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Force 9 Magazine Review
Ribcraft 5.85
Coastguard! A name familiar
to most people but an organisation about which few people
know a great deal. Often confused with Customs or the
Lifeboat service, HM Coastguard is part of an executive
agency under the Department of Transport and its role
is to co-ordinate maritime search and rescue around
the UK. In the event of a casualty at sea or on the
coastline, HM Coastguard will assess the situation and
call upon ‘declared facilities’ such as RNLl
lifeboats and military or Coastguard helicopters as
it thinks appropriate. The Coastguard rescue co-ordination
centre then controls the search and rescue missions,
calculates the search areas and allocates tasks to the
units involved. At the end of the day, the Coastguard
will also have to make the heart rending decision as
to when to terminate an unsuccessful search mission.
Most incidents also require the involvement of auxiliary
coastguards. Auxiliary coastguards are volunteers from
all walks of life. They may dangle between heaven and
the sea to come to the aid of cliff face casualties,
or wallow in strength sapping, foul and oozing estuary
mud to recover the foolhardy or unwary who have become
trapped as if in quicksand and are dreading what the
incoming tide has in store for them. But it's not all
cliff faces and mud banks. Being a coastguard does have
its advantages. Not only do auxiliaries man the familiar
Coastguard 4WD vehicles, they also provide the crews
for Coastguard GP boats! These Coastguard GP (general
purpose) boats are predominantly 5.85m RiBs and are
used as workboats, to transport men and equipment to
the aid of casualties, as well as for patrol purposes
and as rescue craft in their own right, They are fitted-
-with a compass, navigation
lights and vhf radio, but there are no frills such as
GPS or echo sounders, which many of us have come to
expect as basic equipment on any seagoing boat of this
size. Coastguard RiBs are standard production model
Ribcraft 5.85 boats fitted with a single 75hp Mariner
power trim and tilt outboard, giving a top speed of
around 33 knots. These boats work in an environment,
and for an organisation, where safety is paramount,
In view of this, each boat is fitted with a new replacement
engine every year - hence the ex service engines offered
for sale by EP Barrus. Ribcraft make both hulls and
tubes 'in house' and built-in damage limitation measures
in the standard boat include seven hull to deck transverse
bulkheads forming watertight sections to prevent the
hull flooding in the event of it being pierced by wreckage
etc. Tubes are made of 1200gsm 'Hypalon' and are sub-divided
into five compartments.
Even with total failure of all
these compartments, Ribcraft claim that the hull will
not only support the weight of its engine and a light
crew loading but will also be capable of being driven
at planing speeds. Precise and predictable handling
through the hydraulic steering system, coupled with
the soft ride provided by the deep ‘V' hull, which
warps from 29 degrees dead rise at the bow to 20 degrees
at the transom, make these boats a pleasure to helm.
They turn at speed on the proverbial sixpence and with
no hint of side slip or propeller ventilation. Ribcraft
tell me that although it's three years since they supplied
the Coastguard GP boats, they have had no reported faults.
This is quality and was summed up in the words of an
instructor candidate I had on one course. Having been
allowed a short spell at the wheel of our local GP boat,
he disembarked with the comment that compared to the
Ribcraft, every other boat he had been in was a ‘shed’.
DM
From September
1998 issue of Force 9 Magazine
(The RIB Supplement
to Sports boat & Water-ski
International)
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