had a phone call from a friend yesterday to say wouldi meet him on the slip way at itchenor as he had a new car to show me.
i duly sat and waited with my icecream and what should show up but a gibbs aqaudar.
wow. this is a superbly made car/boat.
he told me to take the car into the harbour as i keep my boat there and yesterday was very busy.
just drive it in and press a button and its all done for you.
had to stick to the 8kt limit but it was very flat and the car is very stable and very powerful.
i didnt take it out the harbour though as the waves over the bar were a bit big.
it seems my friends brother is a senior engineer somewhere and has this car on long term loan.
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Lots of info here
www.gibbstech.com/aquada.php
I visited their exhibition stand a few years ago and enquired re the unusual alloy wheels on one version. The wheels had a ring away from the rims and it extended all the way parallel to the rims. " Oh that is so the owner can easily attach a cable to each rim and the hoist it onboard their yacht" I should have sussed that :-)))
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They do sit low in the water, these things. So did the Amphicar. They would swamp easily in any sea.
Of course as a technophile and car freak one has to take an interest in these (as in cars that sprout wings and a tail, and fly). But they are expensive and don't do either thing as well as they would if they didn't multitask.
I know I've mentioned it before, but one of my old man's pool cars in Sri Lanka in the forties was a matt grey amphibious Jeep - very like a small DUKW for those who know what those look like. It had a propeller under the rear but was steered in the normal manner using the front wheels as leading rudders. Aged 10 I loved the thing, which one of his deputies used, because it was so stark and sporting-looking. I wanted him to use it, but he wouldn't. By then we had a very carp Hillman Minx too. I felt very hard done by.
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...They would swamp easily in any sea...
One of the pics on the website shows the car making good speed in choppy waters - followed by an offshore lifeboat.
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>> One of the pics on the website shows the car making good speed in choppy waters - followed by an offshore lifeboat.
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IIRC that was Branson crossing the channel a few years ago.
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i found it had plenty of freeboard and on the plane in a calmish see the freeboard wouldnt matter. i motored it down to east head spit and went around the back into the shallow lagoon area and opened the throttle a bit and it gets up on the plane much quicker than i thought but only had it on the plane for 20 secs. great little toy and well thought out. i didnt ask the price as i suspect over 100k or thereabouts.
he said if the weather was ok next week he will bring it back and we may head to bembridge harbour on the iow.
i may get a friend to follow in my boat just in case but my boat wont keep up with the gibbs on full throttle.
we did about 4mpg yesterday so dont know whatll do at planing speed but about the same as most 18ft boats i suppose 4-8mpg
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...but my boat wont keep up with the gibbs on full throttle...
Is there much that would?
Those offshore lifeboats - as in the pic - top out at about 26 or 28 knots, if I recall.
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had dozens of boats come over to have a look at what it was. ive always fancied an amphi car but the gibbs are expensive and the others are too old now. really need to make my own then i think.
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Interesting experience nyx2k. Looking around found this USA version which seems to do the trick (as in interest from fellow.... errr boaters).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4cw565V98&NR=1
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That lloks very impressive
No so certain about this one
www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?p=313679
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may be a smooth ride though. i like hydrofoils but must be a very small market
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>> may be a smooth ride though
Only if it rises on sponsons or little stilts with aerofoils on the bottom, so that it hums along clear of the choppy surface... If it just gets up on its tail on the surface, it will bounce and bound over any sea and perhaps sooner or later dive in nose first. Danger too of overrevving the engine when clear of the water. Although perhaps the designers have coped with that.
3mpg eh... you could get quite a red-blooded road vehicle that could manage better than that.
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the bigger twin deisel stuff over 45ft does about 0.75mpg so over 5 pounds a mile to run.
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The offshore lifeboats have a couple of small hydrofoils which are controlled by the cox.
When deployed, the nose of the boat rises so it tends to crash through high waves rather than pitch over them.
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you see a fair few hydrofiol sailing dinghys in the harbour and even in very light wind they are very fast, at least 2-3 as fast as a standard sailing dinghy
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a very unusual drive - Dog
