Question on tube quality 12 ft zodiac rib

pathalla · 20 November 2009, 13:52

Once again, I have a line on a boat for sale, small (yl series) Zodiac rib. About 10 yrs old. Boat was used in salt water and looks to have been very neglected for 3 years. The sponsons look as if they are having an issue with not so much the material failing as the glue which holds various bits and pieces to the sponsons. The material on this boat looks and feels like a Zodiac hybrid, something in between pvc and hypalon. Boat has a 40 hp Honda 4 stroke on it but needs a lot of tlc. I can buy this cheap but my question is: would I want to? Responses please from those who have owned one of these... I still have the heebie jeebies from an ownership experience with one of the STRONGAN boats years ago, hope this isn't the same crappy stuff.

jyasaki · 20 November 2009, 16:31

Well my take is that Zodiac is doing much better now than when they first transitioned to PVC. That isn't really saying all that much. Still, my buddy's 15.5 (and another friends lightly used 17 or so) seems to be holding together pretty well after 5 years of rough and tumble, so they have at least gotten the seams down. Don't know about a 10 year old boat though.

As far as the motor, well, I think I had one of those. Carbed 4-stroke? When in tune it runs quite well. It's heavy for a 40, though, and halfway through the maintenance interval, it can become a pretty cold-blooded beast as far as starting goes (which is why I was glad to have electric start.) Other than that, it seemed to run great, if a bit underpowered for its rating.

So, I guess you've got to ask yourself if you really need another project boat?

Luck whichever way you go;

jky

learning to fly · 21 November 2009, 02:44

save your money, time and sanity. the boats are junk at 10 years old. I had a nice futura about 10 years old, great shape, never been abused. looked almost new. the glue was failing everywhere. I wont buy an older pvc zodiac again unless its almost free.

pathalla · 23 November 2009, 05:11

Thanks for the input guys, I decided to pass on the zodiac partly because of the opinions up here. It looked a little too rough, a little too much neglected.