HONDA POWERS INEOS TEAM UK SUPPORT BOAT
HOMENEWSBOATBUILDINGENGINES & PROPULSIONHONDA POWERS INEOS TEAM UK SUPPORT BOAT
27 Nov 2019
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Honda is supplying the engines for Ribquest’s Velocity, the support boat for INEOS Team UK Photo: Honda
INDUSTRY DATABASE
HONDA UK LTD
Honda is working alongside marine manufacturer Ribquest to provide two new support boats for INEOS Team UK in its bid to take home the America’s Cup for Britain for the first time.
Supporting the new AC75 race boat will be the 11.6m Ribquest Velocity, weighing 3.5 tonnes and capable of speeds in excess of 60 knots powered by its three BF250 Honda Marine Outboards.
“This is the first support boat for the race boat, it’s going to get used for any close quarter manoeuvres, coming in and out of the harbour and also for any on the water emergencies,” explained Jake Bishop, support fleet manager at INEOS Team UK. “The new America’s Cup boat is going to be reaching between 50 and 60 knots so for these support boats we should be seeing 60 plus knots which should enable us to keep up with them.
Unmatched support
“We’ve chosen to partner with Honda for our engine package, because they managed to step forward and offer a level of support that’s unmatched by all the other brands and we’re really excited about working with them.”
The two boats will each carry 700L of fuel and the expectation is that they will have a range with the three Honda engines of 700 nautical miles.
“We’ve worked with Honda before on a number of projects,” said Graham Lawton, Ribquest MD. “The technical basis of the Velocity hull is built on a stepped hull design, race technology that’s actually been brought forward into the public sector, scaled to a point where we can still prove the load carrying capability and speed achievable.”
via Boating Business | Honda powers INEOS Team UK support boat.