Any interest in a new build thread?

[obmij]

Hello again

Just wondering why the antipathy towards water makers? You've mentioned a few times that you're looking to swerve the option if at all possible and have increased tank capacity accordingly

But..you have shed loads of generating capacity, and having unlimited water for showers is surely preferable to watching the litres (inevitable, even with 1000 l capacity) and very good for crew / spouse harmony.

Personally can't think of a better way to spend amps

Saloon table looks magnificent

 

[Barbican]

Hi, yes your right! I am being lazy about the watermaker maintenance. When I looked at our usage in the last couple of years I realised that if we had had an extra 60gals or so we would not have needed to run the WM, so its a bit of a test, to begin with we will be fine but I imagine when we get further east in the Med we will retro fit one. Probably an Osmosea ES100 unit.

The genset is certainly bigger than we need, Discovery had it in stock as another customer had changed his order and they offered it to me as an alternative to the smaller and lighter type I specced. Price and the possibility to add some aircon in the future swung me towards it.

 

[Barbican]

Well having rushed through the majority of the build, I am now pretty much up to date, so this instalment is from today's visit.

Firstly at ground level I see the freezer's keel cooler is now installed and the coppercoat appears to be complete. Anitfoul for the thruster legs and props etc, will take place prior to launch when she returns from Dusseldorf.

At the same time the swim platform was being prepared for fitting once the decking has been laid on the other side, but here is the outer surface getting a polish

On deck the main hatch garage is being fitted, along with various locker linings, and lids, whilst more glass is being installed. In this photo you can see the boat from the front with the glass in place, and along the toerail all nicely wrapped are the stanchion bases and one of the two mid cleats.

And here's the hatch garage, and washboard channels being added

Aft the deck lockers are being lined. Once these are in place, the steering gear will go in, prior to a final flocoat.

And forwards the stem fitting/ bow roller is now in place

Down below the fixings for the head linings are being installed whilst the last bits of tabbing between the deck and joinery were being completed. Here are some of the boards in place in the fore cabin

Finally, over in the joinery area the saloon table was being lacquered, whilst the last bits of galley furniture were about to go across to the build area.

Lots of pics I'm afraid, but they are making rapid progress. during the next couple of days, much of the stainless will be installed or sent to Lang and Potter to be upholstered, and the engineering guys will move on board to install the pumps, winches and other gear so I will pop back in a week or so....

 

[Wansworth]

Come along way Iremember my Dads new boat in build had scraps of cardboard over decks.......in 1970

 

[Barbican]

Now it's stickyback paper!

 

[Barbican]

I've written some background information on the buying decision, process and spec over on the www.southerly480.com blog site for those that may be interested. If there are any areas where you would like to see/read more detail let me know here, or by using the contact button on the site.

Having never done this sort of thing before, I'm aware I might be missing the mark, so direction is welcome

 

[Barbican]

This week’s visit has made me quite excited! There were a lot of people working on different aspects of the boat, and of course my job is to keep out of the way, however….

Up above I’m pleased to say the main companionway has been cut out, so now the rest of the glass is being fitted. Its good to see some of the removed bits of GRP, it gives a good idea of how thick/strong the mouldings are

Aft deck lockers are now being completed with liners and lids being aligned and fitted and made ready for the decking.

Now that tabbing is complete, the steering gear will be fitted, and the whole lazarette area treated to a further coat of flow coat.
So the companionway hatch and washboards are now functional, and the hatch garage was waiting to one side ready for installation.

Winches have been installed with protective wrapping, through the sheet bin aperture, you can just see the label of the electric motor unit.

Clutches are in place but wrapped, so next along the overhead saloon hatch and fixed port is being installed seen here from the inside with the framing for the finishing’s being installed

Whilst at the bow end the pulpit was going into position, this has fold down seats for those occasions when it’s nice to sit at the bow. You can also see the pad for the windlass in position. These pads are used to avoid bolting components through the (teak/synthetic) decking.

The mast step will be installed shortly, when the compression post goes in later in the week, they had been checking the delivered part, so it was sitting on the deck.

It felt good to be able to go below through the main companionway albeit on temporary steps, and below there has been a lot of progress, with a lot of the headlining panels fitted, yet to be covered with the Silvertex lining material. Here are the steps:
Firstly supports are positioned

Next the liners are fitted

Then these are covered/trimmed and the final article will look like this shot of the forecabin hull ports, with a blind installed to check the design detail works well

You can see more of the boards in this shot of the nav-station, and the headroom in the saloon area which is still very good when the headlining is in place.

Much of the flooring is currently temporary boards put down since the flooring panels, now cut out and trial finished are being sent back to the joinery department for the Amtico to be applied, and for the boards to be sealed/lacquered.

Lastly more preparation is being done to the swim platform, here’s the inside surface being prepared, the stainless cassette contains a folding ladder, and fits into the slot on the top edge of the door on the far left of this photo.

Not pictured but a lot of other kit had been installed, such as the salt and fresh water pumps and heater matrices etc, but these are covered at the moment, so I will cover them in a future post when I can get to them. In the next few days the mast compression post, the chain plates, the final elements of the galley will be installed whilst the steering and deck will be largely complete ready for Dek King to do their stuff.

 

[Barbican]

A week goes very quickly it seems! So this weeks visit saw an army of people working on different areas of the boat, meaning access was more difficult, however it was an eventful visit. Lang & Potter were there to take final measurements for the upholstery, collect some of the stainless fabrications, and discuss some of the finer details of the finish for the upholstery, plus it was a timely opportunity to double check the positions of some of the electronics, control panels and tv's etc. Most of this has standard positions which are fine, and largely agreed during the specification, however we did make one or two tweaks.

Here you can see the stainless supports for the saloon backrests resting in place for measurements to be checked

The open hatch in the seating is showing the location of a couple of auxiliary AGM batteries, and a Mastervolt Magic DCDC charger is just out of sight.

Overall the cabins are taking shape very well with the linings/headlinings nearing completion, here’s the forecabin showing the side-linings in place, and the head-lining support grids in position, and aligned, the protruding bolts are being snipped off ready for the upholstered boards to be clipped into place. The supports are made of a lightweight ply I was amazed how little a panel weighed given how strong it is.

The cabin sole boards are now back in the joinery area where they had been laid out on floor so that the Amtico “Dusky Walnut” flooring pattern could be marked out before the panels are fixed down permanently. I missed the main part of this, but there was some left in situ. In this photo you might just be able to see the pencil lines drawn on the wood to indicate the “plank” edges. When completed this will ensure continuity of the grain pattern and tiles right throughout the boat. On the right of the photo is the base for the seat for the forecabin desk area, which had been positioned on the floor to identify the mounting hole pattern. The squabs had already been collected by the upholsterers.

So here is one small panel covered with edges and backs yet to be sealed, when this is back in the boat the covering will be in perfect alignment with the adjacent panels.

So with the cabin finishes well underway, its good to see that the plumbing and electrical installations are also advancing rapidly. In the galley the sinks had been put into position, whist a couple of other components had been removed for the Corian work surfaced to be attached, prior to the installation of the main sections, whilst under the sink the plumbing is nearly complete. Here’s a photo showing the main Seagul IV filter in place. We had one of these on the last boat, and I have been very pleased with how our tank water tastes.

So next week the galley will be looking pretty much complete.

One of my favourite elements is just starting to be installed: Nav instruments. A bit early to show really but here’s the first box of the Raymarine kit we have chosen. This will be installed at the helm position, on the back of the cockpit table.

Meanwhile the engineering guys have begun installing the Lewmar Mamba steering system. In these two shots you can see the top bevel gear has been installed in the pedestal, and the input shaft ready to take the wheel, whilst the second shot shows the top UJ and torque tube in place. The lower end of this is connected to a further gearbox, and then to an arm fixed to the rudder shaft, being an amateur at this game, I messed up that photo, so will show that detail in the next post.

During the week the mast compression post, mast foot, and chainplates had been fitted. The chainplates are left on show in the saloon, so are nicely polished.

Off the boat, here is a photo of the arch being prepared for installation. Here you can see the stainless fabrication being clad in a GRP shell. The tube section is actually pipe thickness hence unpolished, and very strong, we did consider powder coating/paint rather than GRP, but on balance the finished item suits the boat well. So many choices…

Finally for this week a shot of the companionway steps ready to be installed in place of the temporary “build” steps

 

[dgadee]

The upholstery is going out to a subcontractor - is that the only work not being done inhouse? It looks as though it's quite a traditional build system. Far from car production, I suppose?

 

[Barbican]

The upholstery is going out to a subcontractor - is that the only work not being done inhouse? It looks as though it's quite a traditional build system. Far from car production, I suppose?

Currently the stainless fabrication is also done by an outside contractor, although as the sales grow I would imagine they would like to do this in house. I guess the decking is another area, certainly in my case because we have selected Dek King. Even with teak for reasons of scale I guess it is cost effective to use an external supplier for the deck panels.

The feeling I get is that they are determined to do as much in house as possible/viable, and in terms of capital investment to increase efficiency I suspect the priority would be more production space, since further mechanisation/automation would require more volume to be justified, however I'm no expert so take that with a pinch of salt!

I think that finish quality and fit out with significant customisation possibilities are pretty key to them, and so I guess will drive production techniques.

 

[AndrewfromFal]

Currently the stainless fabrication is also done by an outside contractor, although as the sales grow I would imagine they would like to do this in house. I guess the decking is another area, certainly in my case because we have selected Dek King. Even with teak for reasons of scale I guess it is cost effective to use an external supplier for the deck panels.

Indeed, -I think you'd be hard pushed to find a Production / semi production UK Yacht builder of any size who doesn't use an external supplier for decking. - The two biggest suppliers are Wattsons and Moodys, - and are used by most of the prominent brands in UK boat building.

 

[Barbican]

Indeed, -I think you'd be hard pushed to find a Production / semi production UK Yacht builder of any size who doesn't use an external supplier for decking. - The two biggest suppliers are Wattsons and Moodys, - and are used by most of the prominent brands in UK boat building.

Yes I agree, my previous boat was fitted with a Moody system If I remember and has been very good. When we were looking at the choices I think the only builder I saw building their own was Rustler but that would have been back in 2010 or so. It will be very interesting to see how the DekKing performs....

 

[E39mad]

Thanks for sharing your build - a great thread and boat.

I used to sell yachts for Northshore (1990 to 1996) and saw many yachts being built in that time (fit out at Itchenor and hulls built with decks bonded at Havant) Back then most builds were smaller by some margin and less complex by modern standards.

Great to see the brand doing well - how many 480's have been sold now?

 

[Barbican]

Thanks for sharing your build - a great thread and boat.

I used to sell yachts for Northshore (1990 to 1996) and saw many yachts being built in that time (fit out at Itchenor and hulls built with decks bonded at Havant) Back then most builds were smaller by some margin and less complex by modern standards.

Great to see the brand doing well - how many 480's have been sold now?

I think they have sold 9 but I'm not absolutely sure. I remember looking at the first Vancouver 34 which would have been back in your day, and seeing those 50ft cats being commissioned. We had a V27F which although Pheon built would have been moulded at Havant.

Thanks for reading the thread, and very pleased to hear you enjoyed it.

 

[Barbican]

This week I only made a very quick visit to the factory since its only a few days since the previous visit, however progress has been made. On the outside of the boat more of the deck fittings had been installed, to the point where the decking can now be fitted. This picture shows the the foredeck area, with windlass installed, followed by one of the sail locker access ladder.

Here is the curved track for the self tacking jib with the mast step, and ventilator for the fwd heads to the left

Shown here are the stainless grab rails that have been installed on the coach roof

At the aft end the first elements of the decking are being installed. This may well divide opinion because its synthetic, and because its not teak coloured, but I'm pleased with how it looks, and looking forward to the ease with which it can be cleaned. It should also be a little cooler in the sun, and lighter as well.

Down below the companionway steps had been installed you can just make out the hinges under the top step. Although these lift up, all the daily check/service items are accessible through the floor or hatches in the aft cabin but for larger jobs these can be lifted, and a catch is provided to hold them up.

The teak surround has been installed at the top of the companionway

And the Corian work surfaces are now being installed in the galley. The colour (Ash Concrete) can be seen on the right hand side where the up-stand is not covered.

Meanwhile more progress on the head linings and boards has been made. Here's how the forecabin looks now

A lot of progress has been made on the wiring and I saw the beginnings of the NMEA2000/Raymarine stuff going in so hopefully I can get some photos of the electrical systems next week.

 

[Wansworth]

It’s exhausting,so much detail and planning involved and allowing for access for maintenance once finished,yachts are so much more complex these days!

 

[Barbican]

Yes very true - My first boat (Vancouver 27) just had a couple of batteries, a few lights and some basic Walker instruments. My old Lagonda car compared to our Range Rover is the same - Ever onwards!

 

[ashtead]

Really interesting thread- am I correct in thinking this is the same model that was at the SBS in September ?

 

[Barbican]

Really interesting thread- am I correct in thinking this is the same model that was at the SBS in September ?

Hi, Yes thats right, hull no 3 was at SBS - Glad you are enjoying the thread and thanks for commenting.

 

[ashtead]

Many thanks hull no 3 certainly impressed when we walked around and found those minding her most informative. We have had artificial decks factory fitted by one of the other providers for 3 years BTW and don't regret the choice for ease of maintenance etc .