Tender(!) performance

[stewart]

I'm finally about to buy a tender but want to use it for more than just ferrying back and forwards with the shopping, ideally it should be fun. Favourite is a 3.1m RIB with 15hp outboard which should give 25mpy performance from the tiller. There isn't enough leeway with the davits max weight to annd seats or steering.

OK, questions:
1. is this enough to pull a doughnut/water skiier/ wakeboarder?
2. would performance suffer significantly with an inflatable floor with roll away insert? This would be preferable from the point of view of not straining the telescopic davits.
3. any other suggestions?

Thanks

Stewart

 

[duncan]

1. No - might pull a 5 year old expert skier but thats about it
2. I have 2.65m with inflatable floor and keel - good but no comparison to RIB.
3. Make your mind up over what you want and go for it - a compromise could fail to deliver on all fronts.

 

[JohnR]

I too have been looking at 13-14ft RIBs as a tender and have been told that 40hp MAY be enough for waterskiing but go for 50 to be on the safe side.

 

[Guest]

I tried to ski behind a runabout with a 25hp in my youth (in the late sixties) when I weighed approx half what I do now and it was just about possible but not really adequate (as the actress said to the bishop). A 3.1 rib with 25hp engine on telescopic davits is really a no go unless your davits are a lot more substantial than those I have seen. Your davits should be able to accommodate at least 3 times the static load to allow for being bounced about at sea. You could do it with the bare dinghy but who wants to unship a 25hp every time - no fun.

Nick

 

[Guest]

forget it. Unless you're the original 7 stone weakling, you'll need at least 40hp on anything to ski. Wakeboards and donuts are a different matter - donuts should be OK on this rig, but the rib may flail around as much as the donut. Wakeboards run much slower than waterskis, so you may get away with it once it's up, but starting a wakeboard is like trying to push a coffee table through the water, so again, I think you may have problems.

 

[Guest]

hi stewart

I have a 2.85 zodiac inflaty keel and 15hp mercury, specially selected becos the "1" as in "15" can be cut with a stanly knife to make it look like a "5", so ok for kids to drive in France ahem.

As others confirm, 15hp is *just* enough to wakeboard for a small person, girly but not bloke sized person. Also planing in the boat won't happen unless only two up. But when it goes, it goes! three duclts or 2+2 kids and its sub-planing speeds, and wet bum.

However, extreme jolly fun can be had with funboarding behind your main boat, non? We use floaty lines to make a harness and blam along with kids on banana. But for a serious waterskier, a face full of diesel is not much fun and the acceleration ain't quick enough to get them up on the skis quickly enuf.

 

[Guest]

Re: p.s.

we managed to wangle a trial before buying to sort ouyt what "quick" really meant. Also you solid keel (we're only inflaty) should give a quicker result, praps better planing. Depends how um heavy/fat you all are.

 

[ianphillips]

We use a Zodiac 3.1m (non-Rib) inflatable as a tender, with just an 8hp outboard and at full throttle it is extremely lively, in fact quite frightening in anything other than a flat sea. Whilst it wouldn't have the power to get a skier out of the water, it certainly provides more than enough fun for me!! Would also sit quite happily on most Davits I've seen.

I think I've seen an Avon Jet Rib (about 3m) pulling a skier, but have no idea on weight or power output.

Hope this helps.
Ian.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Re: p.s.

We have an Avon RIB 3.1 with a Mariner 15 and it flies!. We actually took our GPS handheld a week or so back and max speed was about 23 knots with 2 people. It will still plane with 3 or 4 aboard although it needs weight at the front to get it going. I dont think it will pull a water skier although an inflatable ring or suchlike should be fun. If there is only one on board it can be quite hairy and would be easy to flip over, however my 16 year old son loves it as do all his friends.

 

[Guest]

Re: p.s.

I have an Avon Rib 2.80 with an 8hp Suzuki oil injection engine and I can confirm that it is exciting to say the least. it can do 22knts one up (and thats a fairly large one - me) and will plane with two up - usually me and the boss. When your backside is about three inches off the water, 22 knts seems quite fast. It probably could tow a doughnut provided no one was on it!

Nick

 

[stewart]

Surely it's not feasible to tow behind a 46' boat - the wake is on the big side. Might be fun if I had surface drives though!! Seriously though, what is it reasonable to tow behind a largeish boat - I would have though around 30' was the largest practical?

 

[Guest]

well, we're 48, and great fun with bananas and wakeboarders. I use a bridle with enough line to trail them back beyond the white plume if planing, perhaps 35metres.

 

[Guest]

I believe you are asking too much from your specification. A 3.1 RIB with a 15hp engine will give you an exhilirating ride to the shore(1 or 2up) and will maybe pull a doughnut, but as for the rest you will be disappointed.
We recently bought a brand new Avon 3.4 RIB with 25hp Yamaha for exactly the same purposes as you want and yet this set up still struggles to pull a knee board out of the water. It goes like stink as a RIB unit, 3 or 4 up, but once you try to put an unstreamlined human being behind it for a ride, the story changes.
You'll have a lot of fun with it but not be able to 'pull' as such.
RIB or inflatable? RIB for fun, Inflatable if you have doubts about the Davits.
Good Liuck.