jet ski or rib

[dabsolute470]

hiya, we are looking at getting a rib to sit on our bathing platform loaded via the passarel, the bathing platform on the pearl 43 is not big enough to get a descent size rib on so we are thinking about a jet ski.
the ski is about the right weight and size 3 person with reverse gear and wondered if anyone else uses a jet ski as a tender ??
thanks
steve

 

[dingdongs]

saw a couple of large yachts this year with them on and the more powerful ones will even tow a skier

 

[Nick_H]

Depends what you want the tender for. I suppose if you only want to tow ringos/skiers, or go to the beach in summer, then a jet ski could work as a tender, but not much good for heading into a restaurant at night in your glad rags, or ferrying four adults into town.

Have you thought about one of these, should fit OK on your Pearl?

http://www.jcraft.co.uk/jcraft-290

 

[dabsolute470]

yes we want the best of both worlds i guess, it was the stability of a 3 seater jet ski we dont want the risk of it tipping over when we want to go ashore with the mrs on the back.
i have never seen anyone using one as a tender so guess its a none starter...

 

[fire999]

Steve,
I had a jetski as a tender on my 50ft flybridge boat, I used our passarelle to lift it on and off which was very easy when used with a jetski cradle (special plastic coated metal hooks and webbing straps supplied by the ski manufacturer)

We had a seadoo GTX 4 TEC 3 seater with reverse gear, they are very versatile. We had many a fun hour spent blatting around (in safe areas) and even exploring anchorages and other shallow waterways

The seadoo ski is very stable and bouyant ,we would use it as a tender to go ashore , even when dressed up for going to the pub/resturant.



Stands back and awaits a public flogging for admitting owning / using a jetski.......

 

[dabsolute470]

thanks very much fire... your answer was what we where hoping for as the rib would take up soooo much space and wouldnt be as much fun for the kids... me !!
we where thinking on a kawasaki 1000 that was on ebay we also see seadoos as well but didnt know if most of them had reverse gear.
our passorel has a 250kg limit so i think that will be the governing factor.
thanks for the reply
steve

 

[aquapower]

thanks very much fire... your answer was what we where hoping for as the rib would take up soooo much space and wouldnt be as much fun for the kids... me !!
we where thinking on a kawasaki 1000 that was on ebay we also see seadoos as well but didnt know if most of them had reverse gear.
our passorel has a 250kg limit so i think that will be the governing factor.
thanks for the reply
steve

The 3 seater seadoos weigh between 385 and 396 kg so you might not lift it, for what you want a four stroke will be needed as a two stroke wont like the slow running which you will need to do more of if using as a tender.

 

[Hurricane]

I'll probably regret saying this but also think of reliability.
IMO an outboard motor is many times more reliable than a jet and much easier to maintain. The size you are talking about, you could probably lift the engine and take it away "inside" your car.

A few years ago, I visited JCraft (see Nick's link above) after Nick had posted a similar reply. I was impressed and nearly bought one but I think you would need to get a 2 stroke (if they exist) to keep the weight down. Other than that, it looked a great little RIB - never trialed one though.

 

[dabsolute470]

thanks very much for the advise, i will have to do some more measuring to see if i can get the rib to fit as it looks the part.
thanks again

steve

 

[Nick_H]

There's no great problem with the RIB overhanging the transom if it's light enough, and you get some decent chocks made and strap the RIB down well. A J Craft with 30 hp 2 stroke is going to weigh about 150 kgs with a full fuel tank, about half the weight of the lightest jet ski.

Here's my old T46 with a 250 kg jet rib on, you can see that more than half of the RIB is overhanging the bathing platform.

 

[dabsolute470]

thanks for the pic... i think we will go jet rib or outboard rib the weights of any descent jet skis are over 300kgs.