F-Ribs And Sibs - Inflatable Boat Community

Have been out several times this year on the lake but just wanted to document my latest trip with my grandson Jake.

We launched from Park foot at Pooley bridge, you can see from the photo they have built a nice new shiny jetty. Have mixed feelings about this as it takes up a lot of the narrow beach and your not allowed to moor your boat to it (so the point is ?) however, the franchise of paddle boats and water bikes that used to operate off that beach seems to have gone, it was a big problem last year where they would fill the beach with their boats and you were in constant competition with them to launch and recover your boat. No sign of them this year so all's good.

The mods I've done to the boat this year include a new pedestal seat for the front passenger, I did this as my daughter complained of lower back pain after prolonged sitting on the old bench seat. The pedestals have sprung suspension but unfortunately only have limited travel so in a really big wave the boat can be still be a bit slammy. The seats can be unlocked which lets them spin round to face any direction which is really convenient when in a small boat and in anything but the biggest chop on Ullswater they are very comfortable. The speed limit on Ullswater tends to mean the suspension doesn't get a good workout anyway.

I had a problem with my fish finder as it was mounted to the old bench seat, with that gone where to put it ? I tried mounting it on the tube which was ok but it used to bounce back and forth when at a reasonable speed which it made it hard to read, so in the end I made a bracket so it could be attached to my seat, this worked well. There is plenty of cable length so the chair can rotate without straining the cable.

We had a fantastic day, the weather was kind, Sunny with next to no wind.

Picnic at Glenridding then a slow fish back to our start point where we recovered the boat and home.

That's what summers are all about.

We like Ulswater and we also launch from Park foot

@Bigplumbs

Yes its a nice place, lucky to have it on our doorstep.

@Sonofgum - fantastic update of the Frib and indeed ParkFoot, thanks..
Can I ask a for bit more info on your suspension seats and how you’ve mounted them pls?
I added swivel seats to a bench seat for our Frib last year, the girls loved the idea of the seats tho didn’t like the height they were at..
I’m looking more towards either similar to what you’ve done, or finding myself a decent Avon adventure and flogging the Frib on.

Martin

@Martin

Hi Martin, the pedestal's were bought off ebay 'Boat seat pedestal shock absorbing suspension helm pilot springfield EZ-RIDE' was the description (I think this is a link https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323850553563 ... 0EZ%2DRIDE)
also the seats too.

The Springfield pedestals were not cheap unfortunately but the seats are around £30 each. The base is made out of 18mm plywood and mounted over the hinge part of the boat with a small piece of wood fixed to the lip of the plywood to stop it sliding rearwards. Then the supporting timbers (Can't remember the exact dimensions) were cut to match the profile of the floor and screwed to the underside of the plywood.

Here's a better picture of the rear seat before I mounted the front one, its mounted slightly off set so I can get easy access to the tiller. The front one is mounted dead centre.

I tried to make the base as big as possible for stability but under certain situations they can tip so that's the reason I've got them zip tied to mounts, just in case.

I find them very comfy and there space all round them, so spinning round to face front or back (or side ) is a breeze.
Really like them.

@Sonofgum that's fantastic Thankyou.
You’ve actually answered another question too, I was contemplating trying a mounting ring adhered to the hull, looks like you’ve successfully managed that.
Have you used a two part adhesive ?

Martin

Martin wrote: ↑

01 Aug 2023, 10:21

@Sonofgum that's fantastic Thankyou.
You’ve actually answered another question too, I was contemplating trying a mounting ring adhered to the hull, looks like you’ve successfully managed that.
Have you used a two part adhesive ?

Martin

@Martin

No I used the only glue I had which is the Poly marine stuff for mounting on tubes. I figured it'll either work or it won't and so far no problems. Cleaned the area thoroughly with MEK first.

Regards
Phil