jfm
Well-known member
This is another refit thread so I hope you have the stamina! Or perhaps it's just 'fit' rather than “refit”. For non-regulars on here this thread describes winter 2014/15 projects on a Fairline Squadron 78 that was launched in May 2013 and whose build story is here http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?335311-Boat-in-build-pics-(2013-Fairline-Squadron-78). This new "refit" 2014/15 work plan is as follows:
The work will take a few months and I'll cover the hard top in this thread and maybe the stabilisers in another, and then the other things in a third thread, or something like that. Much of the work is being done by Fairline's Ipswich team who now offer a full retrofit/refit service and are busy for example retrofitting stabilisers to many existing Fairlines. I know them well from my two boats that have gone through their hands and I know they do top quality work, with a smile and a strong “can-do” attitude even when you ask for non-standard things, which I seem to do. They are a mobile team and are travelling to France for much of the work on my boat
So, first the hard top. This is being sold to me officially by BCU but in day to day practice I’m dealing with the Fairline factory team from their Ipswich base. They’re a great team. FYI this project is in the ballpark of £140k including yard charges, some things I'm having custom made by non FL suppliers, and VAT. If you cut out the customisations it would be somewhat cheaper but there's no fun in that. I've grown to like hardtops and I particularly like the one Fairline have designed for the squadron 78. I know there was a thread on here about a year ago in which many folks said differently, but in my opinion Fairline got the shape and detailing of this HT just right. The backward raked shark fins look better than forward raked imho, and little details like for example the droop down pieces at the top of the triple short support tubes are very nice. Below are some stock pics of sisterships, though as explained below mine is going to be a bit different
And for quick reference/comparison here is the boat currently, before the hard top…
A retrofit is indistinguishable from the factory installation because the thing just bolts on, and the exact same team of guys who fit it to the factory boats are going to do mine. The grp moulding (infused and 2 part so it is fully gel coated, no laminate is visible) is made in Slovenia, then Fairline fit the roof mechanism (from Makefast and Flexicovers). The whole shebang weighs about 600kg so stability-wise I’m in a good place, especially when you consider I have 1.5 tonnes more fuel down in the keel than other sq78s
The custom mods on mine are going to be:
Below are pictures of it being wrapped in silver. This work has been done by the very excellent Grapefruit Graphics, whom I'd thoroughly recommend. They did Hugo's boat too, possibly in same colour. For scale, in the first picture below the boat in the background is a Squadron 48
The vinyl wrap has to have some joints of course. I think the vinyl is around 1.5m wide but don't quote me on that. They do these joints incredibly neatly with a 3mm overlap, like this…
To state the obvious I could have had it painted awlgrip silver and I had to weigh up the pros and cons of paint versus wrap. Paint was going to be about £6k and wrap was about £2k. The wrap doesn't have the same deep gloss as the paint but I'll get away with that on a HT. Not everyone will love the silver colour including future buyers, so I can peel off the wrap anytime and return to white. On balance I just decided the wrap made sense. Here is a mock up of the silver plus back hardware. I might wrap the flanks abaft of the saloon windows in silver too, but I'm not sure about it and will leave them white initially.
Like some other hard tops, Fairline have made a central support to take most of the weight - the s/s tube "ladder" in the pic below. You can debate this and arguably it slightly interrupts the clear view through the HT, but on the sq 78 there is a support structure in place under the flybridge deck for the existing radar mast and Fairline elected to keep that, so they are placing most of the HT weight on the boat's centre line using this st steel "ladder". Fine by me, and makes my wiring much easier because my wires already come to the base of the old mast so are in exactly the right place to be threaded through the 80mm dia tubes of this ladder structure
I'm putting much more lighting in. The 2 pics below ( standard build, then mine mocked up) give an idea, although the ten lights across the aft edge will be tiny 30mm dia units not the 85mm dia units shown in this mock up. There will be multiple circuits, dimmable. Light fittings are high CRI Cantalupis, 4250k cold colour, and the switches are all custom etched by Axon with the legends backlit in red LED to match all the other switches on the fly bridge. I'll laso have an illuminated FL badge (see transom door in pic above) on each sharkfin as shown 2 pictures above.
There will also be a removable rectangular pendant lamp hanging low over the dining table for night time outside dining (I still have to design and make this...).
FWIW below is a quick schematic of the sat domes, radar and whip aerials on top of the hardtop
Current state of play is that the HT is finished, in Fairline Ipswich. It travels by road to France next week, arriving Antibes Wednesday. It will then be installed, using a crane obviously, over period of about a week. I'll post pictures of all that over the next days/week. (Just to be clear, all the pictures above of boats with HTs are sisterships not my boat). So far so very good and the fairline "refit team" in Ipswich are doing a fantastic job
BartW, for your info in case this would work on BA, the HT moulding itself is about 5.4m long and 3.4m wide iirc. I'll get you better measurements soon. If it happened to fit BA, my guess is Fairline would sell you one if you wanted! You'd need to find a way to supporting 600kg of course
Hard top
Curved stabiliser fins - vector fins by Sleipner – to replace my current straight fins
Carbon fibre ensign staff with stainless steel end fittings, being made by our very own poster, master machinist and all round nice guy Colhel
Various odds and ends including new transducers, Garmin sonar gizmo, genset fuel monitoring hardware and various small jobs
New rigid kayak
The work will take a few months and I'll cover the hard top in this thread and maybe the stabilisers in another, and then the other things in a third thread, or something like that. Much of the work is being done by Fairline's Ipswich team who now offer a full retrofit/refit service and are busy for example retrofitting stabilisers to many existing Fairlines. I know them well from my two boats that have gone through their hands and I know they do top quality work, with a smile and a strong “can-do” attitude even when you ask for non-standard things, which I seem to do. They are a mobile team and are travelling to France for much of the work on my boat
So, first the hard top. This is being sold to me officially by BCU but in day to day practice I’m dealing with the Fairline factory team from their Ipswich base. They’re a great team. FYI this project is in the ballpark of £140k including yard charges, some things I'm having custom made by non FL suppliers, and VAT. If you cut out the customisations it would be somewhat cheaper but there's no fun in that. I've grown to like hardtops and I particularly like the one Fairline have designed for the squadron 78. I know there was a thread on here about a year ago in which many folks said differently, but in my opinion Fairline got the shape and detailing of this HT just right. The backward raked shark fins look better than forward raked imho, and little details like for example the droop down pieces at the top of the triple short support tubes are very nice. Below are some stock pics of sisterships, though as explained below mine is going to be a bit different
And for quick reference/comparison here is the boat currently, before the hard top…
A retrofit is indistinguishable from the factory installation because the thing just bolts on, and the exact same team of guys who fit it to the factory boats are going to do mine. The grp moulding (infused and 2 part so it is fully gel coated, no laminate is visible) is made in Slovenia, then Fairline fit the roof mechanism (from Makefast and Flexicovers). The whole shebang weighs about 600kg so stability-wise I’m in a good place, especially when you consider I have 1.5 tonnes more fuel down in the keel than other sq78s
The custom mods on mine are going to be:
- Silver wrap on the outside, but white on the inside
Silver coloured canvas roof panel
Different lighting, plus backlit Fairline badges on the outside of the shark fins
Better loudspeakers, Bose 131
Sat domes, aerials, radar mast and radar all painted awlgrip gloss black. Aerials to be mounted on top of the hard top
No sunbed abaft of the hard top. Custom made GRP storage chest instead, then my existing Laser sailboat will be retained
Below are pictures of it being wrapped in silver. This work has been done by the very excellent Grapefruit Graphics, whom I'd thoroughly recommend. They did Hugo's boat too, possibly in same colour. For scale, in the first picture below the boat in the background is a Squadron 48
The vinyl wrap has to have some joints of course. I think the vinyl is around 1.5m wide but don't quote me on that. They do these joints incredibly neatly with a 3mm overlap, like this…
To state the obvious I could have had it painted awlgrip silver and I had to weigh up the pros and cons of paint versus wrap. Paint was going to be about £6k and wrap was about £2k. The wrap doesn't have the same deep gloss as the paint but I'll get away with that on a HT. Not everyone will love the silver colour including future buyers, so I can peel off the wrap anytime and return to white. On balance I just decided the wrap made sense. Here is a mock up of the silver plus back hardware. I might wrap the flanks abaft of the saloon windows in silver too, but I'm not sure about it and will leave them white initially.
Like some other hard tops, Fairline have made a central support to take most of the weight - the s/s tube "ladder" in the pic below. You can debate this and arguably it slightly interrupts the clear view through the HT, but on the sq 78 there is a support structure in place under the flybridge deck for the existing radar mast and Fairline elected to keep that, so they are placing most of the HT weight on the boat's centre line using this st steel "ladder". Fine by me, and makes my wiring much easier because my wires already come to the base of the old mast so are in exactly the right place to be threaded through the 80mm dia tubes of this ladder structure
I'm putting much more lighting in. The 2 pics below ( standard build, then mine mocked up) give an idea, although the ten lights across the aft edge will be tiny 30mm dia units not the 85mm dia units shown in this mock up. There will be multiple circuits, dimmable. Light fittings are high CRI Cantalupis, 4250k cold colour, and the switches are all custom etched by Axon with the legends backlit in red LED to match all the other switches on the fly bridge. I'll laso have an illuminated FL badge (see transom door in pic above) on each sharkfin as shown 2 pictures above.
There will also be a removable rectangular pendant lamp hanging low over the dining table for night time outside dining (I still have to design and make this...).
FWIW below is a quick schematic of the sat domes, radar and whip aerials on top of the hardtop
Current state of play is that the HT is finished, in Fairline Ipswich. It travels by road to France next week, arriving Antibes Wednesday. It will then be installed, using a crane obviously, over period of about a week. I'll post pictures of all that over the next days/week. (Just to be clear, all the pictures above of boats with HTs are sisterships not my boat). So far so very good and the fairline "refit team" in Ipswich are doing a fantastic job
BartW, for your info in case this would work on BA, the HT moulding itself is about 5.4m long and 3.4m wide iirc. I'll get you better measurements soon. If it happened to fit BA, my guess is Fairline would sell you one if you wanted! You'd need to find a way to supporting 600kg of course
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