F-Ribs And Sibs - Inflatable Boat Community

Hi there. Picking up my Homwave t38 with Honda 20hp outboard on Saturday. Used but looks to be awesome condition. Like a kid at Christmas - can't wait. Before I venture out to sea I want familiarise myself with the set up and wondered if anyone knows a body of water near Peterborough that would be good for this ? I know Rutalnd and Grafham Water don't allow visitors with outboards. I did my RYA level 2 a couple of years ago and I'm sure it'll all come flooding back but want to be safe for the first couple of ventures. Looking forward to picking your collective brains over the coming months. Cheers, Jonathan

Hi Jonathan and to the forum
Great setup you've got there I'm sure you'll love it
Sorry, I don't know that boating area at all but I'm sure someone will be along soon with some answers
Enjoy the forum and don't be afraid to join in
Good to have you aboard

Hi Jonathan and congratulations on your up coming purchase! I’m sure you’ll have some great adventures with the T38!

As a lad, our family holidays were quite often to Norwich, and we always seemed to stop at Ferry Meadows. Think that might just be used for sailing though, but worth a check? The Broads was another place we went, but they have speed limits on so not ideal for testing out that 20...

As long as you research your tide times, review a chart for submerged rocks, etc and pick a good weather forecast day; no reason why you shouldn’t head out on the sea straight away! Do you have a sea location in mind?

Good luck and have fun! Cheers Steve

Thanks for the response Steve. Ferry Meadows is all commercial now and is just sailing boats and pedal swans Think you are probably right about heading straight to North Norfolk. I'll either head for Hunstanton or Wells if I do. I'll keep researching and let everyone know if I find somewhere. I think there might be some lakes near St Ives (Cambs not Cornwall!) I might contact RYA as well and see if there is anywhere I can use my own boat for a refresher lesson and then see if I can use that place on and off.

I think I was robbed as a kid then - pedal swans, would have loved that!

Have you looked at this: http://www.boatlaunch.co.uk/#/map

It’s showing a public slip at Wells and it might be worth looking at Snettisham too (the sailing club is also an RYA centre).

Something else we’ve done, is chatted to the local RNLI station. It seems that the crews would rather answer what you perceive as stupid questions on dry land, rather than when they are called out to rescue you in dire conditions. Well that’s what our Kinghorn station does anyway - they have even given vhf radio talks / training too... Hunstanton and Wells both have stations, so might be worth sticking your head through the door for a chat if you get chance?

You’ve got the rivers too, but I guess you’ll need permits for those...

Great shout on the RNLI and thanks for the slipway link - I'll have a play with that later.
We have the Nene that runs through P'Boro - Quite a few locks if I go West but there's a decent stretch going East that I could use to get familiar - and a couple of decent pubs along the way Looks like I have a bit of research to do.
Cheers for now.
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan, Welcome to our little community..
Another T38 owner, and i"m sure you'll be another happy one at that.
Great choice of sib, very capable, superb quality (usually) and always a great second hand market should you decide to change it at anytime.

Enjoy the forum, we really do have an awesone crew on here.

Martin

Welcome to the forum.
Thats a nice boat and engine setup you have got.

Welcome to the forummfrom another T38 owner, cracking sib and engine set up you’ve got,

Hi I'm from Peterborough area. If you want to test your setup and just get a feel for it, the nearest place for you is the river Nene.

Get a licence from Peterborough information center next to the town hall. Costs £9.10 for the day, the only information you need to take with you is the boats serial number.

You have 2 easy launch points, one at stanground. You need a key for he slipway, you can get this from the pboro visitors center too. The other is at the boat house pub, there is a slipway just the other side of the bridge. It has a bollard in front of the bridge, I think keys are only given to the residence, however this is my preferred launch point and it's easy to get the SIB around the bollard if you have a SIB with transome wheels.

One you have launched from either point head down stream towards dog-in-a-doublet lock. This is a tidal lock and 5 miles downstream from the boat house pub. So you can have a good 10 mile round trip with no locks to navigate. Also once you get out of the city on the river i #might# have seen the 7mph speed limit exceeded on the open stretch of river.

Once you have tested it on the Nene, get yourself to the north Norfolk coast, I regularly launch at wells next the sea. I can advise you on this if you fancy it.