Some help tweaking the boat requested

[ccohn2000]

Hi all,

I have a RIB and I am a bit worried about damage to the tubes from people dragging their gear out of the water over them. Some of my buddies dive doubles and those things are so heavy they can't really just lift them straight out. Any suggestions?

Also, we don't currently have any tank racks. I'm not sure what sort to use, if any. We have quite a bit of space both in front of the center console and behind the seat. So far we have just lain the tanks down, or tied them off with tethers to the ropes on the tubes. Is there a better way to go?

Carol Cohn

 

[Nemrod]

I have a Novurana inflatable about 14 or so feet long. I ran variously a 25 to 35 horse Merc on it. It is not an RIB but has a wooden keel and ply floor with aluminum covering etc. I have owned it since about 1982. I ran a rope around both sides for grabbing on to and also tethering gear. I used a piece of neoprene backed I/O carpet thrown over the side and hooked to the floor with brass eye hooks. The other side had a PVC tube capped and filled with sand. This allowed people to drag over the tubes with no worry of damage. Rolled up it stowed on one side tucked under a tube. I built a tank rack for it from PVC that held up for several years. You might consider a tank rack by these folks.

http://www.tankcaddy.com

I am considering their four tank unit for my Whaler. They can custom make various units. Because inflatables, RIB or soft keel, lack interior space then often just laying the tanks on the floor was what we did. The PVC rack I built held them horizontal across the floor area ahead of my steering station. The anchor bucket was just ahead of that. A single slip strap held them down in the rack. I have seen similar racks cut from foam and shaped to fit and lock under the tubes.

This is a picture of mine. I am doing some repair work on it. The rack is long gone but as you can see the boat is in great shape after years of use and abuse. these things are tough. In the background my OK Scupper Pro dive-yak can be seen. N

 

[Tom Winters]

The tankcaddy racks look pretty good. Your RIB is gorgeous - I used to do a lot of diving from inflatables in Hawaii with a military dive club, and we beat the boats to pieces literally. I think we used one of those wireframe Pelican metal tacks for a while, but that was a pain so we junked it and just stuffed gear neatly as best we could.
Throwing a piece of carpet over the gunwales should reduce a lot of the wear on the material when you haul tanks over the tubes. You might want to get some deck padding to save your interior as well.
Good luck keeping your boat looking nice after a few seasons of heavy diving.

 

[Tasarsailor]

On my RIB there is a rub strake and some grab handles that gear can catch while I am dragging gear aboard. One of my buddies lost a nice retractor.

Sooo... I employed a very simple solution to give a nice surface to drag the gear aboard. Go to Home Depot and buy a "nice" plastic garbage can. The kind with no ridges and have pretty thick walls. They are usually the $30 variety and not the $10 version. The smooth exterior is what you are looking for.

Take the can and cut the bottom and top ring and handles off so there are no hooked edges. You are left with a tube. When cut in half lengthwise they make perfectly shaped tube protectors. On my RIB they are long enough to cup the tubes perfectly toward the water and also cover the grab handles toward the top of the tube.

On each half I put two brass grommets one each side about 6-12" from one end depending on the location of your grab handles. Through these gromments will you will pass a single piece of rope to tie to your grab handles. Once in place it leaves a nice smooth slick surface to drag your gear over the tubes.

I have to remove them when I am running the boat from site to site or they fly up like gull wings. A few caribeeners make short work of taking them off and on.

The "Garbage Can Gear Slides" are also nice for dumping your gear in the water prior to dives. The same would apply to doing backward rolls into the water. The slides keep gear from catching on my grab handles. Not that any of that isn't avoided by keeping my gear tight but it's just one less thing to to gone wrong.

I also add one to my bow when I go crabbing or when I know I will be pulling the anchor several times such as for sailboat regattas. Running any type of line over the tubes or rub strakes can burn material off. My boat is almost 15 years old and I have had to glue some protective patches in a few spots to cover grooves from pulling pots or anchor line. Use of the protectors would have prevented such damage.

I will try to remember to snap a picture tonight post it to the thread.

Good Luck
Tony
Portland

 

[ccohn2000]

Thanks guys! Great ideas all around. We're thinking of putting rubber mats, like the ones you see in restaurants down on the floor to protect it and make it less slippery. The carpet idea sounds simplest for the tubes for now. I'll have to scout out a big piece. I worry that it will saturate and get quite heavy though. We'll have to try it and see. The tank site was cool. I appreciate all your help!

Carol

 

[Tom Winters]

I forgot about those restaurant mats in boats. Costco on Oahu used to sell these big brownish-orangish rubber mats for restaurant kitchens. Pretty good size - I think they were 30"x40" amd cost about $30.
It took a bunch to cover a boat deck, but they were GREAT. Sometimes we hit waves and had customers flying around - groups of Japanese tourists. They never got banged up falling on the mats. Those mats lasted in the Hawaiian sun also - they were still going strong after 5 or 6 years and saved the decks from the daily megaloads of tanks and dive gear.
Costco has not carried them for years - they replaced them with some dark brown mats that did not have interlocking bumps on the edges to mate them. They have even carried those for a long time now, and looking on the internet, the prices are pretty high for anything remotely close.
Much better than that Dry-Deck 12"x12" stuff that the marine stores sell.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I forgot about those restaurant mats in boats. Costco on Oahu used to sell these big brownish-orangish rubber mats for restaurant kitchens. Pretty good size - I think they were 30"x40" amd cost about $30.
It took a bunch to cover a boat deck, but they were GREAT. Sometimes we hit waves and had customers flying around - groups of Japanese tourists. They never got banged up falling on the mats. Those mats lasted in the Hawaiian sun also - they were still going strong after 5 or 6 years and saved the decks from the daily megaloads of tanks and dive gear.
Costco has not carried them for years - they replaced them with some dark brown mats that did not have interlocking bumps on the edges to mate them. They have even carried those for a long time now, and looking on the internet, the prices are pretty high for anything remotely close.
Much better than that Dry-Deck 12"x12" stuff that the marine stores sell.

I have Dri-Dek on my whaler and it's in great shape after eight years. My buddy used
the restaurant mats on his whaler, and it's turning to eraser crumbs after two years.
And it gets everything that rubs on it black. He says he'd use DriDek next time.
BTW, Dri-Dek is cheaper direct from http://www.Dri-Dek.com.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Thanks guys! Great ideas all around. We're thinking of putting rubber mats, like the ones you see in restaurants down on the floor to protect it and make it less slippery. The carpet idea sounds simplest for the tubes for now. I'll have to scout out a big piece. I worry that it will saturate and get quite heavy though. We'll have to try it and see. The tank site was cool. I appreciate all your help!

Carol

You don't need a big piece of carpet, just something two or three feet wide to drag
the tanks over,

 

[Nemrod]

I have DriDeck installed inmy Whaler as well. They are super nice to deal with direct.

If you look for carpet, look for the old style low nap I/O carpet that has the neoprene backing. It does not absorb water to a great degree and is easy on the tubes. Use a piece of PVC with caps about 2 inch diameter to weight the overboard side to keep it taught. It only needs to lay over the tube at least half way down the outboard side and of course hook or latch to your floorboards as you see fit and three or four feet wide. N

 

[Tasarsailor]

Cheaper still than dri-deck are the cheap interlocking foam mats. I think I got my last set at Costco for $10. I have also seen them at Home depot and even in a toy's r us once. They are black and the 18" squares interlock. I think it makes a 10' square in total but you can interlock them in any shape. I measured out a pattern for the cockpit of my boat and cut it to fit perfectly. It covers all of the cockpit floor from the bow and around the console.

It's nice because it is easier to clean and dismantle especially if you fish or crab out of your boat. The dri-deck stuff holds fish guts and crab bait like nothing else.

Also, if you have kids and are just out cruising the mat is very comfortable to sit on or walk around in bare feet. It makes the boat very comfortable.

TN