Build of a Bonito 50 Motorcruiser

[RobWales]

Hi D Dream,

Great looking project and much to think about!
Those stainless rails look good and I'm wondering if they are through bolted from below into a threaded ferule, or have they been welded onto the main structure using a dissimilar metal's welding technique? (hard to tell from the angle of photo)....Rob.

 

[D-Dream]

Hi D Dream,

Great looking project and much to think about!
Those stainless rails look good and I'm wondering if they are through bolted from below into a threaded ferule, or have they been welded onto the main structure using a dissimilar metal's welding technique? (hard to tell from the angle of photo)....Rob.

The railing (and also the other parts in Stainless steel) is welded to the main structure.
Regards
Danny

 

[D-Dream]

Hi,

Thanks for the help with the pictures.

Some other pictures from earlier this year and last year.

 

[jfm]

Thanks D-Dream. Can you explain the engine raw water cooling intake set up please? You seem to have 2 intakes and 2 strainers, and you can select either or both of them by setting the ball valves. Is that correct? Is this to enable you to "hot swap" in case one intake gets blocked and disables the engine?

Also your flex hoses are consistently not pushed down to the shoulder of the barbed hose fitting/nipple, leaving space for only a single (nicely bolted, not worm drive screw) hose clip. Is there some clever thinking going on there?

 

[D-Dream]

Thanks D-Dream. Can you explain the engine raw water cooling intake set up please? You seem to have 2 intakes and 2 strainers, and you can select either or both of them by setting the ball valves. Is that correct? Is this to enable you to "hot swap" in case one intake gets blocked and disables the engine?

Also your flex hoses are consistently not pushed down to the shoulder of the barbed hose fitting/nipple, leaving space for only a single (nicely bolted, not worm drive screw) hose clip. Is there some clever thinking going on there?

Hi,
Yes I have 2 rar water intakes and 2 strainers. In nomal operation 1 strainer valve is open and the other is closed. When the working strainer gets blocked, I can open the other strainer and close the blocked one. This should give me the posibility to clean the filter even when i'm sailing.
The in- and output of the strainer and valves are equiped with hose nipples. The used hose nipples are long enough to get a good fixing of the hose. The hose between the 2 strainer still need a support, because now they are still empty, but when they will be filled with seewater they will bend down.
If it's clever enough... I will let you know when I can sail for the time

 

[BartW]

Hi Danny,
what a great project ! I believe I've come across your blog long ago,
anyway, you made a good entrance here on this forum,
keep on posting pics, and you can get a wealth on valuable info and advice,
much more that you could ever think off

your flybridge dash looks indeed surprisingly similar to a famous custom made dash,
better known on here as the one from "Match I"

regarding hose clips, you use very good quality clips,
but common practice is to use two clips on all seacock connections, (or all connections that could sink the boat )
the risc is small but there is alway's a risc of corrosion of a clip (underneath so you don't notice) and the clip can breack

I see you use marine ply for the furniture on the FB,
I want to make some extra furniture on my FB, and marineplys is indeed the most conveniant for self made by my friend carpenter,
but are in doubt to use a alternative for marine ply, such as: Trespa or GRP or ...
have you considered this ?

nice stainless steel work, is this self made, or do you have a specialist in the area ?

good luck with project,
will be following with much interest !

 

[D-Dream]

Hi Danny,
what a great project ! I believe I've come across your blog long ago,
anyway, you made a good entrance here on this forum,
keep on posting pics, and you can get a wealth on valuable info and advice,
much more that you could ever think off

your flybridge dash looks indeed surprisingly similar to a famous custom made dash,
better known on here as the one from "Match I"

regarding hose clips, you use very good quality clips,
but common practice is to use two clips on all seacock connections, (or all connections that could sink the boat )
the risc is small but there is alway's a risc of corrosion of a clip (underneath so you don't notice) and the clip can breack

I see you use marine ply for the furniture on the FB,
I want to make some extra furniture on my FB, and marineplys is indeed the most conveniant for self made by my friend carpenter,
but are in doubt to use a alternative for marine ply, such as: Trespa or GRP or ...
have you considered this ?

nice stainless steel work, is this self made, or do you have a specialist in the area ?

good luck with project,
will be following with much interest !

Hi Bart,

Thanks for intresting information. Most of the connections are in the mean time already with 2 hose clamps.
I'm more used to work with marine ply then with the other materials.
The stainless steel railing is done by a Dutch company. You can visit his website: www.woudsma-rvs.nl

I've seen that you are also from Belgium. Which area?

Danny

 

[jfm]

I see you use marine ply for the furniture on the FB,
I want to make some extra furniture on my FB, and marineplys is indeed the most conveniant for self made by my friend carpenter,
but are in doubt to use a alternative for marine ply, such as: Trespa or GRP or ...
have you considered this ?

I must say I like what Danny is doing here. Marine ply, with radii on all corners, then sprayed in gelcoat, is a long-established quality method of making one-off deck box/furniture items. It is widely used in superyacht building and looks much better than Trespa/StarBoard/KingBoard and similar materials. Of course GRP moulding is great too, but the time and cost of tooling for one-off work often rules it out...

 

[jfm]

Danny if it would save you much work (and weight?) to abandon the plywood and mould the dash in GRP here are the dimensions. The mould is in UK (postcode PE8 4HN) so not convenient I guess, but you can have it for free if you want it. I also have CAD files for the aluminium panels on the face of the dash. The Perspex is easy - just a rectangle

Here is the finished dash. The screens are Garmin 7015

 

[BartW]

I've seen that you are also from Belgium. Which area?

Limburg Bilzen

 

[BartW]

Marine ply, with radii on all corners, then sprayed in gelcoat, is a long-established quality method of making one-off deck box/furniture items.

we did many repairs / upgrades with marine ply on BA, but
I didn't know that you can apply gelcoat on marine ply,
what's the difference / advantage compared to 2 component epoxy paint ?

 

[rustybarge]

we did many repairs / upgrades with marine ply on BA, but
I didn't know that you can apply gelcoat on marine ply,
what's the difference / advantage compared to 2 component epoxy paint ?

+1

 

[jfm]

we did many repairs / upgrades with marine ply on BA, but
I didn't know that you can apply gelcoat on marine ply,
what's the difference / advantage compared to 2 component epoxy paint ?

Sprayed gelcoat creates a skin that is about 2mm thick and because of the thickness/creaminess of gelcoat it smooths out any surface imperfections better than paint. Paint is much thinner. Gelcoat can also be rubbed/sanded/polished very easily after the final coat - paint can sometimes too of course. When you look at gelcoat/plywood components, you think the thing is made of GRP. It is also much easier to repair scratches and bumps in gelcoat than in paint. It needs a stable base, ie best quality marine ply. As I say, it is widely used for deck boxes/furniture on custom GRP superyachts like Mangusta, Leopard, et al.

They use a gelcoat formulated for spraying, with wax to enable it to dry when exposed to air

 

[Robg71]

Thanks jfm,
Every days a school day here.

 

[rustybarge]

Sprayed gelcoat creates a skin that is about 2mm thick and because of the thickness/creaminess of gelcoat it smooths out any surface imperfections better than paint. Paint is much thinner. Gelcoat can also be rubbed/sanded/polished very easily after the final coat - paint can sometimes too of course. When you look at gelcoat/plywood components, you think the thing is made of GRP. It is also much easier to repair scratches and bumps in gelcoat than in paint. It needs a stable base, ie best quality marine ply. As I say, it is widely used for deck boxes/furniture on custom GRP superyachts like Mangusta, Leopard, et al.

They use a gelcoat formulated for spraying, with wax to enable it to dry when exposed to air

very interesting, sounds like a fantastic way of finishing all sorts of surfaces.....

 

[RobWales]

jfm...is what you refer to called flowcoat and not gelcoat?

 

[jfm]

jfm...is what you refer to called flowcoat and not gelcoat?

Well flowcoat is the name generally used for brush-on gelcoat (with wax included) that bilges etc are painted in to make them smooth and white. Example here: http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/p-1279-grey-flow-coat-top-coatinclusive-of-catalyst.aspx. The stuff I'm referring to would not usually be referred to as flowcoat afaik: it is a gelcoat formulated for spray application, so might have a different label on the tin and slightly different properties, but is perhaps 99% the same stuff. OTOH, it might also be formulated to deal with the thermal expansion/contraction of wood, and might be vinylester based not polyester - I don't know.

I have some pictures somewhere of all this in an Italian shipyard (Arno) several years ago: I'll see if I can find them

 

[RobWales]

Okeydokey....Brush on might explain why flowcoat has the extra styrene content then, used bucket's of the stuff in years gone by when refurbing and building fishing boats, very easy to apply, very easy to sand, coat upon coat which allows you to d/a or hand sand, then polish to a glass like finish using compound on a polishing mop, happy days...

 

[MapisM]

Geez, you handled buckets of styrene-based stuff, and you call them happy days?!?
Not exactly the sort of chemicals I'd recommend to anyone who rates health higher than the convenience of DIY jobs...

 

[RobWales]

Precautions precautions Mapism!