Tube Separation

[alexm]

This just happened to our local independent lifeboat. I guess it can happen to any rib that gets regularly put through its paces, but it must be fairly rare on a Ribcraft!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7588079.stm

[Downhilldai]

Have a look here:

http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=26197

[Tim M]

Funny; I had exactly the same problem on a Ribcraft 4.8. Went through a wave, tube ripped off at the front.

[tinker]

Happened to me as well.....
http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?...hlight=stuffed

I blame the waves, well out of order!

[Chris]

There is not much hull holding the tube on at the front is there?

I think I will stick with that nice big Anchor locker / tube carrier that Vipermax's have

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Tim M

Funny; I had exactly the same problem on a Ribcraft 4.8. Went through a wave, tube ripped off at the front.

Didn't have a problem with Evolution, the wave just went thought the hole in the bow

Have you had it fixed yet Tim?

[CJL]

Owch that's not a very good advert for Ribcraft.

Shame they didn't get anybody from the factory the morning after to defend the brand so to speak.

I wonder why such a lot of the glue failed from the bow to the pretty much the stern??

[Neil Harvey]

Originally Posted by CJL

:
I wonder why such a lot of the glue failed from the bow to the pretty much the stern??

How strong exactly do you think the glue can be? Once the fabric has been ripped, and water pressure begins to lift the tube up, I can't see how the glue is going to hold personally...

[Bigmuz7]

Ribcraft

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Ribcraft

In RIBcrafts defence I recon it could happen to any soft nosed RIB out there. When you consider the beating a rescue RIB gets, I'm not surprised RIBs don't have more tube failiers!

Didn't TOP gear have this problem in one of their races and don't forget Spirit of Cardiff off of Scotland/Iceland.

So I think it shows it's essential to check all bow area's for damaged Hypalon and cracking to the fibreglass.

[BruceB]

When the glue fails like that and allows a "peeling" effect to start no glue is going to hold.
Al the lifting force is concentrated on the small area edge that is lifting and it will just unzip.
Normally any force is pulling over a wider area and the glues used will hold against most forces pushing up against the tubes.
It will be interesting to find out the cause of the original lifting point, the rest of the tube is really irrelevant and once this original split is caused then the rest is just collateral damage that could have happened to any RIB, no matter what manufacturer it was.
Wonder if it will ever come out?

[wavelength]

well no rib is indestructible and it has happened before, and will no doubt happen again, if the bow lets go then the rest of the tube may just peel away. There is a "detube" on this link from a while back. Shame the pics dont seem to be available on it for some reason. They were a lesson from the photographer in how to keep your head in a crisis.
http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?...light=alderney
We have considered a bow strap in the past just in case, but have never bothered-perhaps we should reconsider now we have been reminded just how helpless a rib can be when ..... .

[Hightower]

A nice deep anchor locker would certainly help keep everything in place, a bow strap might well keep everything in place if things did go wrong, but do they stop it, or hold things in place? They can look ugly too!

How about a fibreglass extention to the bow that would hug the tube diameter and terminate just under the rubbing strake. This would certainly diffuse the force of the water hitting it as well as strengthen the tube mounting point.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Hightower

In RIBcrafts defence I recon it could happen to any soft nosed RIB out there. When you consider the beating a rescue RIB gets, I'm not surprised RIBs don't have more tube failiers!

Didn't TOP gear have this problem in one of their races and don't forget Spirit of Cardiff off of Scotland/Iceland.

So I think it shows it's essential to check all bow area's for damaged Hypalon and cracking to the fibreglass.

Yes it happened on a very expensive Goldfish RIB.

I suppose it can happen to any RIB but has anyone heard of an Avon suffering damage like this?

[Poly]

Hightower my understanding is that a "foul weather strop" won't necessarily prevent the damage to the joint but will stop the whole tube peeling back as was seen here - so hopefully you get just a very small tear.

it shouldn't be a surprise that this fails like that - if you made an all fibreglass boat in two pieces and glued it together everyone would say, "what did you expect to happen?"

Cod asks an interesting question... are some methods of tube attachment more vulnerable? e.g. do Pac22's suffer this problem where the tubes are screwed on, or does the flap thats screwed down just part company then? Are tapered tubes less likely to be a problem? Is it just coincidence that there are 3 ribcraft all reporting this issue or is there something in their process that makes them slightly more vulnerable?

[Hightower]

Ribcraft have a very overhangy bow, perhaps they shoud redesign it a little.

[tinker]

Mine was down to my own foolish throttle behaviour and a nose dive into a rather large wave, RIB is a 2000 and the damage was done in 2007. No fault of Ribcraft, in my opinion.
The damage did not spread as far as the first post but I suspect that was down to a steady run home in what was a smaller sea.

[BruceB]

I have done this on numerous occasions and not had the bow seperate. I would be very upset if hitting a wave hard made my boat come apart and would be looking at "fit for purpose" legislation for my money back.
A RIB used in UK waters has to be built to take a certain amount of abuse even by mistake.

[wavelength]

I would be very upset if hitting a wave hard made my boat come apart

too right!

but has anyone heard of an Avon suffering damage like this

or a Humber for that matter?

[jwalker]

Bad gluing. Looks like the same initial failure as Tinker's boat too.