Well it’s about time that I posted a review of my Frib 430, so here it is.
I bought mine last fall from The Wetworks, aka Sail Loft, in the UK. They had the best price by far and FedEx shipping to Alaska was approx $700 US. Not bad for such a huge parcel to go around the globe in 4 days. Shipping to the continental US would probably be a little cheaper. It arrived late but in good condition. As all of the lakes were frozen all I could do was set it up a few times in the garage and make motorboat sounds.
Here it is unfolded but not inflated yet. This is how they packed it at the factory. Glad I took this picture because it can be a little difficult to get the 430 to fold up when the material is cold. Every section must be completely emptied of air and very tightly folded, otherwise the last two sections at the rear won’t line up and will prevent it from closing.
Mine came with the brand new Leafield D7 valves and new style PRVs on the rear tubes only. I left the boat inflated for a week and it lost no measurable amount of air. My impression is that it is very well built and solid.
Finally spring arrived and I got back to playing with the 430 in preparation for its maiden voyage. Here it is with Beachmaster wheels and my 6hp Mercury four stroke.
Our first trip out was to Hidden Lake, which is usually very calm, more on that later!
I always go out on the water with my family and together we weigh about 400lbs and usually have about 100lbs of gear as a bare minimum. With that load my little 6hp pushed us right up to 10kts! I was amazed how easily the boat got on step. Steering was precise and nimble and the vessel tracked straight without much effort. Many of our lakes are in glacial valleys and subject to strong winds that come out of nowhere. On our downwind run across the lake we covered about 2 miles of very light chop and tiny white caps, the ride was pleasant but we needed a calm cove to fish in so we tucked into one for a while. After some fishing and lunch we decided to head back to camp and were greeted by a nice little gale of 20kts and closely spaced 3 foot waves. It being my first trip out in a new boat, I was a little apprehensive but the the frib never showed any sign of trouble. My passengers were not too pleased by the beating they were taking up front but we all stayed dry and pushed on through the weather. While working our way back in the lee of a small island we were hailed by the occupants of a beached aluminum boat. We checked in on them and it turns out they had run out of gas hours ago and had to paddle to shore!
Not a good place for that to happen since there were no other boats out on this unpatrolled remote lake, not to mention no cell or radio service. They were a little embarrassed to be rescued by such a tiny vessel. We shared some of our gas and followed them back to the ramp where their wives and children were quite upset with them. Frib saves the day!
We took the 430/6hp combo out once more to Daniels Lake for some excellent trout fishing and had a great time and perfect weather. My youngest caught his first fish, a very nice 14” rainbow. The boat performed admirably and my only complaint was that the plug flapper leaked quite a bit so I decided to keep the plug in at all times.
Fast forward to last weekend, our brand new 25hp Yamaha had arrived and we hit Kenai Lake to break it in.
The Yamaha 25hp is an awesome motor and I already knew I would like it as a friend of mine has one that I love. I wasn’t sure if it would be too heavy for me to move or overkill on the frib 430, but now I think it’s the perfect combo for my uses. The frib immediately jumps on step with just 15-30% throttle and cruises 10-16kts. At 50% throttle it’s right at 20kts. This is plenty enough speed for me and it does it quietly enough that you can still talk over the motor noise. Once I have it broken in, and the conditions are right, I will do some high speed runs at WOT. This may seem like I’m not using the motor to it’s full potential and moving around a needlessly heavy motor,but I will have trips with very heavy loads of fish, people or even a moose on board. Add that heavy load to a strong river current and an outgoing tide and the extra power will be appreciated.
The 430 performed equally well with the larger motor and felt even more balanced with the extra weight on the transom. At low speed the boat now throws up a pretty good wake that would be fun for towing a tube or skier. My only complaint is that even with the plug in, water was leaking past the plug and puddling up in only the rear section. The little flapper valve wasn’t helping keep any water out and was slowing the removal of water so I ripped it out rather unceremoniously!
don’t know if that will help but it sure made me feel better about it.
Here it is all tucked away, not so neat, in the back of our truck. Before anyone jumps in, the motor is designed to be transported prop or tiller down.
If I’ve forgotten anything or anyone knows how to rotate my pictures after they’re uploaded, please don’t hesitate. I’m planning to follow up with a Beachmaster install and review with lots of pics.
PS- I forgot to mention that I need a place to mount my Scotty Power lock rod holders. Has anyone mounted them to the transom or seats? I’d like to do both. This post caught my eye a while back but I can’t quite tell how everything was attached. I’d like to avoid drilling into the transom if possible.
