ex-miltary Zodiac, OK for dive-boat?

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Shwackman - 13 Jan 2004 01:54 GMT

HI All, Ive never posted here before, forgive me if this is OT. I have obtained
a 10 year old Zodiac F-470, a 15+ foot inflatable, with interlocking aluminum
floorboards, (not slats).
Does anyone know if I could get by with a 25 HP motor, to plane the thing
with 2 people + dive gear, or will I need more motor?(rated for 65 max).I know
you don't want to overpower an inflatable, they'll just beat you up and burn
more gas...TIA, Mark C...NW Florida

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Dan Bracuk, CTHD - 13 Jan 2004 02:52 GMT

shwackman@aol.com (Shwackman) pounded away at his keyboard resulting
in:

:HI All, Ive never posted here before, forgive me if this is OT.

Welcome to rec.scuba,..., Mark. Has anyone insulted you yet?

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/

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Den73740 - 13 Jan 2004 04:30 GMT

>Subject: ex-miltary Zodiac, OK for dive-boat?
>From: shwackman@aol.com (Shwackman)

>HI All, Ive never posted here before, forgive me if this is OT. I have
>obtained
>a 10 year old Zodiac F-470, a 15+ foot inflatable, with interlocking aluminum
>floorboards, (not slats).

I can't answer your question on horse power but I have a question I'd like to
ask.

Did you have any problems getting the boat titled. I've seen a few surplus
inflatables on e-bay but none had been titled. What documents did you need?

Thanks

Dennis

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Buff5200 - 13 Jan 2004 05:13 GMT

As a Zodiac owner, 25 horses should be fine for 600 lb load on
relatively calm water.

If you want to power thru surf or get more speed you might want to up
the engine size.

>HI All, Ive never posted here before, forgive me if this is OT. I have obtained
>a 10 year old Zodiac F-470, a 15+ foot inflatable, with interlocking aluminum
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>more gas...TIA, Mark C...NW Florida
>

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Chuck Tribolet - 13 Jan 2004 07:49 GMT

I've got a couple of friends with smaller boats and bigger motors
(14', 35 HP) and they have trouble getting on plane with two divers
and gear.

Signature

Chuck Tribolet
triblet@garlic.com
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/triblet

Silicon Valley: STILL the best day job in the world.

> As a Zodiac owner, 25 horses should be fine for 600 lb load on
> relatively calm water.
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> >you don't want to overpower an inflatable, they'll just beat you up and burn
> >more gas...TIA, Mark C...NW Florida

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Matthias Voss - 13 Jan 2004 11:23 GMT

Shwackman schrieb:

> HI All, Ive never posted here before, forgive me if this is OT. I have obtained
> a 10 year old Zodiac F-470, a 15+ foot inflatable, with interlocking aluminum
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> you don't want to overpower an inflatable, they'll just beat you up and burn
> more gas...TIA, Mark C...NW Florida

It should glide, perhaps depending on weight distribution.
My 4 m Zodiac does, with 15 Hp, but that's the limit,( with diving
eqipment) with 3 people w/o it gets difficult, with 4 people, no chance.

Matthias

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srspencer@hotmail.com - 14 Jan 2004 00:37 GMT

I have run Zodac's for years for diving.
A new 25 hp may get you on plane, I say may.
Once you start getting near 50 hp you need a center consol for safety
reasons.
Loss control once and you know why, if you ...
If you lucky you might even recover your gear.
Going on plane might not be what you want, you pound your gear and
boat to peaces.
Going new a 50 hp is almost twice the cost of a 25 hp.
If your diving near shore a 25 would be fine.
The best advice is to look up the USN spec's they post them on the
net.
See what they suggest.
The combat spec's is what you want.
If tiler is the way you'll be going.

T

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Lee Bell - 14 Jan 2004 03:41 GMT

> >HI All, Ive never posted here before, forgive me if this is OT. I have obtained
> >a 10 year old Zodiac F-470, a 15+ foot inflatable, with interlocking aluminum
> >floorboards, (not slats). Does anyone know if I could get by with a 25

HP motor, to plane the thing

> >with 2 people + dive gear, or will I need more motor?(rated for 65 max).I know
> >you don't want to overpower an inflatable, they'll just beat you up and burn
> >more gas...TIA, Mark C...NW Florida

In any kind of chop at all, you're going to hate the lack of a hull. RIBs
are far, far superior for such use. On the other hand, what you have is
what you have. If you can't afford something else, make do.

It's hard to tell if a 25 will do the trick or not. I have a 10 foot RIB
that is rated for a 20 and has a recent model Mercury 25. I didn't do that
to overpower it, but to get the added 5 hp in case I need it sometime later.
The Mercury 20 and 25 are the same motor with some performance enhancements.
At any rate, my RIB runs about 35 mph, flat out with just me in it. That's
faster than is safe in such a light boat.

You may be able to plane your boat out with a 25, but you're probably not
going to like it much. I suspect you'll find that you have to run close to
full throttle to stay on a plane and that's not fuel efficient. My 10
footer, for example, planed with my wife and I with a 9.9 Johnson, but
burned more fuel than it does with the 25. A friend of mine has a RIB
approximately the size you are talking about. His runs great with a 40 hp
Yamaha.

My advice, which is highly dependent on your finances, is to sell the boat
you have and look for a RIB. There are deals out there. Finding one that
already has a motor should not be all that hard. Failing that, check around
until you find somebody that will let you try various motors on your boat.
If there's a fishing lake in your area where they rent boats, they may be
able to help. I would not buy anything until I was sure it was enough.

Lee

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