The Ripple tender range of designs and kits has been very popular and a consistent seller. We recently had a call from a customer who we built a 3.6m Ripple for in 2014 and his tender had been stolen. The owners were devastated and dearly loved their tender and wanted another one. The design was the same however a few upgrades were incorporated. The options included large diameter beaching wheels, a built-in fuel tank, composite rod holders, lifting fittings and spray rails. As per the first boat the structure was Duflex foam finished in hardtop polyurethane.
Related to the 3.6m Ripple design, we have personal experience with this exact design and can shed some insight into its suitability as a tender. We have the boat on a trailer so we load the boat from home and launch fully loaded. Most of the time supplies even for just the weekend can be considerable and heavy so the boat has been well tested under these conditions. The engine fitted is a 9.8hp Tohatsu which even when technically ‘over-loaded’ with 4 passengers, will still get the boat on the plane and cruise well. With this engine we actually haven’t had a time where we couldn’t plane the boat. Empty with one or two passengers the boat is lively and responsive with a good turn of speed. Also it leaves very little wake which is always good in an anchorage with other boats around. The comfort is quite impressive in choppy conditions and relatively dry. Another advantage we found is if anything large and flat needs to be carried such as plywood etc, the tunnel is ideal. And for a work platform we have even used the tunnel as a work bench to mark out and cut large sheet material sitting on the gunnel while doing this. The good stability is key to achieving this and generally moving around the boat. Something else that we noticed is when in the shallows because of the outboard leg being behind the open tunnel, its possible to motor the boat until it grounds. It also tows well without any signs of zig-zagging etc.
We can fully understand the above owners devastation with the loss of their Ripple, and we would be the same…