Any interest in a new build thread?

[Barbican]

Re: Southerly 480 build thread?

Do you have a berth to crash out on when conditions are not nice,what are your design parameters a coastal cruiser,ocean crosser .Thanks for the photos and drawings

Yes we have the starboard saloon berth with a lee cloth, and the port also with leecloth. The aft cabin is also surprisingly good again with a lee cloth down the centre, I tend to wedge myself against the side bulkhead.

Our plans are for the Med for a couple of years then the Baltic but we may be tempted to the Caribean at some point, but one of our main aims is to have a nice platform to live on or Julie wont come! Talking to the Shards who have done a few miles in their Southerly's Im happy we are well placed for our aims. They have done about 4000 miles in their 480 so far and are very happy with her. Im looking forward to hear how the boat works for the transat they are about to do.

 

[Barbican]

Southerly 480 build thread

A self build blog?

Yes please, but please put it onto a blog page and post links. Not everyone wants the full and regular update.

I'm just working out how to use a blog tool, but eventualy it will be here:
www.southerly480.com

 

[MrB]

Don't know how I missed this thread, I love "Southerly Yachts". Thanks for taking the time to post it, I'm hooked.

 

[Barbican]

Don't know how I missed this thread, I love "Southerly Yachts". Thanks for taking the time to post it, I'm hooked.

You're welcome - I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed lurking on the forum in the past.

 

[MrB]

You're welcome - I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed lurking on the forum in the past.

As said, I love the boats. I followed the Distant shores boat and have tracked the existing 57's, Tal-lira being one that was well documented. Most ended up in America. I look forward to your progress on this thread.

 

[Dave100456]

Interesting thread, I’ll look forward to seeing the boat develop.

Out of interest which other makes/ models did you consider before settling on the 480.

 

[Barbican]

Well 5 years ago we bought the 47, and at that time we considered many boats including power and catamarans. We looked in detail at the Nautitech 442, the Antares 44 and Broadblue 44. Finally decided on the principle of a deck saloon mono so looked at the Rustler 44 in detail along with Regina, Moody and Southerly 42. The Southerly 47 won over the 42 due to stowage and layout albeit we waited for the first one to be completed rather than buying off plan. This time round we made the decision easily because we still haven't seen anything coming on the market to change our minds, we know the design very well, and are very much sold on the variable draft and raised deck saloon so if the 480 didn't exist, we wouldn't be changing....

 

[MrB]

variable draft and raised deck saloon

That is the exact reason I fell in love with them too. :encouragement:

 

[Barbican]

So while the floor grid and furniture are being installed the deck is being prepared alongside. There's a fair bit of preparation involved, but I'll cover more as the deck gear gets installed. Here's a deck moulding out of the mould being transfered between sheds

Here is the underside in which you can see the window frames supporting structures being fitted, and the first of 13 hatches. The photo you can see through the front window aperture is of a Discovery 55.

Side panels and window surrounds are produced, from templates shown here trial fitted

You can see there are no moulded non slip areas on the sidedeck as this will be covered by a teak deck, the long raised section in this photo where the Genoa track is mounted all deck fittings are mounted onto solid GRP rather than teak.

In this photo you can see the cup I dropped, and the deck from above, now most of the deck hatches have been cut, but not the companionway (which is done when the deck is fitted to the hull), access holes have been cut on the steering pedestals which allow servicing of the top UJ's mounted on the steering systems torque tubes (Lewmar Mamba system) and other equipment that will be installed on the pedestal. These will have watertight covers installed.

It won't be very much longer before the prepared deck is craned over to the hull for installation

Meanwhile work is also going on under the hull so I'll post a few more photo's soon..

 

[obmij]

Great thread

Have I understood this correctly though?

5 years ago you commissioned a Southerly 47, which you loved, but have now commissioned a Southerly 480?

Are they not very similar boats? What benefits do you anticipate the 480 providing over the 47?

 

[Barbican]

Yes they are similar boats, but the 480 offered the opportunity to change some elements and renew others. It was also a second bite of the cherry so to speak, so I have gone a little further than I could/would the first time round, but at the same time we have absolutely kept the core virtues of the original 47. Just like the last time we bought a new car, we went up a spec level. I cant really argue it was necessary, and actually if they hadn't bought out the new model we wouldn't have changed at that time.
These are the main elements...
Improved joinery/finish styled exactly the way we want (I was quite conservative last time)
Improved saloon headroom, with larger windows and raised nav station, so now easier to keep watch from below
2 cabin layout which really suits the way we use the boat. Southerly did not offer this.
Much greater capacity in the lazarette which will swallow what was in the 3rd cabin and a bit more
Double the water tankage (210gals) meaning I do not need to fit a watermaker (I hope)
Lithium batteries rather than AGM, Price has dropped a fair bit now making this viable
Synthetic Deck, which at the time was not offered so we had to have teak, which I didn't really want, not cheaper but less weight heat and maintenance.

There are many other details that are tweaked/improved/different, any one of which is insignificant but together make difference, in a sort of Mk2 sort of way, for example the way the floor is arranged to give access to the seacocks etc, to the type of oven fitted (GN Espace vs Force 10), and the angle of the coamings/cockpit back rests, or going from 3 to 4 blade Maxprop. To some extent we may have just paid for the 10 year refit, five years early, but Im enjoying doing it, and looking forward to being on the new boat.

 

[obmij]

Thanks for the reply.

Quite unusual to chop in a new boat for a direct replacement - rather than moving up or down a range or cross marque - but if that's what's working then brilliant.

Enjoy the build.

Cheers

 

[Barbican]

Thanks for the reply.

Quite unusual to chop in a new boat for a direct replacement - rather than moving up or down a range or cross marque - but if that's what's working then brilliant.

Enjoy the build.

Cheers

Thank you we will.

 

[Barbican]

Ok, Meanwhile underneath the hull various appendages are appearing, here is the recess for keel coolers to be installed, together with skin fittings for the Generator and engine, plus galley drain, and saltwater pump inlet.

And the bow thruster tunnel and leg have been installed. This is larger than the standard 185mm tube at 215mm, so will be interesting to see how the thruster performs. I'm hoping it will be effective in quite strong winds, which is the main reason for having one.

The rudders have now also been built, with stainless stock, and Lewmar bearings and seals. Here's a picture of the stock, followed by the installed rudder at a jaunty angle. Both are identical, and I understand they are the same size as a single rudder would normally be so when one is stalled the other has a good grip on the water.

They are making a lot of progress now, with most of the floor panels ready for covering in Amtico, and the roofing panels cut ready for when the deck is installed, Ill try and get some shots of the flooring when it is being covered, it doesn't look much more than a pile of wood at the moment. For example here is the framework that support the ceiling panels which will be fixed to the underside of the deck moulding. Currently stacked and waiting to be installed, hopefully in the next week or so.

Meanwhile more is being installed in the hull with most of the hot/cold and salt water plumbing, holding tanks, auxiliary water tank etc all now in place, so I will post some more pictures later.

 

[Barbican]

OK so the plumbing installations are now quite advanced in the build. We are starting off with the aim of not having a watermaker installed, although the space it would occupy is being left available should we change our minds. This is because although we have used the WM on our old boat, it was more because we had it than through necessity. As a bit of insurance we have added some additional capacity. Here is one of the additional tanks being lifted onto the mezzanine work area. This is plumbed to be switch able with the main tank so it can be used first.

Here the calorifier has been installed, this is a 55lt twin coil model (Surecal I think) as standard a 60lt single coil is fitted, but since we have Eberspacher M10 water based heating, it seems sensible to use this for hot water as well. This means we have three options to heat water, the Engine, Eberspacher boiler and AC immersion heater.

This shows the under-sink galley area, you can see here the (speedfit) hot and cold water supply and isolators, plus the green salt water supply. There is a manual pump for salt water, or in emergency it can be switched to fresh should the main pressure pump fail. a Seagull IV water filter will be installed here, for drinking water. Both fwd and aft heads areas are also supplied with hot and cold fresh water and a switchable salt supply for the Tecma toilets.

To complete the circuit so to speak here is the fwd of the two black tanks, these are the same gravity units we had in the 47, and have always been reliable thankfully, capacity is 80l.

One additional little trick we are installing is to the shower pump out. The inlet to the pump will have a Y valve installed so that an extra length of hose will be added to act as a wandering bilge pump. We had a similar arrangement on the 47, and it was very useful. I will post some pictures when the pumps are installed soon.

 

[Barbican]

So to bring the thread up to date with the actual build, the boat is now at a stage where most of the basic structure is complete, much of the plumbing and wiring runs are in place, the heavy engineering components, cabinetry and flooring panels all much complete, the deck has been prepared, and underwater sections are prepared for coppercoating to be applied. So during my latest couple of visits to the factory I took some photos of the deck being offered up to the hull in preparation for it to be fixed down.

The deck is fitted in a couple of stages, firstly onto 50mm blocks of wood so the bulkheads can be scribed/fettled to ensure a good fit, then with the blocks removed for final checking before being bonded and screwed/bolted down with the bulkheads and cabinetry bonded and GRP tabbed. Here it is in the final position, with the first of the glass being trial fitted and at the bow the anchor roller is also being installed.

As yet the companionway has not been cut out, so I took a couple of photos through the saloon window, to get an idea of how she will look below. Hopefully I'll get access when I visit again this week, but until then here's the best I could do with the deck still on the 50mm blocks:

Fwd from Port

Aft from Port

Fwd from Stbd

Aft from Stbd

Meanwhile in the joinery shop the last few parts are being finished, Items such as the cabin doors, and saloon table are some of the last elements to be installed. Here is the table shown with the leaves closed, it is about to be lacquered. There is maple, walnut oak and teak used in this design, which are our choices but I think the finished article will be great.

 

[Wansworth]

You must’ve estatic.........would they let you do something to help!

 

[Barbican]

You must’ve estatic.........would they let you do something to help!

Haha - Well me, power tools and wood or GRP are a very bad mix so it's better that they just let me watch and answer my endless questions

 

[dancrane]

I'm chuffed to see the bottom of a Bosch cordless drill there, same as mine...

...I'd begun to believe rumours that Bosch isn't the best a man can get, but if it's good enough for them...

Great photos. :encouragement:

 

[Barbican]

I'm chuffed to see the bottom of a Bosch cordless drill there, same as mine...

...I'd begun to believe rumours that Bosch isn't the best a man can get, but if it's good enough for them...

Great photos. :encouragement:

I bought a Bosch drill about 40 years ago, still works perfectly, despite being used on at least two occasions!