unless you are, or know an electonics wizard.

I'm assuming you have a "tradtional" tacho rather than modern fancy stuff that is "networked". In terms of the wiring you should have (on each tacho) a live (12 V dc) power feed (probably only live when the ignition key is "on". If its not live with the engine running trace it back looking for dodgy connections or possible blown fuses. It should give something more like 14V with the engine running - so if its only giving 12 it might indicate corroded wires/connections.

You should also have a ground connection which has a good contact to engine/battery ground.

Then there will be a "signal" line which feeds the engine speed as a series of pulses from the engine. If you put a multimeter on this set to 20V A.C. range you will see the voltage increase as the revs go up. If this is the case and all wiring / connections are in good order, and any "pole setting" switch is set correctly then you probably need to replace the gauges themselves.

You may also have a "light" connection as well - which is wired so the back light comes on (either through an "instrument light" switch - or just through your "nav lights" switch).

[Mollers]

You're fortunate on two counts. Yam 90's make good money and will do much better than any other 90 of the same vintage. And, they're both right hookers, which gives them equal value.
Personally, I'd be tempted to offload the 90's now whilst there's a bit of season left and buy a nice 10yo Merc/Mariner Opti 150/200 (whatever max design HP is) with Smartcraft gauges and all the bits. From memory, the boat will tidy and the trailer is ok. The Ribtec 655 is a decent enough hull and you'd end up with a nice rig with a bit of value. Winter project.

[JakeT]

Thanks Polwart I'll get my multimeter out and try to trace the fault. The tacho is combined with the engine oil warning lamps and the trim level, all on the same gauge so I gues there'll be signal wires for each of these bits. There is power to the unit but the LCD display is scrambled so I suspect the whole unit is U/S. Is there a good place to get S/H ones? Have heard on here new ones are bit pricey.

Hi Moller, when you say the Yams make good money how much would I get for each? I presume they get good money cos they are desirable so isn't it better to keep them? The reason we chose a boat with twins was for long range safety as hoping to get to France in it eventually.

The max hp for the hull is 200hp so how much would a 10yo 200 opti cost? Also, As it appears there is two independent fuel tanks would it be an issue to fuel just the one engine?