You can defi nitely afford this. And that's a pleasant thought because as the Ribtec Grand Tourer sits alongside at sunny Ocean Quay Marina, all 550hp of cutting edge outboard winched clear of the water's surface, it looks for all the world like the kind of boat you naturally imagine belonging to the rich and annoying.

But this is the latest boat to join the Ribshack shared ownership fleet, picking up where the Ribeye 650 is still succeeding and offering the customer a patch of decidedly greener grass on which he can set his sights. Retailing at £120,000 but costing as little as £787 per month through the scheme, it brings the world of serious cruising to the common man.

And don't let the fact that it's now more accessible detract from its desirability. Because even without the bullish Verado 275s, the Ribtec would still be more alluring than it was back in 2005. With the addition of metal seats and a redesigned radar arch, plus the tapering of the tubes as they reach the nose, this latest incarnation is great to look at.

There are also some fairly novel features on board. Suicide seats, for instance, are fairly pointless. I've yet to see a man sit in one for any reason other than to win a bet or to prove beyond doubt the potency of his dangly parts. But here, the seat is taken from its traditional spot in the front of the console (where it often steals valuable headroom from the cabin) and repositioned at the foot of the sunpad in the V of the foredeck. You still wouldn't catch me sitting in it but it does at least pay lipservice to practicality in that its proximity to the forward cleats makes it a very useful place for your anchor man to sit without getting in your way.

The whole foredeck is in fact excellent. It dominates the internal length of the boat, and while that makes it a fine shape for a couple of sunbathers to stretch out full length, it remains distinctly narrow, because on either side, virtually from transom to stem, a pair of wide walkways separate the tubes from core of the boat. They are a fine feature, providing far better mobility than a RIB addict (particularly a cabin RIB addict) will be used to.

I've yet to see a man sit in the suicide seat for any reason other than to win a bet or to prove beyond question the potency of his dangly parts

But with such a long foredeck in front, such broad walkways either side, and such a deep engine well behind, the cockpit is distinctly small for a boat of this size. There's room for nothing more than a pair of skeletal steel-framed helm seats and an aft bench constructed around the same principles.

It sounds quite spartan but the seats are excellent. The simple rolls of cushion around the bars for your bum and your back allow you to use the helm seats as leaning posts for you and your navigator while a couple of your passengers use the reverse sides to sit down and face the people on the aft bench. It works tremendously well, and only a lack of storage space lets these units down.

This 2.5 tonne boat just exits the water and charges on with the psychotic, almost pre-emptive throttle response of a supercharged 14-footer

Down below, once you've sussed the door system, things look pretty good. There's no partition for the loo and sink, which may not please the bashful, but the openness of the space is genuinely striking. The ingress of natural light is first rate and, once you stow the removable door panels away, the interaction between cabin and cockpit is also excellent, allowing you to sit down below and chat with the people up top. Again, compartmentalised storage is not great and head height is just a couple of inches too short, forcing you to stoop as you operate the microwave or the stereo, but as an example of an overnight cabin on a RIB, this is a very decent effort.

MOVING

Underway this boat is all about the engines. They are heavy and they are powerful, and that inevitably means that as you push the throttles forward the nose tends to lift. But there's no ponderous discussion about it. Rather than ease back down over the hump, this two and a half tonne boat just exits the water and charges on with the psychotic, almost pre-emptive throttle response of a supercharged 14-footer.

And trim is not really an issue here either, because the aft bulk has this RIB behaving as though the helm is already trimmed out. The waterline drops way back to the aft bench and as you flirt with crests, launching the craft at will, the airborne hull tends to drop a little stern-first.

It feels at the outset like the wind is lifting the bow every time you get some air, but closer inspection suggests this isn't the case. It's just a boat with lots of power and a weighty back end, so its natural attitude, particularly if you work the throttle hard, tends to result in a point of re-entry further aft than you are used to. To keep her flat, just keep her trimmed in, keep the power down and rest assured that the impacts this boat is likely to take at the hands of the average leisure boater should cause her no problems either in terms of design or build.

Fortunately the ride is as soft as you would expect of a boat presented to the world as a Grand Tourer, so a slightly stern heavy re-entry is not a painful experience. Even so, just in case there's a rogue element amongst your crew, the test boat features a lockable arm that swings into place behind the throttles to prevent their physical advancement to the realms of super-speed. It confines you to about 4,000rpm, which even then is enough to see you past 35 knots for a good family cruise. It also means your kids can't take advantage of the excellent walkways down either side of the console to smack the levers wide open and shoot the rest of you over the stern.

It's a useful feature because the handling is raucous. The heel into a corner is fantastically acute, and the grip is fi rm and assured too. But what you can't do is lean her in, settle her on the tube and then lay down the power to accelerate round the arc, because such is the poke that even a few extra revs will try to lift the hull free of the water. Combine that with some waves mid-turn and if you're not adept with the throttles and quick with the wheel, you could easily see yourself out of shape.

That said, it's a real pleasure to drive such a big touring boat and feel her handle so aggressively. If you are of the opinion that an increase in size is a dilution of the sports boat experience, this boat could change your mind. There's no distancing from the events or filtering of the experience. Everything is sharp and immediate, but when you want the thrash to cease and make some real distance in comfort, you can just set the throttles at 4,600rpm and sit back

while your destination rolls ever closer at a rate of 40 nautical miles each hour. So, it's pretty, it's practical, it's potent and it's playful. But engines, controls and instrumentation have moved so far in the last decade that if anything the throttles are a touch too light. On the Ribtec in a lumpy sea you could do with an elevated brace on which to rest the heel of your hand, so you can play the trim and make fine adjustments to the revs without going any further than you intend.

HOME

As we nestle alongside, the big Verados have gone quiet. But even at idle, there remains something menacing in their posture. It might be the muscular bulk of the cowling or the fact that these things can move mountains one minute and feign complete impotence the next. It could even be the fact that as they sit there in silence, little wisps of vapour drift into the still air like smoke from the barrels of a gun. Whatever it is, you know that, despite their refi nement, these can throw a 2.5 tonne boat free of the water at the flick of a finger and that is an intensely alluring thought.

And it's not all lairy posturing, because this boat is as comfortable at an idiotproof 40-knot cruise as it is pottering silently around a marina. The fact that it has a cabin adds a new dimension to the experience, allowing you to scan the entire south coast for overnight stays that you can realistically access from the Solent. At around £120,000, the debate as to whether this boat could bring you enough joy to justify the price is a serious question, as likely to depend on the size of your wallet as on your appetite for thrills, and whether you can afford to thrash these engines is another matter. With the option of shared ownership, the dilemma is a tantalising one.

BUY YOUR SHARE

The Ribshack scheme keeps ownership numbers low and retains enough flexibility to give you proper height-of-season fun. It's a great way to get involved and if I were a wide-eyed newbie, watching the powerboaters at play from a jealous marina bench, I would be seriously tempted. There are shared ownership schemes coming into being all the time, but with good boats, effective, stress-free management, an established bedrock of satisfied customers, and the promise of ever-greater fleet choice, Ribshack remains a good shared ownership choice.

8 May 2007

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