Round Britain Powerboat and Rib Challenge 2014

[Gilles]

Hi Folks,

Here s the new challenge organized by HMS. Normally i will join the challenge with my Humber 6.3. hope to see you guys on water !!!!

Do not hesitate if you want to sponsorize my awesome team

[Gilles]

First draft :
Round Britain Powerboat and Rib Challenge 2014
Dates
25 July to 5th August 2014

Route

Fri 25th July – Leg 1
Plymouth to St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly
100NM

Sat 26th July – Leg 2
St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly to Neyland - Milford Haven (via lundy Island)
140 NM

Sun 27th July – Leg 3
Milford Haven to Holyhead
120 NM

Mon 28th July – Leg 4
Holyhead to [Largs or tarbert] (via Casteltown, isle of Man)
170 NM

Tues 29 th July – Leg 5
[Largs or tarbert] to Fort William
160NM

Wed 30th July – Leg 6
Fort William to Inverness (via Celdonian Canal & Lochs)
55NM

Thrus 31st July – Leg 7
Inverness to Arbroath
160NM

Fri 1st August – Leg 8
Arbroath to Whitby
150 NM

Sat 2nd August – Leg 9
Whitby to Wells-next-the-Sea
110NM

Sun 3rd August – Leg 10
Wells-next-the-Sea to Ramsgate
125 NM

Mon 4th August – Leg 11
Ramsgate to Southampton
130 NM

Tues 5th August – Leg 12
Southampton to Plymouth, and party
150NM

Total 1570 NM

[Gilles]

we ll probably have more details within the next coming month, follow Powerboat & RIB Magazine - Powerboat & RIB Magazine

[Bushrider]

No commitment yet but vacation for this period already reserved

[henryfreston]

I have heard of people doing round britain in a searider 4m.

I would love to do it and this seems ideal as there will be plenty of boats if the going gets tough.

Do you think it would be totally outrageous so attempt it in my little searider?

[Bushrider]

Originally Posted by henryfreston

I have heard of people doing round britain in a searider 4m. I would love to do it and this seems ideal as there will be plenty of boats if the going gets tough. Do you think it would be totally outrageous so attempt it in my little searider?

think Baby Blue with Trevor & Rick in their SR4.7 proved in a very impressive way the performance of this boat during the RI - even in comparison to the bigger boats . see comment of M.Thornton !
A challenge would be to accommodate all fuel and gear in the SR4 if no land support available ..

[henryfreston]

Originally Posted by Bushrider

think Baby Blue with Trevor & Rick in their SR4.7 proved in a very impressive way the performance of this boat during the RI - even in comparison to the bigger boats . see comment of M.Thornton !
A challenge would be to accommodate all fuel and gear in the SR4 if no land support available ..

I am quite lucky in the way that I have bit of a one off searider. It has a large front console storage space (hard to show without a picture). This enables me to store lots of equipment in a dry area.

So you don't think that a 4m searider would be well out of its comfort zone performance wise?

[matt h]

Henry, the boat could do it but im not sure your backside or skellington would.. !!

[M.Thornton]

Originally Posted by henryfreston

I have heard of people doing round britain in a searider 4m.

I would love to do it and this seems ideal as there will be plenty of boats if the going gets tough.

Do you think it would be totally outrageous so attempt it in my little searider?

I'm thinking (only thinking at this stage!) of doing it in a wooden 4m c-fury,but will have Ross in our 8.1 Scorpion as mother ship. With a bit of luck the rest of the "Lancashire Pals" will talk me out of it (or get me sectioned)
(Mad) Mike T.

[henryfreston]

Originally Posted by matt h

Henry, the boat could do it but im not sure your backside or skellington would.. !!

I could always modify the seating for the trip to make it uber comfy and a nice supporting back rest. Maybe a few shock absorbers between the console and the deck

As long as it is doable. At the end of the day you only live once so you might as well make the most of it- even if I can't sit down for a month afterwards

[bliksem]

Originally Posted by Gilles

Hi Folks,

Here s the new challenge organized by HMS. Normally i will join the challenge with my Humber 6.3. hope to see you guys on water !!!!

Do not hesitate if you want to sponsorize my awesome team

All well, if i find myself a sponsor then two Belgians (one Flemish speaking and the other French speaking, but we communicate in English) (with very Brittish ribs) will participate!!!!! So one Humber 6.3 and one Ribquest 6.3....

[MustRib]

Originally Posted by M.Thornton

I'm thinking (only thinking at this stage!) of doing it in a wooden 4m c-fury,but will have Ross in our 8.1 Scorpion as mother ship. With a bit of luck the rest of the "Lancashire Pals" will talk me out of it (or get me sectioned)
(Mad) Mike T.

thats it Mike...come over to the ..."small" side, the view is much the same as from the "big" side.. there just seems to be more of it!

[Poly]

Originally Posted by henryfreston

I could always modify the seating for the trip to make it uber comfy and a nice supporting back rest. Maybe a few shock absorbers between the console and the deck

As long as it is doable. At the end of the day you only live once so you might as well make the most of it- even if I can't sit down for a month afterwards

Henry - the boat could go round the UK quite happily. Whether any sane person would try to take a SR4 in the legs that are outlined above, day after day is another matter. In fact you might question that even in boats quite a bit bigger. e.g. Largs to Ft William is a massive day in a small boat if the weather is less than perfect. It would be an epic in its own right, but the day before is equally big and exposed.

I can only assume that Hugo has either (a) completely lost his marbles or (b) found some special hotline to the weather gods! that he has proposed the Scilly Isles, Hollyhead->Largs and Largs->Ft William all in the same week

You are looking at 150 ish mile legs, in potentially tough seas with the aim to get to a specific destination in a relatively tight timescale. Even with a small engine you will probably be working it hard so might need to be thinking towards 200L of fuel to have capacity + reserve on the longest days. You probably don't want to be refuelling in the middle of the north sea or irish sea from cans either so you'll need to plumb most of that in properly.

You's also need to find something like £2k to cover the fuel cost of the whole trip, plus whatever hugo charges for "organising" the trip, plus accomodation each night, food etc. Add in some fancy extra kit you might want before you set off, and some basic servicing/repairs on the way round and I think you'd find yourself £4k+ down quite easily.

[ShinyShoe]

No rest days ... doh! Even the Tour de France put in some rest days...

[matt h]

Round the Isle of Wight was probably my limit and i noramlly can take a bashing. Peter m was 2 inches shorter and this created a "septic rectal prolapse" after a few minutes! that could have been down to the abuse that he had to endure..! i got told later by whisper he actually enjoyed that more than wavejumping!

[Gilles]

you can do it on your avon 4m you just need to make sure to prepare it as best as u can, shockwave seats maybe etc, ask Trevor he did the round of ireland and bigger boats stoppped before him !

Jurgen you must be in mate !!! hope to see you again

Bliksem hope to see you back on water !!!

cheers

[Gilles]

200L on a small boat i m not that sure as i had it for the longest leg in Ireland and i had enough with a 175HP on a 6.3m rib (course i had 2X20L extra tanks)
do not hesitate if you need more details or advises about what we experienced during round of ireland

[Trevor G]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

No rest days ... doh! Even the Tour de France put in some rest days...

Ah - just because there aren't any planned rest days, I'm sure they will happen - the trouble is the timing will be dictated by when the weather deteriorates such that you're forced to stop for a day or two. Like in Ireland.
Or of course, when bits fall off the boat and you have to stop anyway to fix them!
Trev

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Gilles

200L on a small boat i m not that sure as i had it for the longest leg in Ireland and i had enough with a 175HP on a 6.3m rib (course i had 2X20L extra tanks)
do not hesitate if you need more details or advises about what we experienced during round of ireland

Well it may be pessimistic but I got there from two different routes:

(1) Ribnet rule of thumb cruising rate of 1L/NM. Most small boat report better cruising that this - but most small boats only cruise in benign conditions close to shore. If the weather is nasty my experience is he'll be alot close to that 1L/nm especially since with a destination to reach he'll be driven by factors other than maximum fuel ecconomy. Longest leg is 170 NM - and then most people would suggest at least a 20% reserve.

(2) Hugo published a target cruising speed of 22 knots this year. Herny's boat should be capable of much more but in the open sea with some wind he might find he's working the throttle hard to maintain that (and if it is really bad he may not manage to). If he's at WOT with a 50 HP 2 stroke (which is generally regarded as the best SR4 combo) then he'll be burning 19L/hr, and 170 NM is going to take nearly 8 hrs - which adds up to about 150 ish L + reserve.

So 180-200L total? It might be conservative, and Henry certainly needs to work our what he needs if he is going to do the trip - but it is certainly not going to be a few portable tanks.

[Gilles]

i m ok with the 20% reserve. in any case we re cruising togheter or in 2/3 groups but never cruising alone ! as we are all ribbers, help may come in a second ! i m doing 1l/nm with my humber6.3 175HP. i would say in any condition.
cruising speed of 22 knots was what we did except in rough seas, somethimes i was at 14 knots or so.there was also a small ribcraft with 60hp that cruise with us for 2 days. unfortunately crew dicided to stop but i cruised next to this boat and it ran pretty well ! you just need to prepare your boat this kind of challenge, pay attention to weight and only have what you really need. check list sent by hugo is quiet exshaustif