Boat in build pics (Squadron 78)

[MYAG]

Interesting that you have two controls. I'll look into that.

Full control? Possibly not, but the ability to switch on/off or centre the fins from the flybridge is something I think you will certainly miss if you dont have it.

Most of your driving in the Med will be from up there and you may find it a PITA to always have to ask someone to go down and do it for you whilst you have the helm. You also would have no indication from up there that they have done it properly or indeed if there is a problem parking the fins. Could be even trickier if you are singlehanded........

Trac also do not produce a full repeater station for the fin control, however they do fit a more simple on/off switch on the fly helm which is used to switch on the system as you get underway, or indeed switch it off as you are coming to manouver. Basically it just switches off the power to the controller which automatically centres the fins and applies the locking pin.

I know the Sleipners do not have locking pins and rely on the twin ram hydraulics to keep the fins parked, so not sure if switching them on/off will do the same but worth asking.

 

[burgundyben]

Right! OK pay attention:

Along the side decks there are twice as many LEDs as the standard s78 build. One every metre or so, transom to bow. you wont miss me at anchor!

Flush LEDs under the internal flybr stairs, and two under the bottom step due to a nice design tweak that I'll get a pic of soon

LEDs in the main stairs down to the cabins level

Rope LED moodlights around the bottom edge of double beds in master and VIP

Swan neck stalk LED reading lights above all beds

RGB LED mood lights under the saloon sofa/chairs and under the inside dining table sofa, so the whole saloon/interior can be subdued-lit at floor level in any colour. Pink swooshing to purple, if you're having charlie round (only kidding, officer)

LED lighting for stainless steel name on transom

LED lights in the bimini

LED illuminated www.latitudekinsale.com white chart to hang on bulkhead twixt galley and saloon (being made in lovely Kinsale as i type)

Blue LEDs in all light switches to illuminate the 5 (Gewiss)dots

Fully LED back lit elec control panel (pic above)

Lumishore LED RGB u/water lights on mothership and tender

Surely that's enough Wakeup for a few OB points? I can't believe I'm writing this - it sounds like a branch of Stringfellows

 

[Bobbiesbits]

JFM.. Looking at the build pics the whole process looks very interesting.. However, what size steering wheel you planning to use? as IMHO you will be interfering with the throttles...Unless you are going for a South African Taxi job.. Mole grips

Also wouldn’t it have been better for berthing if you had positioned the steering wheel further outboard...Doesn’t seem like a very well designed/user friendly area..

Bobby

 

[aquapower]

JFM.. Looking at the build pics the whole process looks very interesting.. However, what size steering wheel you planning to use? as IMHO you will be interfering with the throttles...Unless you are going for a South African Taxi job.. Mole grips

Also wouldnt it have been better for berthing if you had positioned the steering wheel further outboard...Doesnt seem like a very well designed/user friendly area..

Bobby

Most boats of this size will have a third station for berthing? also maybe even a yacht controller, is this correct?
If you realised the time thats gone into this project you would realise its far from a poor design

 

[Bobbiesbits]

Just because you put time into something doesn't mean its going to turn out good... Look at Delhi.....

3rd stn, agreed yes that is a possibility, but the throttles don’t seem to be best positioned...

 

[jfm]

Lovely picture Ben. I'm relieved you put that up, rahter than an online Spearmint Rhino brochure or something. You're a gent!

Can you make it a bit narrower though?

 

[jfm]

Full control? Possibly not, but the ability to switch on/off or centre the fins from the flybridge is something I think you will certainly miss if you dont have it.

Most of your driving in the Med will be from up there and you may find it a PITA to always have to ask someone to go down and do it for you whilst you have the helm. You also would have no indication from up there that they have done it properly or indeed if there is a problem parking the fins. Could be even trickier if you are singlehanded........

Trac also do not produce a full repeater station for the fin control, however they do fit a more simple on/off switch on the fly helm which is used to switch on the system as you get underway, or indeed switch it off as you are coming to manouver. Basically it just switches off the power to the controller which automatically centres the fins and applies the locking pin.

I know the Sleipners do not have locking pins and rely on the twin ram hydraulics to keep the fins parked, so not sure if switching them on/off will do the same but worth asking.

Thnaks MYAG. I'll look into that. As you say a simple on-off on the fly might be a good idea. The boat is full of trunking and pullcords, so installing a flybr switch is easy and in that bank of 10 carlingswitches on the fly dash there are 2 spares

That said, part of the logic of the internal stairs is so I can move easily from upper to lower helm

 

[jfm]

JFM.. Looking at the build pics the whole process looks very interesting.. However, what size steering wheel you planning to use? as IMHO you will be interfering with the throttles...Unless you are going for a South African Taxi job.. Mole grips

Also wouldn’t it have been better for berthing if you had positioned the steering wheel further outboard...Doesn’t seem like a very well designed/user friendly area..

Bobby

Hi Bobbie. Dashboards are personal; what i like mightn't be whatt you like

The wheel will be 350mm Issota. It wont interfere with throttles becuase the dish in it means it's well above the top of the throttles, perhaps 120mm clearance even when throttles are at TDC. (Um, with all due respect, I have spent £30k over and above the standard s78 price on that dash, and I wouldn't be daft enough to make the throttles rub on the steering wheel!)

In design you have to compromise. I had 1450mm dashboard width to play with. The left edge of driver's chair lines up with left edge of dash. Centreline of wheel is centred on driver's chair. That leaves what it leaves, about 1000mm iirc, for the big panel on the right. I could move the throttles right, but would then have smaller screens. I very firmly chose not to do that because I like big screens but others (you?) might make a different call on that and move the throttles right and have smaller screens. Each to their own.

I don't get your berthing comment. On a boat like this you don't use the wheel to berth, and everything happens slowly. The only controls you use are thottles/thrusters which are 1/3 from the right and 2/3 from the left. Again each to their own but that's how I like it. I walk from side to side of the boat as she reverses at 1/2 knot into a tern to berth, so I can see down both sides, and occasionally you touch a thruster or throttle lever, but mostly you're stnading and observing as the boat glides. I also have 3 reversing cameras. For berthing alongside you'd use the remote and stnad on the side deck, but 90% of my berthing is stern to done from the fly.

Personally I'd never design a helm around berthing. If you know what you're doing you can berth anything, wherever the helm is. I have designed the helm so it does what I want when underway. It's right by the stairs so I can leave the wheel and go downstairs for example. While underway I hate offset helms; again it's personal choice but I like being on the centreline justy because I think it feels better (imho) and it's better protected from spray in heavier weather.

What category of boat are you drawing your experience from?

 

[wakeup]

Right! OK pay attention:

Along the side decks there are twice as many LEDs as the standard s78 build. One every metre or so, transom to bow. you wont miss me at anchor!

Flush LEDs under the internal flybr stairs, and two under the bottom step due to a nice design tweak that I'll get a pic of soon

LEDs in the main stairs down to the cabins level

Rope LED moodlights around the bottom edge of double beds in master and VIP

Swan neck stalk LED reading lights above all beds

RGB LED mood lights under the saloon sofa/chairs and under the inside dining table sofa, so the whole saloon/interior can be subdued-lit at floor level in any colour. Pink swooshing to purple, if you're having charlie round (only kidding, officer)

LED lighting for stainless steel name on transom

LED lights in the bimini

LED illuminated www.latitudekinsale.com white chart to hang on bulkhead twixt galley and saloon (being made in lovely Kinsale as i type)

Blue LEDs in all light switches to illuminate the 5 (Gewiss)dots

Fully LED back lit elec control panel (pic above)

Lumishore LED RGB u/water lights on mothership and tender

Surely that's enough Wakeup for a few OB points? I can't believe I'm writing this - it sounds like a branch of Stringfellows

Ok, now that is a very good set up indeed. In fact we might have to couch the description of how many LEDs were used in your new boat in terms of Epi Wafers rather than discrete units (5k hb leds in a wafer) so this is truly a blue chip led boat.

Have you got sound to light on any of it and what chart are you having done latitudekinsale?

 

[Bobbiesbits]

Maybe it’s just the photo angle.... It just looks like the steering wheel would interfere with the throttles

wasn't meant to cause any offence by the way... its just that I’ve noticed on many other boats the console tends to favor the outboard position on flybridges... maybe that’s because they are standard and haven’t spent the time you have on thinking about it..

Experience...none, just a wannabe, intrigued on how these vessels are put together...
...

 

[jfm]

Ok, now that is a very good set up indeed. In fact we might have to couch the description of how many LEDs were used in your new boat in terms of Epi Wafers rather than discrete units (5k hb leds in a wafer) so this is truly a blue chip led boat.

Have you got sound to light on any of it and what chart are you having done latitudekinsale?

Epi Wafers? I'm lost! You mean for ice cream?

Sound to light: Gareth hasn't found an off the shelf audio-to-DMX converter that he likes but we'll get looking soon (know of any?). Then gareth tells me it's an easy install

Chart will be Straits of Bonifacio. Bonifacio at top left, Porto Cervo bottom right, and all the madellena islands in between. One of my favourite spots!

 

[jfm]

Maybe it’s just the photo angle.... It just looks like the steering wheel would interfere with the throttles

wasn't meant to cause any offence by the way... its just that I’ve noticed on many other boats the console tends to favor the outboard position on flybridges... maybe that’s because they are standard and haven’t spent the time you have on thinking about it..

Experience...none, just a wannabe, intrigued on how these vessels are put together...
...

No worries, and no offence taken

Yup I promise you the st wheel wont interfere with the throttles! I really have thought about that and have scale drawings, CAD files from the throttle box maker, etc. It's all been simulated and worked out

When looking at other boats I would suggest you don't assume that becuase they do it, it must be right. I wouldn't dream of saying I could improve a BMW dashboard but many folks on here could substnatially improve some boat dashboards. Take Ferretti for example, a great brand of well built boats but their fly dashes are just atrocious. And the pic below is SanLorenzo 72. SL is a top top Italian handbuild boat brand (think Bentley) but this dash is just an awful piece of design. The nav screen is Raymarine's smallest plotter, an E80. Niiiice. And the "seat" is a slab of foam whereas mine will have sculpted Recaros. This SanLorenzo is about £3mill by the way. Each to their own though - some people might like the SanLorenzo dash and think mine is lousy. I don't care!

 

[jfm]

Now that's a serious electric panel!
I for one would be interested to see a more detailed pic.

Willdo, shortly

Very nice design, but don't the suspended steps flex at least a little?

They flex very slightly. I am totally happy with them and the flexing is so tiny that I prefer to have it than change the aesthetics to something worse. If I had wanted more tubing to make them ~100% rigid then Fairline would have done that, but I prefer as is. You'll have to walk on them and tell me what you think. I think they look fantastic though and I love the openness here instead of moulded white GRP steps

The only thing I'm not sure of is the throttles placement.

I thought about it very carefully and I am happy with my choice though of course others might do something different. The throttles are under the wheel rim, and the below pic (of Sq70) shows the position of the wheel relative to dash surface (there's something like 200mm, loads of room for 100mm throttle levers). I think it works well as the throttles are very close to helmsman's right hand. Rather like stalks behind car steering wheel - when you try them you realise it is a very good position. Anyway I wanted the two huge screens and frankly if the throttle box had to go in the heads to achieve that I would still have done it! Hope you can get to LIBS to sit/stand at the dash to try for yourself. By the way, the steering wheel has adjustable angle (again, see pic below)

 

[Bobbiesbits]

AHHH... with you now... I can see why you have redesigned it..

 

[jfm]

Now that's a serious electric panel!
I for one would be interested to see a more detailed pic.
Are the cables below the panel the only one feeding all the controls? )

Mapis, pics below. The ribbon cables below this panel are the only connection between this panel and the boat. This panel merely triggers relays; it doesn't direclty switch the power cables

Regarding the last pic, you will see there are switches to operate relays for "domestic 1,2,3" etc. Each of these powers a group of circuits. There is then another subdistribution board which has individual breakers for each electrical load like "Nav lights", "Master cabin WC", and so on. So you can switch each individual load and each load has its own trip, or you can use the board pictured below to switch a group of loads. Very convenient way to operate the boat imho

The round switches pictured below have an annular ring that lights up blue when the switch is on. There's a nice graphic display for bilge alarms. Separate ammeter for the 24 batteries showing just the inverter load - very handy for seeing what (and why) you're pulling from the batteries. This is top stuff, no compromises. SanLorenzo take note

 

[EME]

Impressive .. would Fairline like to re-wire our house? Is that standard or another feature of the JFMLINE 78?

 

[Firefly625]

Impressive .. would Fairline like to re-wire our house?

I was just thinking that!

 

[jfm]

Impressive .. would Fairline like to re-wire our house? Is that standard or another feature of the JFMLINE 78?

This is totally standard EME. I liked their elect distribution very much and wouldn't dream of changing it. All I've done electical-wise is ask them to add a few extra electrical loads (little things like, the aft deck overhang ceiling lights are split into groups on my boat so you can light up the whole deck or just the dining table) but that's detail and doesn't affect the distribution architecture. The way the two gensets and shore leads work together or independlently is also very neat (there is a post on this a long way above in this thread)

 

[Firefly625]

Very nice design, but don't the suspended steps flex at least a little? I would have considered attaching each step to two tubes on each side, with the "front" tube following under the step and attached also to the step below, and the "rear" tube attached also to the step above, if you see what I mean. Overall, that would have required just one more vertical tube, but with an inherently much higher stiffness.

Sorry JFM, on catch up... those steps are lovely, so simple and clean. I would certainly put up with a tiny amount of flex to keep the un-cluttered look.

And that helm station....mmmmm very good, those screens are big, how much have Fairline offered you for the design??

 

[kingfisher]

A practical question: where/how do you stow those giant garmin screen covers when underway?