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...

Following on from our last post, the work on 'Siva' continued this year with further extensions to the job list. Although the new electronic engine controls were operational and did the job for the owners over their Christmas holidays in Port Stephens, there was some fine tuning to be done. One of the new jobs on the list was four new Solbian solar panels fitted to the cabintop alongside the existing two unisolar panels. Combined with the two panels fitted on the davits, the solar input is impressive. The Solbian panels are classified as 'semi flexible' and there was concern that they may not be flexible enough to lay on the cabintop without distortion, however they took the curved surface without issues. The bottom wiring leaves a clean uninterrupted surface when fitted. The owner also wanted a gas line run to the Port side of the cockpit for the new BBQ location. This brought to light some inadequacies with the gas installation and further unplanned work with a total upgrade of the gas locker, lines and valves. The BBQ itself needed to be mounted with custom brackets etc.

The owners also had trouble with the existing anchor windlass which was replaced with a new Muir winch. This involved remodelling the winch base and some wiring upgrades. Also needing attention were the daggerboard control lines which continually jammed. 

Another job that needed finishing was the additional water tanks in the saloon. To simplify this work flexible bladder tanks were used and plumbed into the existing system adding an extra 150 litres of capacity. One thing that the owners noticed when using the boat over Christmas was that the new position of the engine controls was too exposed and at risk of damage. So 're-work' of the 're-work' commenced with a custom matching composite bracket/shelf to re-mount the control levers further inboard and away from the side deck. For some reason the main head and ensuite had missing floor boards so these were made to match the original mounts. Also the ensuite never had a door so one was made and fitted along with the manual toilet getting an upgrade to electric. The ensuite had a small clothes washing machine mounted on the bulkhead however the wiring and plumbing were not hidden so another job was to re-route all services out of sight.

There were a myriad of other jobs that were done including things like re-clearing the carbon fibre wheels, hull pin stripes and polished 'Spirited 380' badges to finish her off.