“About boat tests. We want to do them differently. Get a team of divers together and take this new Humber RIB diving.”
With Andrew Roffey from Humber and Mike Beeley from Sowester crewing the boat, I limited my team to 6, including myself. From Swansea BSAC were Rachel Whitfield and Paul Nusinov, both instructors and Paul is a former diving officer. Both had plenty of experience of their club RIBs, including a 6.5m Humber Destroyer, the predecessor of the Ocean Pro we were testing.
Also BSAC instructors and boat handling instructors were Victoria and Tony Jay, BSAC area coaches for Oxford.
I was actually in the middle of teaching a photography course for the final member of the team, Jez Kent. He ended up getting more than he bargained for. Jez is an instructor and former diving officer at Bristol University.
We launched at Dale, a long gentle slip that dries for a couple of hours either side of low water. Our kit was loaded and Mark backed the trailer until water just covered the wheels. The boat required a gentle push to get it clear. Later in the day, Andrew used the engine to push the boat back onto the similarly submerged trailer with minimal use of the winch.
“Launching and recovery went very easily” commented Rachel, though Paul noted “I would change the location of the spare wheel to give more clearance. It could easily ground out mounted low on the side of the trailer.”
Mark was towing the boat behind a 2 litre Subaru. I asked him about vehicles “You don't need 4 wheel drive. Any 2 litre car should cope with this, but the engine will get a little thirsty.”
Out of the moorings, Mark pushed the throttle up to full speed; we had 10 miles to cover to our first dive at Wild Goose Race to the west of Skokholm island and needed to get there in time to locate the site for slack water.
“Full speed was not comfortable” said Victoria, “It was too bouncy to sit on the tubes and we had to stand up. Cruising on the way back was much easier.”
Tony added to this “35 knots flat out is usually unnecessary for divers, but I can't blame Mark for wanting to show off how good the engine is and we did have to get to the dive site.”
Jez reminded me “We had to stop to re-tie kit on the way out.” This may have been because we were sloppy tying it down, though Victoria pointed out “The straps on the bottle rack were not very good. It needs better straps or strong bungies.”
Everyone was impressed with the dry the ride. It is not often that you hear divers disappointed with a calm sea, but a boat test is different “It would have been nice in some ways to have a heavier sea to really test the boat” commented Rachel. “Like any RIB, our club's Humber gets a bit wet when the sea is rough.”
At Wild Goose Race, the sea was understandably heavier and Andrew switched on the bilge pump. Throughout the day the small amount of water collected in the well was easily cleared by the bilge pump and we didn't need to unfurl the elephant trunk at all.
“I like the way it is routed through the transom rather than just a tube poked over the top. Much neater this way” said Rachel. “The switches need labelling, but maybe they just haven't got round to that on a fresh boat.”
While on the subject of water clearance, Paul commented “The bung from the well to the inner hull was easy to get to. There was no outer bung which could be a nuisance when towing and storing the boat.”
One of my constant bug-bears with RIBs is how easily they take water over the transom. I know many owners who have fitted false transoms to overcome this problem. Andrew offered a solution “We can fit a higher transom with a very tight cut-out for the engine if divers request it.”
Paul put the numbers into the Lowrance NCX-15 combined GPS/plotter/echo sounder. It took a while to work it out: “The echo sounder is excellent, though the user interface to the GPS part is not very friendly.”
Kitting up, there was room for two on each side behind the bottle rack, with the remaining divers beside the rack. Victoria had a spot just clear of the rack “It was easy to kit up and roll in. It didn't feel at all precarious.” Sitting a little further forward, Rachel commented “I had no trouble, though there was the usual problem of fitting my fins between the tube and the rack. There is less room than in our 6.5.”
As usual with a RIB, it takes a bit of organisation to get divers and kit together. “It always surprises me how little room there is compared to the size of the boat” said Jez. Or as Tony put it “Divers always spread out to make any space look crowded.” Nevertheless, Paul thought “There was lots of room once we were all kitted up.”
After the dive Rachel approved of the grab lines outside the tubes “It is good to have them all along. Many boats have lines only part of the way forward.”
“The tubes rested nicely on the water, making it easy to get back in” said Paul “I liked the inside handles on the tubes.”
We headed further out to Grassholm, for a second dive playing with the seals. Whilst fizzing off we had a play with the boat.
Paul went first “There were no problems getting it onto the plane. Handling at high speed was excellent. It didn't loose any grip when turning and felt in control though choppy bits and whirlpools. The hydraulic steering is excellent.”
Tony agreed “The combination of boat and engine was well matched. I didn't need any tricks to get it going; it just went. It was nice and predictable when turning. It felt like a very safe boat.”
Rachel noted “It turned well and felt very steady.
There wasn't much left for Victoria to add “It was a pleasure to drive. I felt in control even when flat out.”
This was the first time that Jez had driven a RIB “I had only driven inflatables with tiller steering before. I was surprised how easy it was to control.”
I took a more sedate pace and tried some slow manoeuvres. The boat was nice and predictable, though I could have slackened off the throttle friction a bit. I guess that Mark preferred it slightly stiffer than I would.
Paul thought the console configuration was “very good, though the throttle was a bit low down. Maybe its just what I am used to.” He was also impressed by the Mercury instrumentation “The two displays showed everything by pushing buttons to change the selection.”
Tony liked the one man jockey seat “It keeps more space available for kit.” Rachel disagreed “A two man seat can be useful when instructing. It can also be good if one of the passengers is feeling seasick.”
On a point of comfort, Victoria thought the seat was “a bit too wide to stand comfortably across.”
The use of space in front of the console came in for some criticism “I don't like the anchor locker below the floor” said Paul “It is too easily buried below all the other kit. I would prefer to just keep the anchor and line in an open bucket with a lower deck and more space.”
Our break for lunch also gave us a chance to examine and test the A-frame and transom. No problem for the male members of the group, and Victoria reported “The A-frame and engine provided good points to hang on. It was a bit close to the water and could be risky if waves were coming from behind. Overall more comfortable than having a pee on many hard boats.”
More seriously, Paul commented “The A frame was solid and well set up with lots of space for fitting dry boxes and accessories.”
By the time we had finished playing with the boat and had our second dive, Andrew and Mark were getting a little concerned with the fuel level. The boat was fitted with a 90 litre tank below the console that had been 75% full when we left Dale. Although a fuel gauge was fitted, this was the first time the boat had been used and the gauge was not yet calibrated.
We returned to Dale at an economical cruising speed of 24 knots, a comfortable ride with the trip computer indicating 7.5 gallons/hour. Mark explained that the computerised high pressure direct injection system made this 2-stroke engine even more fuel efficient than an equivalent sized 4-stroke. When Andrew dipped the tank at the end of the day he estimated that we had used 70 litres.
“70 litres to cover over 35 miles with a fair bit of zooming about in circles is very economical” commented Paul. “It should be possible to use the trip computer to drive for optimum economy and cut this further“.
Nevertheless, we all felt that a 90 litre tank was a bit small for extended offshore diving trips. Paul again “I would opt for the larger under floor fuel tanks, which would also give more room for dry storage beneath the console.”
Victoria also commented on the dry storage “I would like some dry space to put hats and sandwiches etc.. There wasn't much space left in the console.”
Paul summed up “The boat handled well with 2 crew plus 6 divers with 2 sets each. It could have coped with enough kit for 8 divers.” Or, as Tony put it more simply “A good club boat.”