In July this year I put my Gemini Waverider 505 up for sale and purchased a 2008 Ribeye A600 from Ipswich. I chose the boat because it had the layout I wanted, was in general good condition, and had a 2021 Outboard with only 19h on!
The tubes though were in poor condition. I did a deal on the basis I would re-tube next year and the boat would last me the rest of the season.
As delivery day approached, I sold my Gemini and began to get excited about getting out on the new boat. But unfortunately disaster struck! The boat arrived and was immediately leaking. The guy I bought it from took it back from Fowey in Cornwall to Dartmouth, Devon to be repaired. A day or so later I had a call to say the repair was not possible and it needed re-tubing. queue the premature end of my summer boating season and much sadness
However, thanks to Ed Carter at Demon Ribs, approx 4 weeks later the retune was complete and I actually managed to squeeze 2 trips in before bringing the boat back to my home in Gloucestershire.
I'm now on a journey to update the electronics, steering, and upholstery over the winter. And I thought it might be interesting to some to document that journey here.
So here goes!
The boat as I first viewed it:
There were quite a few dings in the hull. I had these all repaired while the boat was still in Ipswich. Cost around £500 of a couple of days work by a Gel Coat expert
At Demon Ribs in Dartmouth they lost no time cutting the old tubes away:
and they did a fantastic job of the re-tube!
Now I have it back I'm planning a full upgrade of all the electronics after a wallet-busting trip to the Southampton boat show:
Which will require a re-layout of the console. I considered changing the console to get a bit more space for things, but at ~2K I decided it was too much right now. Instead, I'm going to get some Carbon Fibre panels machined to take all the new gear. Current thinking on this design:
Next steps are to order up a hydraulic steering setup and get that installed before my next trip on the 11th November to the IoW (anyone want to join us?)
The electronics install will prob need to wait until after that trip I think.
