Can anyone offer advice of which leisure boat to buy?
We've had a 3m Orkney dinghy,a Canadian canoe and a sit on top kayak before.
Been looking at 2.6m inflatable ribs and would get an electric or outboard.
I've got 3 boys and I'm on the large side and would need a turn!
Something car toppable or that packs down appeals,so as we could take it caravanning but not really sure what would suit the ribs seem quite reasonable especially second hand.
If anybody has any experience I would love to hear it
Thanks Martin
We have 3 metre rib with 9.9 horse engine. It goes into large bag and we carry it in back of land rover with engine. We take it down to St.Ives twice a year and we inflate it and moor it in the harbour. We go fishing out at sea and have loads of fun diving of it out in the bay.
I am 16 stone but the rib absolutely flies with me and the kids in. The boat is about 12 years old and is in fab condition and the engine is about 18 years old I have owned them for 5 years. You can get them at good prices and they go forever because they are generally only used a couple of times a year. One of the advantages of having it moored in the harbour is we keep all our beach paraphernalia(chairs, tent, life jackets, fishing rods, games bag, etc) stored in it under a boat cover and nobody goes near it. It saves us a fortune in parking fees and we don't have to carry everything to the beach every day. We even have a ten pole windbreak stored in it! It doubles up as a beach hut. Hope this helps.
Just be careful buying secondhand off ebay, a few out there that have been worked on with adhesives to take things like snap davits to attach them to the rear of a larger craft, and when the owner has traded up, they have used powerful solvents to remove these to put them onto the newer model, leaving the fabric of the old rib at this point somewhat weakened by this process, and prone to problems.
If you live within easy reach of the Norfolk broads there are a wealth of suppliers down there with both new and secondhand ribs for sale, some will even give a couple of months warantee on their second hand stuff, and at least you can get good proffesional advice and get to try it out before you part with your hard earned cash, rather than just looking at pics and descriptions on ebay. Likewise never by an outboard thats been restored from a boat that has been sunk in sea water, the salt will have knackered many of the parts and whilst it may look shiny, it will be a pig in the long term, as a fried found out when he bought a secondhand 25hp Mercury outboard
Finally fimly install into anyone who uses it the impotance of having the killcord attached to them before even starting the engine, failure to do so turns the propellor into a human liquidizer should anyone fall overboard whist the engine is switched on, and the results can be devistating as the family in the Padstow disaster found out earlier this year.
Julia
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------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Dont forget on rivers you will need a licence and public liabilty up to 1 or 2 million pounds just because you have a motor on it.Thats why I got rid of mine . Its free to use it in the sea as it is classed as no mans land and doesnt belong to anyone whereas the rivers do
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: rib,tender dinghy
