Round ireland 2013

[TomLinley]

Broken from the trip, in need of some rest. Just towed home and into the house, will upload pics on here and Facebook once digested the hours of GoPro footage.

[MustRib]

blog complete now


Around Ireland in a washing machine - a circumnavigation

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by MustRib

blog complete now


Around Ireland in a washing machine - a circumnavigation

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant .



Lovely looking boat, such a shame about the tank (and your back).

Makes me want to do it next year......I just need talking into/out of it. I reckon I know the ideal SR4.7 for it ....

[T 15]

Originally Posted by MustRib

blog complete now


Around Ireland in a washing machine - a circumnavigation

Good one.

[neil.mccrirrick]

Originally Posted by MustRib

blog complete now

Around Ireland in a washing machine - a circumnavigation

Love the blog well done to you and all the folk that took part

[TomLinley]

Was a great trip, everyone did so well. Great experiences all round

[MadTubes]

Originally Posted by MustRib

blog complete now


Around Ireland in a washing machine - a circumnavigation

Great work Andy - a good read! My favourite part is the title!!

[MustRib]

as you well know Peter, there was zero visibility at times, and the Gemini tends to chuck water out and up which then blows straight back at you... hence the title !
Congrats on getting through to the end you guys did fantastically well

[MadTubes]

Hey All - still fairly new to Ribnet, and other than some local weekend RibRaids to Scotland, IOM and around various bit of NI over the last number of years, the Round Ireland was by far the biggest challenge we've ever done!
It was a great experience with some fantastic people - we turned up at Kilmore Quay just over a week ago not knowing a soul, but felt very quickly adopted into the RI family. The craic and sense of comradeship amongst the fleet was something special.

We were in our 2006 bog-standard 6m Ribeye 'MadTubes' with a Yamaha 115, with very little special adaptation and were doing this on a fairly tight budget - no suspension or fancy gizmos!! The boat performed superbly in everything that the weather threw at us, and the engine never missed a beat. As always, think the boats can take a lot more pounding than we can! The only 'luxury' we decided on was the installation of hydraulic steering (post-event I don't think this was a luxury - think that one or other of our steering cables or our biceps would have shredded if we hadnt!). We also had to give serious consideration to fuel management (with a seriously under-capacity 40L inbuilt tank) - an Ebay purchase of a secondhand 70L tank, plus our usual secondary 40L and a few extra jerry cans replaced the back bench in a crude but effective DIY solution! Incredibly we had only a few minor repairs during the challenge - broken power lead on the GPS, reattachment of the fuel uptake line on the secondary tank and the replacement of a lightbulb!

Other kit - our wee Garmin 450S was just grand, ICOM VHF struggled a bit (not too bad receiving but transmitting wasn't too clear.
Think the best bit of personal kit were the Gekko helmets - really don't think we could have done it without them - the one drawback of the A600 is that you do get wet, and the helmets just make the rough stuff so much easier and reduce fatigue considerably. I spent most of the time in a Musto MPX Ocean Smock which kept me dry and warm throughout - much more so than my previous set of waterproofs). Other essential kit - duck tape and cable ties!

Big thanks to Hugo, Michaela and the team for all the organisation before and during the event. It's just something we would never have done on our own, and have enjoyed meeting so many fantastic people with a wealth of experience who share our passion for ribbing and exploring. Further thanks to Paul & Viv on Top Hat, Paul & Dai on Freya and Huw & Sarah on Seawolf - you guys did a fantastic job of keeping us safe and your presence was very reassuring throughout.

It definitely was a challenge, but that brings with it a real sense of achievement making it to the finish line! Would I do it again? Maybe not next week, but give us some time for the muscles and bank balance to recover and you never know ....

[T 15]

Well done Mad Tubes, great to see a "standard" Ribeye complete the R I.

[tonymac]

Well done MadTubes! Congratulations to you both for a fantastic achievement.

Welcome also to the Ribnet fraternity!

The guys and gals on here are great and really do share.
We also do some nice trips if you are interested?

No doubt I will see you both around again soon. Look out for the blue and white Humber!

[Portnahaven]

Excellent account MR.
I empathize with your back pain.

[Barrowboy]

Originally Posted by M.Thornton

As promised a quick rundown on boat and equipment

Boat Black Hawk 7m Osprey Vipermax , nothing broke except for a slight crazing in the screen due to the constant pounding,very strongly made by Mike Whitham very soft riding if a little wet.
Engine 250 E-tec, didn't miss a beat, a bit thirsty but in hindsight we should have dropped the prop pitch or gone 4 bladed.
Seats. Scott "wide boys" ,bloody fantastic!
Raymarine hybrid touch screen plotter/sounder ,bit fiddly on touch mode
rain and spray would activate it so we turned the touch off,otherwise ok
Garmin gps map 550s plotter/ sounder ,ok as a standby but gave up the ghost
after 6 days
Icom IC m505 ,VHF mike stopped working after 4 days tried to clear water out but transmission was intelligible,so had to listen on fixed and transmit on handheld ,not ideal
Typhoon drysuits, fantastic could wear them all day long ,never let in a drop.
Gecko Mk 10 helmets ,great ,would have struggled without them.
Buhel bluetooth comms. didn't work in those conditions,stopped using them on day 2
Aldi £10 dry bags, superb please can you get some more Mr Aldi.
Mac Wet gloves ,ok but preferred my Barbour neoprene shooting gloves,warmer,more grip.
Icey-tec insulated cool box, great could put all the eatables together.
We fitted a large lockable storage box behind the seats and that proved to be a boon for storing clothes ect.
Fitted deck tie downs.Great could securely lash things down,great for going through tornados!!

Mike T.

That's a seriously interesting list of what worked/didn't work in a full-on week in that environment. I'm secretly congratulating myself as I share a couple of bits of kit that you class as 'great' and 'fantastic' which mirrors my own experience but I'm seriously considering some of the Scott seats at present. I know this is a rapidly evolving area and the jury's still out but tell me, did you have the ones that provide shock mitigation in both the lateral and vertical plane, or just the vertical shock absorbers? You were obviously very impressed and you gave them a bl**dy good work out whatever they were!

[M.Thornton]

Originally Posted by Barrowboy

That's a seriously interesting list of what worked/didn't work in a full-on week in that environment. I'm secretly congratulating myself as I share a couple of bits of kit that you class as 'great' and 'fantastic' which mirrors my own experience but I'm seriously considering some of the Scott seats at present. I know this is a rapidly evolving area and the jury's still out but tell me, did you have the ones that provide shock mitigation in both the lateral and vertical plane, or just the vertical shock absorbers? You were obviously very impressed and you gave them a bl**dy good work out whatever they were!

Had the fancy ones with the stainless coils to give lat. support, they take a lot of strain out of the mechanism

[Gilles]

this challenge was an awesome expereince !!!!!! what s next ???

[MadTubes]

Originally Posted by tonymac

Well done MadTubes! Congratulations to you both for a fantastic achievement.

Welcome also to the Ribnet fraternity!

The guys and gals on here are great and really do share.
We also do some nice trips if you are interested?

No doubt I will see you both around again soon. Look out for the blue and white Humber!

Yup - keep us posted! Where are you based?

[M.Thornton]

After much soul searching Ross and I have decided to put Black Hawk on the market.We love the boat but intend to cruise in areas where petrol is not readily available so we will be going diesel for our next project.
Any interested parties please PM me
Mike T.

[ShinyShoe]

I see the X-pro guys are also selling Black Panther:

Highfield Ocean Master 500 Rib, Round Ireland 2013 boat, awesome spec | eBay

[Bushrider]

After completing the RI in my SR5.4 I have arrived yesterday finally back in Ukraine at work . Due to the 2 days we lost in Dingle I was already overdue ..
The RI was my first RIB cruise at the Irish Sea or at the Atlantic . I knew that it will be tough but all the happenings exceeded far my expectations . What I appreciated most during the ENTIRE trip was the team spirit and the fellowship between the teams . This was regardless of boat size , boat age , nationality or others ! People were helping each other WITHOUT any hesitation ! That the 15 boats finally made it was also the result of discipline and team work ! I do not want to mention any names because everybody on the event was absolutely fantastic ! This concerns also the guys from Ireland who followed us round and supported wherever they could !

My thanks to Hugo for organizing this event which was due to the high quantity of boats , people and permanent changing conditions a separate challenge for him !

Thanks also to Michaela who always managed things in the background !

My special thanks goes to Paul Glatzel and Top Hat ! He was ALWAYS there and never let us down . He secured our back , carried luaggage or made nice pictures from all of us . Without Paul we would have been in deep trouble on the way to Fenit . Not only the sea conditions were against us – we were running into the night and arrived in Fenit only after 11.00pm in the dark . There was not a single star at the sky respectively the moon . The waves turned deep black and we could not see anymore .
With Top Hat and it`s top light we followed Paul like a perl chain through the rocks and cliffs into the Fenit Marina .

Drysuit Typhoone PS220 :
A couple of people mentioned already that this drysuit is worth the money , It really keeps dry and I appreciated very much the front bag for handheld , camera or others + the con-zip for “little service”

GECKO :
nothing to add to the positive comments of the guys before ! Sits perfectly well ! My mistake was only that I did not take the full visor with me but only the half visor

Foot wear
Was wearing every day safety boots with steel cap , they were looking more than sports shoes and I chose them 2 sizes larger ,

EPIRB GME MT 403E
Bought this EPIRB just before the RI . While sitting in the marina club in Rossmoney this EPIRB decided without any reason to give alarm . Fortunately Rescue Bremen contacted first Paul Glatzel before they undertook any rescue actions .. the pub would have been anyway a very strange location to be in trouble ,
I disconnected the battery and the alarm went off , as soon I connected it back the alarm came on again , for the rest of the journey the EPIRB was useless

Handheld Standard Horizon HX851
Bought it also brand new before the trip , radio worked at the beginning quite good , only the headset stopped working in the water spray ,
Later the display of the HX851 also started to develop its own life and jumped between the working channel 8 and the 16 ,

Inbuilt radio Standard Horizon GX1100E
After a while in the spray I could not see anything anymore on the display cause of condense water inside , could send but hardly heard the replies , an external speaker is the way to go ,

2x AVON fuel bladders / 35l Zapcat tank
With the flexi tanks I had a total fuel capacity of 170l on board which was for the ETEC 90 more than enough for all legs ,
I connected all bladders with couplings and installed 2 valves into the fuel line – one from the main tank – the other one at the waterseparator . With closing the valve from the main tank and opening the valve to the bladders it took just seconds to swap tanks , worked very well ,

Bow bag ,
Glued 4 D-rings to the tubes and attached a soft bow bag . This gave me additional storage for Gecko , Drysuit or other things , weak point was the bottom of the bag which was not reinforced , so – bouncing all the time up & down caused a lot of holes in the bottom of the bag , will sort this out with a reinforced floor ,

GoPro
Very nice cameras but since I was most of time alone in the boat it was not always convenient to use them – not even with the remote control , the camera was attached either on the A frame or at the grab rail so they moved up and down which each wave .. better option is to hold them in the hand and to watch permanently that the lense is free of spray water

ETEC 90
great motor and never missed a beat !! fuel consumption was between 6 – 7 mpg . Oil consumption was around 1 : 70 and I used XD100 Evinrude oil . Asked the dealer to set the engine to XD100 which reduces quite significantly the oil consumption but was surprised when I downloaded at home the motor report that the setting was still TCW3 !
I used a 4 blade 15” Rogue prop and the motor hit @ WOT 5200rpm – which is perfect .

Problems during the trip :
One rubbing strake started to go off , RogueWave repaired it on the spot and it did not trouble anymore

Backrest was broken , no wonder – it broke when Stu & myself made one leg together , we are not really slim and the sea was rough

What would I do differently next time ??
LESS IS MORE !!!
I carried probably too much stuff with me ! this is about cloth or other equipment !
The Ortlieb waterproof bag is great – but next time I would like one which I can carry like a rucksack !
The Gecko I would use with full visor
Would try to get a better headset for the handheld ( Trevor was happy with the head set he had )
I would probably take off the A frame , that`s 25 unnecessary kg at the transom !!

Would I do it again ??
Without any hesitation : YES I would do it again – also with the same SR5.4 and if I had the choice with the same people !!

[MadTubes]

Originally Posted by Bushrider

Would I do it again ??
Without any hesitation : YES I would do it again – also with the same SR5.4 and if I had the choice with the same people !!

Awh shucks!!!