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!

We had ring props on our ribs and they drastically cut the performance, but the chances of getting caught in one would be quite low - it's not a big hole. However, we had at least 2 where the ring between 2 of the blades was ripped off, by a rope at idle, though these props were terribly made. I wouldn't use one out of choice, but a properly made/developed one could be ok. As for power, I'd much rather have the power in reserve than too little to start off with. One guy I had to rescue hadn't told anyone he was asthmatic and had an attack, triggered by a capsize, and I desperately wanted more power in that situation - he needed to be back on shore to get his inhaler. I've also been responsible for covering large exanses of water, and when it takes over a minute to get to a capsized boat it's worrying. Just my thoughts

My own recent experience of inadequate safety boats.

F6 and my sail pulled out of the track (partly because everything was pulled on tight but mostly me jumping off the gunwhale on to it whilst capsizing). I couldn't get the boat head to wind to get the sail down and re-hoist it so I waited for the safety boat. Unfortuneately the Dory with 15hp engine didn't come even close to having enough power get me head-to-wind whilst alongside and the driver was reluctant to set up a tow for some reason. In the end had to wait for a more powerful boat to help out.

Originally posted by lozza Has anybody got any experience of using the yamaha jet drive outboard? products/subcathome/3/home.aspx"> http://www.yamaha-motor.com/ outboard/products/subcathome/3/h ome.aspx At least you're not going to snap it if you hit the bottom and it won't chop your arm off.

see told you all jet's were the way to go

I don't think its so much a case of designing safety boats around incompetant drivers, the focus should be imposed more on educating people how to be better safety boat drivers. There are magazines such as "RIB International" which rate boats for usage and manufactures design boats for specific tasks. When selecting a boat for safety usage, it makes more sense to select a boat preparing for the worst case scenario instead of what may be most effective in normal conditions. In my opinion, the ideal is to have a boat powerful enough to tow larger boats, have enough length to deal with swell comfortably, have enough room to carry the load equivalent to at least a few boats worth and enough speed to be able to carry out a safety check over a large area. Ideally, rescue boats which I use have VHF backed up with mobile phones for comunication, a decent first aid box, a spare bottle of oil, spare fuel tank, tool kit, flares and substaintial tow lines.