The Ideal Rescue Boat

Originally posted by Rupert We went for prop guards on our dories, with 20hp motors on the back. We have found they make very little difference to manouverability, and as far as fuel ecomomy goes, I'd hate to be the one explaining to a mum that her kid had his leg mangled by a prop to save 1/2p a mile in fuel. Also, in these days of being sued, you are much less likely to be done for negligence if someone looses a finger in a freak propguard accident than you are if the whole hand is lost in a prop. Sad way to look at things, but true.

Sorry but prop guards seriously affect the handling characteristics of any power boat that has one fitted. If you are that worried about mangling people (presumably in the water) then you shouldn't be driving a boat. Prop guards are NOT a panacea for crap driving skills. Do a Safety boat course, work with experiemced helms and practice in all weathers and conditions.

Then go out and practice again and again - a bit like you should do to become good at sailing.

Check out the RYA website - even they do not recommend them!

The fundamental purpose of most prop guards is to protect the prop from damage if you hit the bottom. They do little if anything to protect people in the water. Consider the following situations:

1: High speed collision. A direct hit is fairly likely to kill someone - though the skeg of the engine or the keel of the boat is just as likely to do the damage.

2: Low speed forwards, boat passes right over the top of the person. This is exceedingly rare, most likely in choppy water where the keel of the boat hitting the casualty's head is easily as big a risk.

3.Low speed forwards or backwards, whilst turning. I once spoke to someone who this happened to (think he said the boat was going backwards) - he was cut pretty badly down one leg and one arm which required quite a few stitches. However he was knocked away by the prop turning round, and firmly believes that had the boat been fitted with a prop guard he would have probably lost his arm as it would have become trapped.

For inland waters, by far the best risk mitigation is to use a tiller driven boat. This serves two purposes. Firstly the operator is sitting right on top of the engine and hence knows where it is relative to objects and people in the water. Secondly the over-confident person with little training or experience who thinks its "just like driving a car" will realise that driving a boat isn't that simple and go and take some more lessons.

This of course means that the 360 commando is an ideal boat for use on small waters, provided you have a decent sized engine (preferably a 25) on it so it can tow all dinghies and still get back quickly with four people on board.

The worst combination is a smallish RIB or Dory with remote controls and a pull start. Moving away from the driving position to start the engine is always going to be risky, particularly if you can't reach it whilst still wearing the kill cord.

 

 

We went for prop guards on our dories, with 20hp motors on the back. We have found they make very little difference to manouverability, and as far as fuel ecomomy goes, I'd hate to be the one explaining to a mum that her kid had his leg mangled by a prop to save 1/2p a mile in fuel. Also, in these days of being sued, you are much less likely to be done for negligence if someone looses a finger in a freak propguard accident than you are if the whole hand is lost in a prop. Sad way to look at things, but true.

ive driven one of those things and they are truly horrible rescue boats, you cannot lower the bow ramp unless its flat calm for starters the windage is worse than you can imagine, and the fittigns rip out of them very very easily

Originally posted by allanorton I think the hull must be a rib, the tubes do provide good protection against other boats.  I also think that a centre console is necessary to give better balace and visibility.  Equipment should include knives & wire cutters, radio, possibly a spare bouy with tackle, anchor.  "Luxury" items would include GPS and built in radio.  Engine should probably be close to the maximum size specified by the hull's manufacturer.

All our Ribs have these on board as standard (except GPS but we are a lake)

We have at our club 3 6metre seariders and a 12metre Tornado. I personally prefer the seariders, the flooding hull is a good idea for stability and there is to much windage on the tornado.

All the seariders have 60hp's and the tornado has 80hp (i think ), these are ok for what we ue them for.