"In build", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

jfm

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\"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

We haven’t had any “in build” pics lately so I thought I’d offer the next best thing: pics of a new boat already built being slightly rebuilt by its new owner. As a recap, I bought the SIBS Sq58 after the show, hull #201, 2009 model year and one of the last few to be made before the Sq58 production ended. I preferred it to the new Sq55. Having had a Sq58 since 2004 I know what I want in terms of mods, which unfortunately was a long list, which is more a reflection on me that Fairline :-). The wonderful Essex Boatyards agreed to put the boat indoors in their huge shed for 2 months to do some work I asked them to do, and gave me free rein (and a key!) to do things myself. They also let me use their trade accounts to order materials and stuff from their suppliers. Fantastic help all round from EBY – I can’t praise them enough

The boat has the matt oak interior, which you either love or hate (!). They have only made 4 of these, so 98% of punters prefer cherry, but I love the oak and anyway wanted a change after 5 years of the gloss cherry. Pics below, though since these were taken it is being funked up with bright coloured cushions and curtains and stuff
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As a general idea the mods list was/is the following, in no partic order, of which I’m 2/3 the way through...

1. Colour rework, no blue allowed anywhere. All the blue stripe fabric, blue canvas cockpit covers, fender socks, blue antifoul, have been removed and replaced by black. Black biminis. And the beige vinyl on the flyb has been replaced with beige sunbrella cloth. So everything is white, black, teak, beige cloth (and coloured scatter cushions). No blue anywhere, except the perspex tint.
2. Underwater lights, with RGB arrays + digital controls so you can mix any colour of underwater light – a world first!
3. Complete new electronics install, all the Fairline gear incl the big analogue radar removed and replaced with Raymarine digital network stuff. I chose E series rather than G following advice on here (esp Hurric) cos it fits better and the G series remote control keypad doesn’t suit the Sq58 where the screens are close to the helmsman. ST70 instruments. plus Navtex, AIS Tx/Rx, cameras and other daft gizmos like connecting plotter screens to saloon big TV
4. Satellite TV
5. Reworked electrics, with inverter, new Onan digital controls for genset, battery management system, additional battery charger
6. 3x those Recaro helm seats on the flybr
7. Fairline white plastic flybr table chucked out and re-made in solid teak, and new solid teak lower aft deck table
8. Lots of small details like new steering wheels (off the Sq55), and internal fabrics replaced with more contemporary stuff to go with the light oak wood
9. New tender - Walker Bay Genesis like Hurric’s with the new 2009 Yam EFI 40hp outboard (which arrived last week, very nice job)
10 Much reworked utility room with full size tumble drier/separate washing machine, freezer, WC, pullman bed, etc
11. Replace all WCs with Tecma and install extra one in utility/crew cabin
12 Install biminis

It’s been loadsa work. Some things on boats can take ages to get right, esp running cables and things. Geekily all new cables are run in trunking and labelled and stuff, so all look original fit. Burgundy Ben would approve :-)

Here’s the boat in EBY’s fabulous big shed:
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Utility room rework – tumble drier flush install, to replace three small compartments installed by Fairline. Drier needed bottom left corner taking off to clear the GRP moulding, and the whole thing had to be disassembled and rebuilt cos it doesn’t fit thru the utility room door! Pullman bed folds down with 1/3 – 2/3 split, as it works as extra storage/shelf with just the 2/3 down
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Next we fitted underwater lights. These are the first ever installation of www.lumishore.com Thru Hulls with all the bells and whistles including digital control pad and individually controllable RGB arrays so you can mix any colour you want or cycle thru the whole spectrum. They are machines from aluminium bronze billet. Beautiful bits of engineering and top marks to Lumishore on making these – no-one else in the world does RGB mixable u/w lights – OceanLeds are junk by comparison. They were brought to the boat by the engineer who designed/built them, in this case
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Then it was a simple case of measuring up, drilling four 25mm holes in the hull, cleaning off the a/foul, applying 3M or Sikaflex goo, and boshing them in. Plus lots of wiring, trunking, clipping up, swearing, earthing, getting matching label for elec panel circuit breaker so it looks OEM, installing the control panel (which looks fab and high tech – see the website) and endless details. Pics below. The guy holding one on the transom is the engineer whose babies they are
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Then the boat was launched, last week. I wasn’t there, so no pix of actual launch
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Nice new teak, bliss!
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Radar removed, to be replaced. Also s/s tower taken apart and being rebuilt for sat dome (I’m only having one dome, on the centreline, not a pair)
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Here are those Recaro seats. Fantastic mod this, so comfortable, highly recommended upgrade. They come from Recaro needing a support plate at the bottom, so I copied Fairline’s method and used aluminium alloy 5mm sheet, painted white – you can see the edge in one photo. Countersunk machine screws attach the plate to the Recaro frame (which has M6 tapped holes) and the plate itself is bolted to the GRP seat base or the sider mechanism. The original slider mechanism on the middle seat was retained, and they all recline. Also one pic shows new steering wheel, and the fact I haven’t yet installed the instruments (though all the cables are in). I’m putting 2x E120, 4x ST70 and the Volvo fuel computer on the flybr dash
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That’s about it, except to show the Lumishore lights in all their glory. Pics below. Actually they’re trying to illuminate mud brown water in Essex, and are doing a fine job, but make allowances for that. They’ll be even better in the Med. You can just dial in any colour you want and control the brightness, or cycle thru preset modes, including one where it just cycles thru the rainbow (at any speed you want – it can take an hour to do the rainbow if you want). The first pic below shows “after burner” colour which I think Magnum should install, and have wired to his throttles. The second pic is white light turned brown by Essex water! Fantastic product – Lumishore (which folks on here are connected with) deserve every success. They have a stand at the Antibes Yacht Show 2-5 April and I’m meant to be the demonstrator so I need to hurry as I’m the only boat on the planet with controllable RGB underwater thru hull lights at the moment!

Signing off there, hope that wasn’t too boring, will post another round of pics when I’ve finished and ready for sea trials and stuff

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Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Fantastic post, I hope you're going to call the new boat 'bling heart' after all those u/w lights! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Who's doing your teak work? And what's the avonite in the galley?

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Thanks. Actually I wanted just blue lights but Lumishore wanted to install the dogs doofers version for the Antibes show so I let them. Glad I did, cos when you put them on a subtle setting they're nice. I just thought the blingy shots would look better in this thread, and will be fun when the mood demands it :-) In fact it gets blingier - they can flash like strobes, or dance to the music. Blingtastic!

For techies by the way, they draw 4amps each at 24v on high brightness. And that's mostly making light, not heat

The Avonite is a nice new one called Dark Roast. Sort of dark chocolate background with little coloured chips in it. I've got it in the bathrooms too. I still like the copper canyon but I had that before and prefer this new one. If you look for it on their website colourizer it is in "Foundations" then "Pediments" but the colours on there are a bit dodgy - the little swatch square looks about right on there but the work surface that is meant to be made from the stuff is completely the worng colour. It looks loads better in the flesh than on the website. It prob suits the light oak better than it would cherry though :-).

Teak tables are being made by Teak-Decking ltd in Plymouth. They make for sunseeker. The table tops are a 6-25-6 sandwich of teak/marine ply/teak, edged in 37mm square teak. They've gone a bit quiet on me (and my £2k deposit) though - hope they're ok!
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

She's beautiful, not in the skin deep way of some worked on boats, but in that underlying structural / functional way that I hope will give you oodles of pleasure and many thousands of happy sea miles in the future.

(I'm always available for a little neurological research into the effects of cycling visible spectrum underwater lighting on catching fish, if needed... )
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Superb boat JFM, lights look great, I love the colour schemes and choice of materials. You should be advising FL in this dept.

The Lumishore lights look great and good to see another British Engineering World First. I bet they'll be the D's Bs in Antibes!!!
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Excellent post. Congrats again on the new boat.

One very small point - I know fire extingishers are there for a reason but they look horrible in the swishy galley and cockpit etc. Can you not mount them behind a door and have a small logo on the outside or something?

Where is the toilet roll for the utility bog going?
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Ah, a detial/aesthetics geek like me! Yes I hate those 2 fire exts. I plan to move them as you say to lockers with a small logo label on the door (as is the case elsewhere on the boat). That will reveal 2 srew holes in the galley oak for the bracket, dammit, but I think I can cut a tiny plug of oak (with a plug cutter, so grain is along the end face of the plug) and tap it in and matt varnish it carefully

On a related point my horseshoe lifebuoy things store in lockers, and even the radar reflector is mounted inside a GRP locker on the flybr, and so on!

I am aware of the toilet roll "problem" but it is way down my priorities list! That's occasional use WC only, when boat is full of guests and the stewardess needs a pee. I can fit a recessed toilet roll job into the face of the panel below the w/machine, but might be 2012 before I get round to it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

I love the colour theme: Black, white, beige. Limiting the palette is a brilliant concept which is executed wonderfully here. The light oak really does the business in keeping it all crisp.

The bodies of the thru-hull lights look a bit, well, gold - if you don't mind my saying. Surely the old jfm family motto: "death before gold fittings" must be troubling you just a little bit?

Maybe a trick of the light. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Thanks for posting that, really interesting, some of us really appreciate the "nerdie" attention to detail /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Thanks. The cushions are being made in some bold colours to relieve any boredom, and I'm having extra sets so can swap them to change the theme from week to week. There are all sorts of colours, like flame orange, lime green, raspberry pink/choc brown combo, and so on!

Yup, it's a sad fact that the best material - aluminium bornze - is gold. I'm just gonna have to put up with it. I could have a/fouled them black, but it seemed sacriligious. Mind you the props are a bit gold too. I think my rule is "silver above the waterline"!
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Thnaks sarabande. Can you elaborate on fish and lights (if you were being serious)? The lumishore control panel for the lights has lots of modes you can toggle thru. There are some called Fish 1, Fish 2, and so on. These turn out to be strobe flashing blues and greens. Quite a "sharp" flash with LEDs, cos you dont get the softer start/stop that filament lights have (as they warm up/cool down). The lumishore guys say this flashing attracts fish, and iirc the www.oceanled.com site says the same

Does it? And more to the point, er, what sort of fish? :-)

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Impressive job indeed

And I mean it, congrats!!!
Among other things, I just love the throttles+b/t station in the cockpit.
Was that standard? And if not, couldn't you fit them in some "hidden when not in use" way?
I was a bit surprised to read that the RGB is a world first though, 'cause I'm pretty sure to have seen it advertised already somewhere.
A quick google search brought me to this page.
I'm not sure if that's the one I've already seen, but it's another example anyway.
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

Interesting pics of a style (and value!) of boat that is way outside my experience - thanks!

Please excuse my profound ignorance, but what are the underwater lights for? Do they have have a function, or are they just for fun?
 
Re: Impressive job indeed

Thanks Mapis - I'll ask the Lumishore boys but afaik those are either inferior or haven't been produced yet. UWLights Ltd say they are "testing" a 50w LED chip. On the Lumishores there is -in each light- 50w per channel, ie 50 of each of RGB. So if you want blue, you get 50w of blue. If you want red you have 50W of red. If set to white, +R+G+B, the control limits each channel to 60%, to manage heat and current. (Those are LED watts, so much brighter than 50W filament lamp, which mostly makes heat). This is quite a long way superior to UWLights Ltd I think.

And anyway, the Lumishore control panel is much nicer than UWLL's :-)
 
Re: \"In build\", sort of, pics of Sq58 - long/lots pics

They're just for fun (as is the boat anyway...). Either a bit of an entertainment piece for guests during evening dinners outside, or for night time swimming (possibly with the brightness turned down!). Functionwise they might attract fish, I dunno, this was mentioned above. Possibly they help in embarking/disembarking tender in the dark. But mainly fun!
 
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