The Unified Team Diving boat

What do people use as boats? I've been putting together an Avon 18 foot RIB, well, it was put together when I bought it and now I'm in the endless do-loop of tweaking it to be just as I want it.

Here it is as bought:

I had some problems with the outboard, it would drink water and then the oil would look like this:

So, we took the outboard apart, couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, so I did what any good UTD diver would do, I bought a new outboard. Now, my teammates will have a reliable outboard. I did it for them.

Along the way , I've tweaked how it carries tanks. Reason being, we thought the weight in the back had something to do with the outboard problems. When I first got it, the boat had a rack in the back, you can see it here:

That rack would fit 8 steel tanks. WAY too much weight too far back, so we chopped it down, making more room in the back deck area, and I had a small rack built for the front:

This rack will fit four tanks, or four scooters, or some combo of these.

Now, I have only a bit more work to do on it before I go break in the outboard.

Hopefully, I'll get back being a happy boat owner:

But, Richard is banned from doing this to my boat again, I think my boat felt violated:

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rose on January 13, 2009 at 6:16pm

Your invited. We will plan a weekend when we will go diving with Gary (Rec & Tec) and you can spend the the night on the boat. It is only 90 minutes or so up to Port Sanilac from my dock.

Of course we will have to take a cruise down the river for drink or two....

I have only been diving for 8 years or so, but I have been boating all my life.

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Permalink Reply by Guy Shockey on January 14, 2009 at 11:05am

But Doug, the real question is can it find the Sceptre Squamish..............I am sure Mark and I will volunteer as guinea pigs for this experiment if you bring it up here again.................

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Permalink Reply by Guy Shockey on January 14, 2009 at 11:06am

Richard actually looks sea sick in about 3 ft of water there..............sigh...................and I thought he was a boat guy................

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Steding on January 14, 2009 at 11:15am

Should be able to, you guys have the numbers, don't you? I have a 2000 foot GPS/color sounder on it, with charts up past Georgia Strait. Works pretty good.

Andrew is doing Trimix 1 with us in June, maybe it would be fun to make a weekend out of that up in your neck of the woods?

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Permalink Reply by Guy Shockey on January 14, 2009 at 2:10pm

I will pass this on to Mark. I am sure that would be very cool. We have some very good shore diving/trimix training sites with not much surface swim and big walls. Good viz with no current.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Steding on January 14, 2009 at 2:14pm

Please do, since the TMX 1 thing is three days, it could be fun to roll up there, do some shallow critical skills work and spend a couple days doing some fun dives-we'll all have scooters, and bringing the boat up shouldn't be an issue.

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Permalink Reply by Guy Shockey on January 14, 2009 at 5:10pm

Already talked to Mark and he is going to talk to Andrew. We have just the spot........

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Steding on January 17, 2009 at 6:37pm

Guy Shockey said:

Already talked to Mark and he is going to talk to Andrew. We have just the spot........

Good stuff Guy.

I did a few tweaks to the boat today, added two cigarette lighter plugs for power (mostly for suit heat).

Also got ~2.5 hours on the new motor. 20 knots at 3000 rpm (just me in it). 40 knots at 4700 which is as much as I wanted to push the new motor. It has more power than the old.

Makes the sting of the new motor expense a bit less.

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Permalink Reply by Richard on January 20, 2009 at 6:00pm

At least on my charts the Scepter Squamish is marked (not by name of course). Overall, that would probably be an easier trip than Powell River - i.e. only one ferry and better roads too. I'm not crossing the Strait of Georgia in my 16ft RIB (nor Doug's 18ft either) so any additional dives would probably need to be around Quadra.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Steding on January 20, 2009 at 6:02pm

Are these the Navionics Gold charts for your GPS or paper charts?

I have the Navionics Gold in my GPS.

Agreed re easier trip, one ferry, from Tawasseanneasmegleburgerstocktenstien, or whatever that place is.

Richard said:

At least on my charts the Scepter Squamish is marked (not by name of course). Overall, that would probably be an easier trip than Powell River - i.e. only one ferry and better roads too. I'm not crossing the Strait of Georgia in my 16ft RIB (nor Doug's 18ft either) so any additional dives would probably need to be around Quadra.

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Permalink Reply by Richard on January 21, 2009 at 11:17pm

Paper for sure, not sure about electronic, I think I remember adding a waypoint on top and labeling it awhile back(?). I have the Navionics Gold as well. Remind me to check this weekend.