Boat Officer’s Bit 

DS-ACII, the club rib, has already seen plenty of activity this season, both in and out of the water.  As well as being regularly booked this summer for trips to Mull, West Bay, Rye, Lyme Bay and Portland, she has also been treated to a steady stream of maintenance work.  Listed below is all the work completed on the rib since April of this year:

• new port side battery
• new painter
• new wind strap
• 2 new trailer tyres
• new GPS
• echo sounder replaced under warranty
• new trailer brake operating mechanism/damper
• port engine starter motor reconditioned
• new flares
• new jump leads
• 2 new toilet keys(!)
• quote from electricity board for power to the boat house, to enable lights and power sockets to be fitted.  This would enable maintenance work to be carried out during winter evenings. 

Over the coming seasons, depreciation on the rib and its engines will accelerate.  As the rib and engines age, unreliability and maintenance costs will continue to increase.  It is imperative that both the committee and those who regularly run the club trips, reach a consensus on what action to take – and the sooner the better.

There are already several things that must be done at the end of this season: 

• Fit ‘A’ frame
• Total re-wire
• Usual annual service

 Once this work is completed, the following issue needs to be resolved.  Do we:

• replace the two ageing Yamaha 55 HP engines with one larger, single engine (probably a 4 stroke)?
• continue to service and run the boat using the existing engines?
• replace the rib entirely?

My preferred option is to replace the twin engines with a single one.  A single, yet meaty 4-stroke engine would give us far greater fuel economy; it would be quieter, more reliable and much more efficient than the current set up, and would ultimately give us a greater range of dive sites. 

The question uppermost in everyone’s mind will undoubtedly be “can we afford it?”.  I would counter that with “can we afford not to?” 

In the next couple of years, the existing engines will become increasingly uneconomical and unreliable. 

Some people feel that the current twin engine set-up provides us with a back-up mechanism, should one of the engines fail.  However, mechanical failures on new engines are rare.  Although we would be selling the twin engines, we would keep the twin tanks and twin batteries, thereby ensuring that we have both an alternative fuel and a backup electrical system.  If mechanical engine failure is still an issue, there is the option to mount a small back up engine designed to simply get the rib back to port. 

If we do replace the current engines, then it would be an opportune time to opt for hydraulic steering, as opposed to the high maintenance cables currently used.  Furthermore, we should consider the fact that the hull and tubes will also need replacing at some stage in the future, and we should develop a medium/long term boat strategy. 

How much is all this going to cost?   Well, in order to achieve everything I’ve mentioned we would need to raise a total of £10,000. 

There are a number of proposals for raising the money: 

• Lottery grant
• Grant from Hemel Hempstead Borough Council (which Barry is already looking into)
• Ambitious fund raising events
• Approaching local business 

Any other ideas for raising the money (or indeed any donations!) would be most welcome. 

On a final note, I am looking at the long-term possibility of putting a compressor in the boathouse.  My personal opinion is that, as an active dive club, we should be running and operating our own compressor, and I am currently looking at costs. 

Tony Watt