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Old 09-26-2014, 11:15 PM   #36
BandB
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City: Fort Lauderdale. Florida, USA
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by caltexflanc View Post
Well unless you are seating people on the tubes, I'd be very curious as to what RIB you have. In 2008, when we were still somewhat new to our boat I took a tape measure to the Miami boat show and measured the interior of every RIB in the 13-14 foot class, and all brands you can think of were there. None came close to the interior space of our 130 Sport. We like RIBs, don't think they look funny at all, and were new to Whalers. But since the Whaler was in many ways our family car at the time, ferrying supplies, groceries and people and luggage to and fro moorings and anchorages every day, and exploring extensively, we decided there was no way we could give up the space not just seating , but as importantly cargo.
Well, part of it is whether we're looking at how many people you can pack on a Whaler or what it's plate capacity is. Much like the problem you have with engines. So just a couple of comparisons. A Whaler 110 sport is 11'4", seats 4 and a 130 sport is 13'3" with a capacity of 4 as well. A Williams 325 which is under 11' seats 4 and a 385 which is 12'7" seats 5. Now in deck space the 385 at 12'7" takes less length than an 11' Whaler plus outboard. A Williams 445 is 14'11" so takes up about the same deck space as a 130 sport and it has a capacity of 6. In comparing length for one you're carrying on your bridge, you have to add at least 18" and probably 2' for the outboard. Now I'll freely admit that I would say for practical purposes 4 people for the 385 and 5 people for the 445.

Now we don't use our tenders as much for hauling cargo as we do for people and exploring. So definitely a different purpose. I like Whalers but my other issue today is their rated motor. Planing is difficult with 4 people as the 110 is only rated for 25 hp and the 130 only for 40 hp. I know they will take more but I'm not willing to accept the liability associated with putting more than the plate amount on one. We do have larger ribs too but the 110 and 130 are the boats we compared to. The Whaler clearly has more open floor space for carrying supplies. The Williams has more performance and as we do have many days we've covered 80-100 nm in a tender that's helpful. Williams 385 and 445 have 120 hp which is the equivalent of around 90 in an outboard and run 45 knots. We seldom run it over 25 knots though.

Your need of ferrying supplies, grocery and luggage is not something we often use one of ours for. We are normally docked for those things. The few times we do use one for that, typically we only have 2 of us in it.

We do understand our needs and likes are very different than most. By the way, what engine do you have on your 130?

Edit: Those are some of their gas tenders. The diesel obviously adds a lot of weight but the 445 does also comes with the option of a 100 hp Yanmar as do their larger tenders.
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