i am looking for a tender with following specs and duties in mind; 1- size length around 5.80/19 meters/feet to 6.50/21 meters/feet, beam around 2.60/8.50 meters/feet 2- weight full with engine fuel, water, etc; less than 1500/3300 kgs/lbs (crane capacity limitation) 3- i will use it on an explorer going around the world. 4- good sea keeping, range and safety is important. i want people to sit in the tender, meaning that i would like to have some kind of built in bulwarks. 5- i want the pilot to have some shelter and also a dry ride. 6- i would consider ribs with inboard (diesel) and outboards, as well as fishing boats like boston whaler or similar. i would very much oblige if you share your opinion and experiences with me in this process.
Hi Nilo Saw you anchored off Bodrum the other week was going to come by and say hello but was busy with guests. I think it would be hard to go past a RIB at that size but make sure it is not a Nautica .Boston Whalers are pretty good but heavy.
hi garry, hope we will have another opportunity, pls drop in the next time. what boat are you on? i also heard not so good experiences with nautica from other folks. my present tender is an ab, i am quite happy with it; but for the next boat i am building, i want to upgrade it to something with a longer range, more space and better shelter. although i've done a lot of homework and foot work so far; i am confident that the first hand experience of the forum members is something i should not skip to exploit.
I hate to say this, but for weight, safety, and carrying capacity it's really hard to beat a Carolina Skiff. You can rig the interior just about any way you want to meet your needs, they're light, unsinkable, and very stable and VERY roomy inside for their length. They're also very fuel efficient also. Some of the new ones are nice looking as well. And they're dual purpose, you could use them for fishing, flats fishing as they're shallow draft, snorkeling and more. I had one of the older 24' with a 90hp 2 stroke Mercury. It cruised at 24 knots at 4200 rpms with a little 90 Mercury getting 3 mpg, It also had a carrying capacity of 2400lbs or more, had so much foam in the floor it would sit dry with the bilge plugs out and 3 guys standing in the stern. A Boston Whaler would be another good choice. The inflatables are ok, but lack interior volume for their length. They're also a real pain to keep clean and a lot more maintanence than a fiberglass boat.
Dear Nilo, Would you consider a Beneteau Flyer 6,50 or 7,50 with single outboard? Jeanneau's Walkaround models (WA Range) could be suitable, as a cheaper alternative to Boston Whaler. They are the same hulls with different styles available. There is a brand named C-Marine has a 7 meter model with twin engines as well. I have been looking to Beneteau& Jeanneau Flyer/ WA 7,50 and 8,50 models for Istanbul. I thought they might be of interest when I saw your post. Best regards, VR
Over the years we've used many different brands of tender. Boston Whaler (13, 15, 18, 19 and 25 footers) Zodiac RIBs Avon RIBs Cigarette (30 & 32s) Donzi (Sweet 16 & 18) Castaldi Jet RIBs On one boat, a 75m, we ended up making our own design of Aluminum tenders with twin Cummins and ZF outdrives. They were 'OK-ish' but way too heavy; ask K1W1, his team had to work on them. They have now been changed to these. Depending on how you use your tender I can only recommend a RIB with a big outboard, not an outdrive or jet though. Boston Whaler 2nd (Skiffs seem to slam a little) and just for the love of them, 3rd a Donzi, totally impractical but soooo beautiful.
Meets the specs (and looks good - may be a little tall - you didn't give a height spec ) http://www.carolinaskiff.com/blog/uploads/245874154.png Cheers, Rod Ooops - weight may be marginal - the specs didn't include the engine
I was thinking more along the lines of one of these, but the specs look good on that one also http://carolinaskiff.com/dlv.html
J, Sorry to say this but Skiffs are just not man enough for the job. Being lifted in and out of the water in really rough weather that you get off Atolls in the Pacific, the thumping and snagging is very extreme. Our Boston Whaler 25 (not a 24 as I said earlier) had the crap kicked out of it so bad that the transom, with twin Evinrude 175s on the back, started to crack off. We had to laminate extra bonding to it and make a stainless transom plate to hold the engines in place A big RIB is lighter, more bouncy and a lot less hassle in rough water to lift than any fibreglass boat.
McMullen and Wing make a range of D-tube alloy hull tenders that would appear to meet your specs. Either 5.65m or 6.3m and about 12-1300kgs. One variation achieves SOLAS rescue craft specs. They do custom builds too.
Good call, exellent boats. A sort of half and half answer. The trouble is they keep fitting Yanmars and Volvos in the stern. You only need an outboard; much cheaper, easier to work on and can be changed in a morning if needed. Plus they are sealed by their cowl against a flooding that can happen in big seas. Explorer Yachts are not going to ponce around in marinas and need tough workboats.
fishtugua you are spot on with your comments and voicing some of my concerns while trying to make this choice. when i started this search for the most suitable tender for an explorer, i had diesel inboards in my mind in order to avoid carrying large amounts of petrol. of course this adds weight and i also found out that maintenance and in case of total failure, changing the engine needs quite an effort. then i started to play with the fishing boat versus rib idea; thinking that a fishing boat will have more tankage and better ride in heavy seas. i've tried a boston whaler outrage 21 (due to weight restrictions, i can only stow a 19 outrage) in flat seas, which was taking in spray at the back seats (only position to haul guests). also i have heard of the stress cracks on these types of boats; because they are not built to be lifted everyday out of the water with a crane. i had met mcmullen people during last year's fort lauderdale boat show, this is a tender i've liked; but it has an inboard engine and also people sit a bit high up. i've also tried a pascoe shuttle in manoco; it was a very fast and dry tender; but because you were sitting high up it did not feel very safe. i had to hold on very strongly. so, i wanted to start this thread in order to hear the 1st hand experiences of forum members. i hope it will be quite educational not just for me, but also for others who would be trying to have a better insight in choosing their tenders. thnks for all the efforts of members who are posting so far...
You have reasonably Specific needs. Why not have something purpose designed and built to meet all the requirements you have? Europe's small boat market is depressed so is ripe for a well priced custom option. Also, VaudreyMiller from New Zealand is doing some astonishing work.
Hi Nilo Another NZ option is Lloyd Stevenson's yard www.lloydstevensonyachts.co.nz They have done the 6.2m diesel/jet driven tenders to Kokomo III and have another couple underway to much the same design - looks as though they are promoting these as a semi-standard range. The design is by Ted Fontaine. Yachting Developments (YDL) are also promoting their tender business having built some classy ones recently. Southern Ocean Marine are into this business as well having done the tenders to Ice and perhaps other yachts. Any class builders throughout the world would do an outboard version without any concern of course.
My choice would include Sealegs as they can drive up on beaches and the other is local me in the NW USA - bullfrog boats as they do not use inflatable tubes - it is better to visit their website to see. I would say an aluminum bottom is a must for an explorer yacht's tender. Tim
