Piano on board...

alt

alt

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I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but best to be prepared...

One thing i've always wanted on-board, and am anticipating to have... is a piano.

To be clear, this is in anticipation for when I 'get old', and must upgrade to flybridge, so that's covered.

What I would like to know, is, has anyone managed to cramp an upright acoustic piano into a modest (sub 50ft) and made it work? Not interested in an electric keyboard... must be natural hammer sound!

Come on guys, inspire me...

(I hope to look back on this thread in 5 years time and think.... "Holy Jesus")
 
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Not sure about 50 foot but if can stretch that a bit the smallest I can think of are van der valk putting one in a 23m iirc and guy couach built a 22m fly with one. One or other was a yammie disklavier so real hammers but played itself when required.
 
Seriously, you don't want an actual acoustic piano anywhere near a boat: it would be like having an extra engine in the Saloon.

A much better idea would be a Yamaha Clavinova CLP series. A CLP 585 isn't cheap (£3k+), but the keyboard action is very close to an acoustic piano ... close enough for some top music schools to use them as their primary teaching instrument.
 
In the 1950's or 60's film Titanic there was a full grand Piano and I seem to remember that there was a problem at the end because it was not lashed down.

The access is already poor to the engine room in most flybridge boats that the thought of having to move a piano to gain access to the filters on the outside of the starboard engine where FaiPrinAziEeker has placed the engine within 1.5 inches of the fuel tank.

Stick to an electronic keyboard, earphones and avoid the temptation to sing along to it.
 
We went to the Palma Boat Show last year for a look around a few examples of a boat we had on our shopping list, and to get a bit of early sun. Firstly the show was just great and we loved it there, lovely and relaxed atmosphere.

Anyway,Camper and Nicholsons had a row of their mega brokerage boats and we fancied seeing if we could look around one or two. We were completely honest with them and explained that in no way whatsoever were we in that market but could we go onboard a couple. They were fantastically helpful and introduced us to a couple of skippers who gave us lovely guided tours. One of the captains explained that the owner of that boat, I think it was a Moonen about 90 something feet, always specifed a larger saloon area so he could have his , yes grand piano, on board.

I think you'd struggle at about 50' but if you're willing to have a complete bespoke interior layout it might be possible. But I do think it would "take over " a boat that length.

Andy
 
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I think the damp atmosphere at sea would give problems with the piano going out of tune. Why not emulate Captain Nemo and have a pipe organ onboard?
 
We have my great grandmothers six octave 'yacht piano', its an upright, last time it was onboard was a steam yacht of about 100ft in the 1920's.

Along with a cast iron hip bath this is a fabulous idea.
 
alt said:
I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but best to be prepared...

One thing i've always wanted on-board, and am anticipating to have... is a piano.

To be clear, this is in anticipation for when I 'get old', and must upgrade to flybridge, so that's covered.

What I would like to know, is, has anyone managed to cramp an upright acoustic piano into a modest (sub 50ft) and made it work? Not interested in an electric keyboard... must be natural hammer sound!

Come on guys, inspire me...

(I hope to look back on this thread in 5 years time and think.... "Holy Jesus")
Click to expand...

Maybe you can take some inspiration from this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk54gZAGPGY
 
Find yourself a copy of Uffa Fox's Sailing, Seamanship and Yacht Construction from the 1930s. Most larger yachts back then seemed to carry a piano as a matter of course. It would have been a specialised type, I guess like BurgundyBen's great granny's one, rather than an ordinary living room upright. On one racing yacht he was particularly impressed that they'd built the piano into the gimballed saloon table, to save weight by getting rid of the separate iron counterweight for the gimbals. Apparently getting rid of the piano was beyond the pale even for a racer :D

Pete
 
A decade or so ago I went on a course run by the Atalanta Association and we overnighted and were entertained in a College for the deaf in Hereford ( I think !! ). The pianist then took us round their small instrumental museum, which included a modified, upright piano which had been fitted in a 35 foot sailing yacht. Very interesting.
 
Music instruments don't like high humidity!

parsifal said:
I think the damp atmosphere at sea would give problems with the piano going out of tune. Why not emulate Captain Nemo and have a pipe organ onboard?
Click to expand...

Oh you are fully right. I wouldn't put a keyboard instrument on a boat. Their mechanisms are very sensitive to high humidity, then in deed you should learn how to tune pianos. I am still struggling with tuning harpsichords!

I like very much the idea of the pipe organ. Alas, a pipe organ is even more a quite complex and sensitive machine. The pipe organ in our former house in Mallorca, did much suffer from temperature and humidity variations. Then even a small organ has around 500-700 pipes, they need tuning...

But it didn't prevent a crazy owner to have a pipe organ built on his SY:
5f9bef_1bc1ea098f21420ba15af20858e0efbe.jpg_srz_p_1305_865_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz


Such a beauty:
5f9bef_d09ca9f0ce3d464b88c514226da3f269.jpg_srz_p_1420_831_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz
 
theres a big 100ft ish Astondoa in Alicante harbour with a grand piano and a palm tree in a big pot in the saloon. Possible upgrade path....
 
Mmm, yes you could try to nail it down but the thought of a few hundred kilos of piano rolling across the saloon in a big beam sea worries me a bit. It's bad enough when the TV and a few bottles of wine go walkabout but a piano, sheesh!:D
 
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