Boat in build pics (Squadron 78)

Here are a few more pics kindly taken by admillington last week (thank you Andrew). There wasn't a load more to see regarding the build, but I'll post them anyway. I'm hoping to visit factory maybe nnext week, so might have more pics then

Here is the port engine. Cat C32, 32.1 litres V12, 2.7 tonnes, 1572hp. It looks quite small in this pic
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Engine bay in foreground, fuel tanks athwartships (with sight gauges installed), then master cabin beyond. And hull #69 in the far background (a dealer stock boat I believe, so available to buy)
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Port stab actuator installed. Bit unfair on Fairline to show it like this - the whole surrounding will be nicely finished when it's done, and there will be an access panel to it through the floor of the master cabin walk-in wardrobe
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Engine bay aft starboard corner. Exhaust silencer fitted; made by Halyard. This exits down through a 300mm hole in the hull, plus there is a bypass outlet going aft to an above-waterline outlet for when the boat is stationary and the back pressure in the 300mm outlet is too much. It's the lack of this component that makes sunseekers so noisy. The two curved recesses in centre of pic are for the glendinning cablemaster drums. Starboard driveshaft at very bottom of pic
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Master cabin. Starboard stabiliser visible, under what will become the "bar" where the washbasin is mounted. The bulkhead in centre of photo with red G cramp is custom positioned on my boat and will be a different shape from the standard build, so making a custom shaped bathroom and bedroom with no curves and a more angular contemporary feel
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Looking towards the bow. These internal moulds save a lot of joinery! The space beyond the black bin, starting at the wooden step, is all the VIP cabin in the bow. The blue is a spray on/peel off skin, just to protect the gelcoat from scratches by the build teams shoes. The boats in the background are #69 (maybe LIBS 2011, or they may use mine, still tbd); 68 (which build slot i nearly bought but it was too far advanced for the customisation I wanted) and 67 (which will be at SIBS next month, then it goes to Australia to a customer)
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Midships - not much to comment here
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I'll try to get some more pics next week. Engines are being installed currently, and deck should go on ("topping out" they call it) next week
 
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What a huge undertaking when you see the components going in like that. I do see why you said that the halyard silencers couldn't be retro-fitted to a 'hattan 64.

Interesting to see the assembly building is a bog-standard crinkly tin, shallow-pitched roof job. Bet it leaks like a sieve.
 
Port stab actuator installed. Bit unfair on Fairline to show it like this - the whole surrounding will be nicely finished when it's done
Geez, that's picky! The GRP surface surrounding the actuator doesn't actually look bad at all, judging by the pic!
I'd have rather asked the workforce to enclose the actuator in a plastic bag while doing other powder-generating jobs around it... :)
 
Interesting to see the assembly building is a bog-standard crinkly tin, shallow-pitched roof job. Bet it leaks like a sieve.

:D It doesn't leak, I think and hope! Actually they are nicer sheds than my pics suggest. See link below. The left one is the 78 shed. The middle one is protoyping and they used to make the 58 in there. The newest shed at the right is Sq55 and 65. The office building is the staggered H shape building bottom right. The much smaller building with white roof in two unequal halves, to left of "PGR Construction" is where SeaRanger boats are built, including the Atlantic range

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...81774,-0.461383&spn=0.00462,0.006684&t=h&z=17
 
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Just pulling your leg about the leaky sheds. Actually I went past there a few times on my way to sort out my current rangie which was supplied by Marshalls in Peterborough.
 
I love to see marine engines installed and look at the way all the fixings and cable runs are secured. I see that you have had Cats installed. Did you have different options of engines that could have been installed?. Can you give us a brief run down of how you chose these engines. Apologies If this has been asked before, what page.
David
 
I love to see marine engines installed and look at the way all the fixings and cable runs are secured. I see that you have had Cats installed. Did you have different options of engines that could have been installed?. Can you give us a brief run down of how you chose these engines. Apologies If this has been asked before, what page.
David

The engine choice was easy. They are tooled up (with engine bearers worked out, I mean) for the Cat C32 and the MAN1360. They may also be able to do 1550 MANs but I didn't even ask because I am not a fan of MANs; too many first hand stories of major failures in boats - I made a post on this the other day. In contrast the Cat C32 is apparently bulletproof; I can find no stories or internet mention of any significant failures.

The Cat C32 comes in various HP versions up to about 1900. Fairline strongly recommended the 1572 version, because going bigger means bigger p brackets and shafts and you lose the extra hp in drag, and the boat is already fast - 34 kts on the 1572hp version. And best of all, the Cat C32s at current FX rates are cheaper than the MAN1360s (MAN is German, Euro priced; Cats are made in South Carolina, USA, so $ priced).

When faced with 1360 MANs, or 1572 Cats for £50k less, it really is a no-brainer :D

To my mind, when speccing a boat like this, it has to be MTUs or Cats
 
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Are the Racor 1000 duplex filters standard fit or did you request them? I like Racors as they are a good filter thats also easy to change when under way with no mess but others on this forum seem to have a major dislike to them, whats your view?

If top is going on soon does that mean dashboard will be aswell, do they fit plotters yet or do they wait in case something new comes out later in build?
 
She's looking fab JFM, if there was a major engine problem and one had to come out, how easy is it to lift out?

IIRC one of the MAN's in TCM's Leopard had to come out while he had the boat here in the UK, I recall a cockpit hatch above the motor so it was a relatively easy job to get out.

I suppose if I was fortunate enough to have a boat like that I might have to finally accept that I cant do everything myself, I can't see me replacing big ends in a 2.7 tonne engine! (I reckon I could just about do it on my old Perkins)

Last time I closely watched the build of a biggish boat was a Princess 55, must be nearly 20 years ago, at the time it was the flagship of the Princess fleet, I was working for the owner, its interesting to note how far boat building has come, seems much more proffessional and less cottage industry.
 
Garmin warning 24 volt

Having spent some while trying to get the garmin rudder angle adaptor working, black, white, yellow, blue in all combinations from the VDO rudder sensor - no joy

So JFM if, and I guess she will be 24 volts this bit don't work, the word from Garmin support:

"Dear ian grant,

Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe.

Thank you for your reply.

The GRA 10 and NMEA 2000 component's are only 12v compatible.

The plotter, radar and the Garmin autopilot for example will all run from a 12 or 24v system, however the NMEA 2000 devices or the NMEA 2000 components will only run and work from a 12v setup.

I will certainly pass your findings along Ian.




Ian
 
Whether or not a water trap type silencer is needed depends on where the exhaust exits the hull. Neither of my Ferrettis had water trap silencers but the exhausts exit the hull well forward so exhaust noise is well damped. If the S/S Manhattans have exhausts which exit above or just below the waterline, then exhaust noise will be an issue and S/S can be criticised. I must admit though that I'm surprised that S/S would not use water trap silencers if they were necessary, especially on their cruising boats.
Is the athwartships mounted fuel tank arrangement a new thing for Fairline? Apart from the stability advantage, one big plus compared to an outboard fuel tank arrangement is the ability to get round to the outboard side of the engines. Do Fairline fit sight tubes to the tanks because they're definitely worth having?
 
The engine choice was easy. They are tooled up (with engine bearers worked out, I mean) for the Cat C32 and the MAN1360. They may also be able to do 1550 MANs but I didn't even ask because I am not a fan of MANs; too many first hand stories of major failures in boats - I made a post on this the other day. In contrast the Cat C32 is apparently bulletproof; I can find no stories or internet mention of any significant failures.

The Cat C32 comes in various HP versions up to about 1900. Fairline strongly recommended the 1572 version, because going bigger means bigger p brackets and shafts and you lose the extra hp in drag, and the boat is already fast - 34 kts on the 1572hp version. And best of all, the Cat C32s at current FX rates are cheaper than the MAN1360s (MAN is German, Euro priced; Cats are made in South Carolina, USA, so $ priced).

When faced with 1360 MANs, or 1572 Cats for £50k less, it really is a no-brainer :D

To my mind, when speccing a boat like this, it has to be MTUs or Cats

Wonderful pics jfm, keep them coming. I believe... (my well be wrong!!) that they fit the Cat C32 to to the Severn class lifeboats....?

But certainly looks the engine of choice. I can well imagine the more powerful version being a mistake, they would be more expensive, worse consumption and probably gain a small amount on acceleration and about 2 knots top end....
 
But certainly looks the engine of choice.
Whilst I fully agree on the brand, if given a choice between Cat and Man, I'm actually surprised by FL recommendation of the 1572hp version. In fact, I had a doubt which I just checked on the Cat selection guide:
The 1572hp is the non-Acert version, E rated, RCD compliant.
Nothing wrong about it, but they also offer these alternatives:
1470hp, C rated
1622hp, D rated
Now, having the same block in a higher power/higher rating and a lower power/lower rating version, that's something which already raises the question of why they're still producing the latter.
But what's even more important is that the two above alternatives are both Acert, IW/CC2 compliant, and WOSR capable.
On paper, that's a perfect fit for such vessel, considering also the usage jfm has in mind...
I'm really interested to hear what the rationale behind FL "strong recommendation" was. :confused:
 
To be honest I think there are many of us who might get quite "excited" just standing in the engine room and watching the levels in the tanks sink at the majestic rate of consumption which those mighty Cats will produce.

Surely that can't be the reason for the sight guages? :D
 
Whilst I fully agree on the brand, if given a choice between Cat and Man, I'm actually surprised by FL recommendation of the 1572hp version. In fact, I had a doubt which I just checked on the Cat selection guide:
The 1572hp is the non-Acert version, E rated, RCD compliant.
Nothing wrong about it, but they also offer these alternatives:
1470hp, C rated
1622hp, D rated
Now, having the same block in a higher power/higher rating and a lower power/lower rating version, that's something which already raises the question of why they're still producing the latter.
But what's even more important is that the two above alternatives are both Acert, IW/CC2 compliant, and WOSR capable.
On paper, that's a perfect fit for such vessel, considering also the usage jfm has in mind...
I'm really interested to hear what the rationale behind FL "strong recommendation" was. :confused:

It seems odd to me too that Fairline would offer the higher powered C32 versions and then 'strongly recommend' the 1572hp version. If the higher powered versions offer no real advantage due to the extra drag of larger shafts/props, then why offer them? Of course, potentially, the lower powered versions might offer a slightly longer service life and that is an advantage on a boat which might do longer hours as I believe jfm has in mind
 
Are the Racor 1000 duplex filters standard fit or did you request them? I like Racors as they are a good filter thats also easy to change when under way with no mess but others on this forum seem to have a major dislike to them, whats your view?

If top is going on soon does that mean dashboard will be aswell, do they fit plotters yet or do they wait in case something new comes out later in build?


The Racors are standard fit Tom. I haven't had that filer model before but I see no reason to dislike them. will report back in a year!

Both dashboards are made as subassemblies. The lower dash is being built now. Upper dash is awaiting aluminium panels from Axon (for various reasons I only sent Axon the drawings and placed the order last week) so assembly of that will be a few weeks away minimum

I think the Garmin gear is ordered and will be arriving soon. I'm having 3x 7015 screens and one 5008 on the dashboards (and two 5008s in cabins). The 7015 is a brand new model so it wont be replaced by newer during my build time

I meant to say earlier, thanks for that CD. Robin gave it to me a couple of weeks ago. Very nice pics, thank you. Lovely to see such skilled work. I'll get you some pics of the dash when I see it out of the mould, and later as it is assembled, so you can show them to John/Robin
 
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