Great to see Pete's Custom RipTide XR-510 being launched. Pete approached us for a custom 5.1m Riptide to suit his needs in Western Australia. These plans are not for sale.
He writes:
Well I finally had a spare weekend to take the boat for a 4 hour shakedown run.
The weather wasn't the best, but bugger it I was going out! I was really impressed with how she performed, very smooth and quiet. I went on the swell-ward side of Bald Head, with large swell, wind chop, and it was bouncing off the Head Rock to make for an extremely rough, confused mess. Whilst being bobbed around like a cork, she felt very stable and safe.
Running through just rolling swell with wind chop was a breeze @ 20knts - no slamming and a very dry, quiet. I am very impressed and pleased.
I now know that I need to fine tune the transducers as they loose bottom at moderate speed and up. I also need to calibrate the I-pilot Link and heading sensor for the trolling motor. Pretty much what to expect following install.
Although the main purpose was for shakedown and motor run-in, I did throw a jig in for a few minutes - caught nothing.
I saw Grant from GB Marine at the ramp just after I loaded the boat back on the trailer. He reckoned I have "gone to the dark side" for installing a Yamaha. I was telling him it was all about weight as the Suzuki 70 & 90 are 150% the weight of the Yamaha.
I have some photos from back in the Sound heading back to the ramp (very hard to take while motoring, and no way was I going to take any out in the rough stuff), and a few post clean-up.
