Inflatable, GRP or Aluminium Hull and floors ?

[Andy]

Hopefully this is the right place to post this.

1) So good and bad points about each and why you should buy one or avoid the other ?
2) You would have thought a floor is a floor, not untill you come to buy a boat ? How best can I keep me feet dry ?


Solar

[harrison]

solarsurfer,

Reading previous posts thought you'd settled on a rib, so not sure where inflatable floors fit in? Anyway here goes;

SIBS

Inflatable floors offer quick assembly and light weight, great for daily assembly. Best performing are v air floors such as Honwaves and arguably the best - Aerotec 380. Some larger ones suffer hooking at higher speeds particularly if slightly under inflated. Deck is not flat. Generally will give a more forgiving ride in chop.

There are also flat airdecks with inflatable sausage keel under. Still nice and light with a flat deck, although possibly worst performing of all. More suited to smaller sibs.

Rigid floor sibs with sectional aluminium or plywood floor panels, stringers and inflatable sausage keel. Heavy and time consuming to assemble but very rigid giving decent performance and a flat deck. Suited to larger sibs 3.5m and over.

Ribs

Most ribs will have grp hulls. Favoured by most builders as cost effective and complex shapes can be incorporated in the design. Relatively hardwearing and easily repaired without special skills if the worst happens. Hulls won't like impact damage or beaching. Many ribs incorporate encapsulated plywood in transoms/deck/stringers, and over time any water ingress can cause structural problems.

In recent years there are a few manufacturers offering aluminium hulled ribs and are gaining in popularity. Namely Highfield, Ribeye and more recently Excel. They offer a lightweight and strong rigid hull. While the hull with withstand knocks and beaching, the powdercoat painted finish will mark and chip easily. If damaged specialist repair is needed. Also harder to incorporate complex shapes into hull design.

[Cliff]

Highfield CL Ribs like mine have a twin aluminium hull/deck , this gives structural strength and also the deck stays dry. A bit heavier and costlier than the Highfield ultralites which just have an aluminium hull with no floor. Aluminium hulls are generally thinner and lighter than fibreglass.

[Andy]

Cheers, the reason I ask, is that during my research, a few dealers, and allot of private sellers, advertise some "ribs" with removable floors, inflatable floors, etc, so these are SIBS not RIBS ?

So if the description says "easily folded up into the back of a car" then thats gotta be a SIB .

But you can beach a Sib and generally not a Rib.

[harrison]

Ah ok see how you're confused. Terminology very often misused in ads, particularly private, dealers should and generally do know better though!

SIB - Soft (Hulled) Inflatable Boat

RIB - Rigid (Hulled) Inflatable Boat

If any part of the hull or floor is inflatable, soft or removable then it's a sib not a rib. The only part of a rib which is inflatable will be the collar (tubes).

Personally I wouldn't beach either. A rib at best will get scratched and a sib could get punctured, even on a sandy beach.

Edit; Forgot
F-Rib - Folding Rigid (Hulled) Inflatable Boat. This is a trade name though, not a generic term.

[sparerib]

Harrison has pretty much covered it.....

I had a 5m Humber sib with a wooden two piece floor, removed it to refurb, nearly killed two of us trying to put it back , only ever removed it once....never again

[digitalman]

Personally I would say that aluminium hulls are easier to fix than GRP hulls as you can for a quick and easy job just seal and rivet over the damage and if you really wanted to go to town cut out the damage and do a two layer seal and rivet job.

[ChrisParish]

I guess it depends where your personal expertise / comfort lies. I would be happier repairing a composite / grp hull than an aluminium one, but I have been playing with fibreglass and carbon since I was young in the form of high performance model aircraft.

[digitalman]

I guess it depends where your personal expertise / comfort lies. I would be happier repairing a composite / grp hull than an aluminium one, but I have been playing with fibreglass and carbon since I was young in the form of high performance model aircraft.

I was playing with the high performance full size ones Chris, wouldn't know where to start with fibreglass

[ChrisParish]

Ah. Guessing you don’t make your own when they are full size!