5m-ish RIB

[Mike B]

I am now looking for my first RIB.

Something around the 4.7 to 5.3 metre mark with a suitable, well maintained engine and trailer.

I am looking to spend £4000 to £5000.

I am in Cardiff but I'm willing to travel a reasonable distance for the right boat.

Thanks

Mike

[Bilge Rat]

Hi Mike

I bought my first boat a 4.7 metre Avon searider back in March and i'm at the moment restoring and fitting her out with all the toys and bits, the boat was priced very cheap as it came with absolutely nothing other than boat engine and trailer, thankfully all three were and are in excellent condition for its age, but there were things i forgot to take into account and budget for when i went looking at boats. If you want any advise i'm more than happy to relay the things i now know i should have done and all the bits i suspect everyone forgets to account for.

One top tip though is to take someone along who knows about boats as they will stop you viewing anything you look at through rose coloured glasses and keep things level headed, 4-5k is a good budget to start off boat buying but remember if you go up to your ceiling you wont have the money to add toys later, in my opinion better to spend 4k on a good basic boat and fit it up with all the things you want with the remaining 1k.
For a begginer i recon a second hand boat has big advantages, firstly its already lost its residual value from new, if you decide in a years time "this isn't for me" then your'll lose very little re selling it, plus of course cheaper boats are always a lot easier to sell on, secondly you wont get so peed off when you make a mistake and scratch it like i've done a few times with mine, also your'll learn a hell of a lot with an older boat fitting it out and playing with bits.

Have fun and as JK says enjoy the looking as its the fun bit.

Richard

[Pete7]

Wavehumper has an Avon 4.7 with 70 Yamaha for sale at the moment and its mint! Think his pc is down so shout if you want his phone number,

Pete

[Mike B]

Thanks both.

Please see my Narwhal thread in Rib Talk for update.

Richard - I have tried to buy kit such as lifejacts, clothing, flares fog horn, HH VHF and HH GPS as I have gone along over the past few months looking at boats. So I hope I am close to having most things, but a list would be helpful for me to double check.

I've arranged a RNLI Sea check which hopeully will flesh out anything else.

The main things left are to satisfy the insurance company. ie hitch lock, OB lock and ground anchor. (already have wheel clamp !).

Cheers

Mike

[Bilge Rat]

Mike

Great news about the boat..... remember everyone has horror stories to tell you about all types of boat, when i went to pick mine up i'd been reading loads about trailer bearings and frightened myself silly with worry after reading some of the stories i'd heard as i had a 150 mile tow back home, in the end i took out sea start trailer cover just to be safe.

Ok so you can go really silly and spend a lot of money or you can shop around, the internet is a great place to shop for bargains, but remember they are only bargains if A you need them and B you order enough from the same place as to cover the cost of delivery, i bought a pump over the internet rather than pay the price my local chandlers was asking, excited about saving money on my purchase i didn't think about delivery which in the end pushed it up over the price of the local shop !! learned my lesson there, have a look at www.compass24.com they are offering free delivery at the moment and throw in bags and key floats if you order over a certain amount, plus they are also very cheap, there product is good and the delivery is normally withing a few days.
Search the internet and phone around for insurance quotes, i ended up going with Mardon as they were by far the cheapest and lots of people here recommended them

You need to decide where and when your likely to use your boat and what conditions you want to go out in, then you can start to make up a priority kit list of what you need to have on board with you, it will shock you to see that some boater go to sea with very little safety equiptment at all, see if the previous owner will throw extra bits in with the sale, remember an anchor will cost you £20 a rope £30 plus chain and shackles and your on the thick end of £50 honestly it all adds up, boat jumbles are a really good place to source really cheap gear too, i've not been to one yet but everyone says go.

Something else worth bearing in mind when you do go to get the boat, will they throw in with the sale the spare wheel, trailer jack, wheel brace, trailer wheel lock, trailer board, prop cover and tie down strap, all these things i forgot about and have had to go and buy myself costing me a lot on bits i really shouldn't have had to buy, i picked my boat up and towed it to the nearest shop to buy a prop cover and tie down strap for it, once home i had the engine serviced and boat looked over for problems before i took it out, plus i did my level 2 power boat and a vhf course while still fitting out the boat with bits, vhf license and rya membership are in my opinion a rip off then once you have the rya vhf license you have to apply for your vhf to be registered to use it costing another £20

So bottom line is that i'm trying to say the big things can be accounted for such as boat, engine gps, vhf radio etc but rememebr the little things as they will creep up on you.

Have fun and ask if you need to know anything else.

Richard

[Jackie]

Hi unsure if you managed to get your rib. We have a 5.5m sea-rider forsale very good condition 70HP suzuki, nav lights bilge pump low hours. engine bought by us new and regularly maintained by mackay marine in aberdeen. we are based on The sound of sleat, Loch Nevis by Mallaig and boat can be sea trialed there. if of any interest tel ian Robertson 01687 460012 thanks