MBY's most extreme test ever, with Safehaven Marine

[Jack Haines]

Many of you will know about Safehaven Marine but if you don't I highly recommend trawling YouTube of the Christmas break for a few of their sea trial videos.

Back in November Hugo had the opportunity to join their test team in 5m seas and F8 winds off Cork as they put their latest creation - an 11m military stealth boat, dubbed Barracuda - through its paces, and if you click the link you can see the video > http://www.mby.com/news/video-our-most-extreme-test-ever-50424

There is also a full written report in the upcoming February issue of the magazine.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at the magazine.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Impressive, but was that the radome flying loose at 11m30s into the video?

 

[Anders_P42]

Reminds me of passing St Albans head earlier this year.

 

[CLB]

Just another normal day in the Thames estuary

 

[Firefly625]

superb

however LJS spot on.... 11m.30 seconds the radome indeed cops it!

 

[rosssavage]

Yup, lost the radome there!!

Stunning though, as all these videos are.

My biggest fear when it gets a bit choppy are my 28yr old windscreens. Think my heavily laid up 80's Princess hull is good for some serious abuse, but I reckon taking even one decent green one over the bow would come crashing through into the saloon.

 

[IDAMAY]

Just watched that with SWMBO. She loved it, particularly the gyro stabilised gun for use on errant raggies that fail to acknowledge our friendly change of course and then jibe at the most inconvenient moment. Could also be used on seagulls.

 

[petem]

Looks like fun! Good to see a helm with a wheel you can reach sitting down.

 

[prv]

Looks like fun! Good to see a helm with a wheel you can reach sitting down.

I've never been on any kind of motorboat with a cabin, but I've noticed that in pictures. The ergonomics of pretty much every wheelhouse helm look bloody awful. Wheel down at knee level, and so far ahead that you need to lean forward out of your seat to reach it. Why do they build 'em that way?

Pete

 

[Firefly625]

I can comfortably reach my wheel sitting down, we also have a kad suspension seat so sitting down at the helm is actually the most comfortable place to be.

 

[vas]

Why do they build 'em that way?

Pete

'cause they look good and anyway you got the A/P to do the job so why bother

However from experience on a planning craft running at D speeds with F5-F6 and no A/P you do need to work on the wheel A LOT and a decent position is much appreciated.

V.

 

[Cheery]

I thought I was seeing things as well so I rewound the clip to see what it was and sure enough, there it was hanging by a cable. Mind you, unless you get caught out, you aren't going to leave harbour to worry about how good your windscreen is or how secure the fixings are on your radome.

 

[Switch]

Will this be at LIBS? I was driving home northbound on the M3 Monday night and saw a few boats on low loaders heading for the boat show I guess. One of them looked very much like this - although it was dark and wet so I couldn't see all that well the outline was very similar...

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Impressive, but was that the radome flying loose at 11m30s into the video?

Well spotted ljs. I guess thats what they mean when they say the boat has a reduced radar signature

I vote this is jfm's next project boat or at least the tender for his next project boat

 

[MapisM]

The ergonomics of pretty much every wheelhouse helm look bloody awful. Wheel down at knee level, and so far ahead that you need to lean forward out of your seat to reach it. Why do they build 'em that way?

Well they don't, in fact. I've yet to see any mobo designed for this sort of stuff with a wheel at knee level or hard to reach.
The point is, you can't compare "normal" pleasure boats with this sort of vessels, it's like comparing a sedan car with a motocross bike.
While cruising, I usually spend a lot of time without even sitting at the helm, and I can't remember when was the last time I actually touched the wheel.
Otoh, in any boats where it's appropriate to use 4 points harnesses (which are not many, you know...), not being able to reach any control without leaning forward would be a sort of practical joke!
Incidentally, also in this Barracuda thing, impressive as she is, there's one arguably very wrong choice, ergonomically: the seats seem to be fixed, i.e. with no regulation of the bottom.
In this kind of boats, it's not enough to put seats on suspensions: what you really want are seats like the following, where you can regulate the angle of the seat bottom, hence deciding - based on conditions - how much you want to absorb the impacts also with your legs rather than just your spine (on top of what is done by the shock absorbers, of course).

 

[kindredspirit]

Last time I came through a Force 8, my windscreen was fine but my two wipers were MANGLED!

AND, I never want to see any Force 8s again. Boat can cope but it's a bit worrying when looking at the sea state.

 

[prv]

Well they don't, in fact. I've yet to see any mobo designed for this sort of stuff with a wheel at knee level or hard to reach.

Sorry if I wasn't clear; I didn't mean this kind of practical workboat, I was talking about leisure boats. In particular the more traditional "Nelson" style boats, from various builders, though it seems to apply to some other types as well.

This one, for instance:

The centre of the wheel seems to be about halfway up the helmsman's shins, and well beyond arm's reach when he's sitting back in the chair. They've mitigated the former by fitting a wheel that seems a little too big for the boat (more appropriate to a sailing boat with cable steering) but not much they can do about the latter without redesigning the shape of the console.

Or here's another, with a more normal-sized wheel and the top of it at knee-level:

Just seems odd to me.

Pete