Sailors need rib advice please!

xyachtdave

xyachtdave

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I'll return the favour if anyone is thinking about sailing....!

A couple of my mates and myself from our yacht club are planning on buying a rib in the 5 - 6m range in the under £10k bracket. Intended use is wake boarding, bombing about and a bit of rescue duty for dinghies etc.

How much power is needed to tow a person on a board, what's a good make and anything to avoid please?

I've got safety boat and PB2 along with my yachting qualifications so no problems with handling one, I've never really looked into buying a rib so have no idea what a good one is!

Many thanks if you can help with some words of wisdom.
Dave
 
Not an expert but in that lenth range a 90hp 5.2 metre rib runs great from using a mate's.
smaller than 5m I find a bit of a compromise seakeeping wise. 50HP might leave you with little reserve.
Interesting discussion as I am trying to convince my wife we need to buy one to keep the kids happy on the water as they grow older :)
 
I had a 6 meter rib with a 115 4 stroke and it was under-powered.

The tendency now (over ribs from say 10 years ago) is to go for the highest engine power that the transom will permit.... i guess the thinking is you dont need to use all the horses (but it doesnt work like that)

if you have a 6 meter rib with say 3 people in the boat and one on ski / board behind it you are going to need a fair amount of power to make it truly usable. (a smaller engine might get you over the hump and onto the plane eventually but will be very hard for the skier to get up like that.

Would say 6 meter with 150 as absolute minimum and ideally 200HP

Different engines have different results. Our Verado has a huge amount of low down grunt as its supercharged but a standard 4 stroke will have less when compared to a 2 stroke such as an etec or an older traditional 2 stroke.

Remember unless its been designed for it (and strengthened) the A frame is unlikely to be a strong enough tow point. if your skiing then tow from the eyes on the transom with a bridle, if your wake boarding, the same but a higher tow point makes it easier for beginners and for those wanting to get air.

my first rib was a 5 meter rib and i would not have skied behind it as the rib was very light, my second was a 6 meter and would have been ok but difficult due to engine size and power. next was 7.5 with a 225 HP that was a perfect set up. (and skied behind it very well)

Then we went down the diesel route which was an nightmare to ski from but current 8.1 meter with 275 is perfect again!
 
z1ppy said:
I had a 6 meter rib with a 115 4 stroke and it was under-powered.

The tendency now (over ribs from say 10 years ago) is to go for the highest engine power that the transom will permit.... i guess the thinking is you dont need to use all the horses (but it doesnt work like that)

if you have a 6 meter rib with say 3 people in the boat and one on ski / board behind it you are going to need a fair amount of power to make it truly usable. (a smaller engine might get you over the hump and onto the plane eventually but will be very hard for the skier to get up like that.

Would say 6 meter with 150 as absolute minimum and ideally 200HP

Different engines have different results. Our Verado has a huge amount of low down grunt as its supercharged but a standard 4 stroke will have less when compared to a 2 stroke such as an etec or an older traditional 2 stroke.

Remember unless its been designed for it (and strengthened) the A frame is unlikely to be a strong enough tow point. if your skiing then tow from the eyes on the transom with a bridle, if your wake boarding, the same but a higher tow point makes it easier for beginners and for those wanting to get air.

my first rib was a 5 meter rib and i would not have skied behind it as the rib was very light, my second was a 6 meter and would have been ok but difficult due to engine size and power. next was 7.5 with a 225 HP that was a perfect set up. (and skied behind it very well)

Then we went down the diesel route which was an nightmare to ski from but current 8.1 meter with 275 is perfect again!
Click to expand...


Perfect, thanks!

Our club ribs have 50hp yamaha on Humber 5.3 (I think) and had a feeling you'd need more. We've wakeboarded behind the yacht towing from the mast top with a long halyard extension which is ok but 6 knots a bit of a limitation speed wise.
 
rwilson said:
xyachtdave, the chaps on http://www.rib.net/forum/ are always happy assist
Click to expand...

I'll have a look, thanks!

My partners in this have been sending me links to boats on apollo duck etc all day, I've only been judging them on cost vs horsepower at the moment.

Our children all sail dinghies and don't mind getting wet and we reckon some horsepower might extend their interest in our boating activities.
 
If it helps our rescue boat is a 5.3m with a 60HP 4 stroke EFI Mercury. With 3 crew (big lads) on board and loads of extra rescue gear (med kits etc) we get 24 knots flat out.

Another boat I use is a 6.3m with a single 140HP and that does about 35 knots with 4 crew.
 
Shakespeare have been building ribs for years and mold for some of the bigger companies.

Quite a few of them were sold as "Home build" boats so pay close attention to the finish, especially around fixing of seats and console.

On the whole, good boats if its been done well and not a bad price for sure.

i havent looked around for whats on the market but usually as the winter draws in and people are spending for christmas theres a few bargains coming on.

Would look to see if you could get a half decent ribcraft 585 for your budget, pretty much bomb proof and would cover all your needs.
 
HI
I had a Humber 5.3 with a suzuki 70hp 4 stroke on the back
That was an ideal boat for the mix you have in mind, I did loads of safefy boat work and it could pull up a grown man on skis no problem.
If you are intending to keep it mainly on the water I might be tempted to go slightly larger but your engine size has to grow exponentially to the size of the boat ande then the fuel consumption goes up...
One tip : Do not go for inboard fixed fuel tanks, they are a pig to fill up and generally result in petrol being spilt every where and you still need jerry cans to carry the juice to the boat, have 2 x 25 litre proper fuel tanks easy to carry you can empty wahts left into the car/mower - ensuring everything is fresh much better.
 
nickd said:
HI
I had a Humber 5.3 with a suzuki 70hp 4 stroke on the back
That was an ideal boat for the mix you have in mind, I did loads of safefy boat work and it could pull up a grown man on skis no problem.
If you are intending to keep it mainly on the water I might be tempted to go slightly larger but your engine size has to grow exponentially to the size of the boat ande then the fuel consumption goes up...
One tip : Do not go for inboard fixed fuel tanks, they are a pig to fill up and generally result in petrol being spilt every where and you still need jerry cans to carry the juice to the boat, have 2 x 25 litre proper fuel tanks easy to carry you can empty wahts left into the car/mower - ensuring everything is fresh much better.
Click to expand...

Each to their own, I'd far rather have inboard/ under deck fuel tanks,, gives much more and less cluttered deck space. On 2 different ribs with this arrangement I don't remember ever spilling a drop of fuel when refilling, I generally used a siphon tube with a jiggle attachment.
 
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