Cheap stainless steel work in the med?

[chuckr]

David we are in Kusadasi Turkey - if you are still there say hi to Doc Sabhi for us as he put screws in my shoulder there and fixed pattys hand, along with Duncan and Kim, Jo and Mic and of course Adel who worked on our boat and his mother made us the greatest meal when he came aboard and found me with an arm in a sling and pattys hand bandaged . there are simply great people there

[David B]

Originally Posted by chuckr

David we are in Kusadasi Turkey - if you are still there say hi to Doc Sabhi for us as he put screws in my shoulder there and fixed pattys hand, along with Duncan and Kim, Jo and Mic and of course Adel who worked on our boat and his mother made us the greatest meal when he came aboard and found me with an arm in a sling and pattys hand bandaged . there are simply great people there

Ah - that's where we were supposed to be going this year. Do you by chance know Bob and Verena of Champurs?
Kim, Duncan and Adele are common to us both, the others we have yet to meet, but then there are others. Warm people aren't they - if only the entire Muslim world was like that !

Hope to catch up somewhere, sometime Chuck, but I think we had better divert to PM'ing . We have dragged this so far off topic now .....

Cheers,

David

[robert sailor]

[QUOTE=David B;2297644]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Read my description in my original posting:
1. The arch is custom designed with curvature in two planes to match the fibreglass arch.
2. It is cut into and welded to the pushpit, rather than being a bolt-on.
3. It has integrated davits
4. It supports solar panels, Wi-Fi, 4G, and Navtex antennas.

Many positive comments from those who have seen it, and again, it has davits

Hi David,
In looking at your arch davits it seems to me that if it's also doing duty as davits it might be a bit on the underbuilt side. We have something dissimilar and it worked great in the Med with a light dink and small engine but when we upgraded to a heavier RIB and larger engine in the Caribbean it was flexing to much and we dropped the use for davits until we can reinforce it more. Not trying to be critical, just throwing a thought your way.

[David B]

[QUOTE=robert sailor;2299001]

Originally Posted by David B

Hi David,
In looking at your arch davits it seems to me that if it's also doing duty as davits it might be a bit on the underbuilt side. We have something dissimilar and it worked great in the Med with a light dink and small engine but when we upgraded to a heavier RIB and larger engine in the Caribbean it was flexing to much and we dropped the use for davits until we can reinforce it more. Not trying to be critical, just throwing a thought your way.

Hi Robert,
Well, we have had two guys hanging off the davit ends and bouncing up and down on their arms, but no movement of the davits or the arch.
Our tender is a 3.4 metre rigid-floored Zodiac with a 6HP 4-stroke (23kg unfortunately - darn heavy things, bring back two-strokes !!!), and it is very solid.
The arch and davit extensions are of heavy wall SS tubing, and thumping it, swinging on it etc is like trying to thump a steel girder.

We are very pleased with it. I spent the preceding year looking at every arch I could find, and slowly developing the design for ours.

The key points regarding the aesthetics are the double curve (vertically, plus fore and aft), and that it is integrated into the pushpit. We used semi-flexible frameless solar panels to follow the vertical curve, and with one central, and the side ones fanning out, the fore and aft curve is followed as well (you don't see the angle from below due to a SS bar under each join). Also, all 12 cables are run internally (3 x RF, 6 x solar, 2 x lighting - cockpit and rear flood, 1 x passarelle lift), so that keeps it neat also.

They key points regarding the rigidity are the 10mm mounting plates, the heavy wall tube, and that it is integrated into the pushpit.

Particularly when the angle grinder came out to cut into our pushpit, we were wondering if we were doing the right thing, but the end result in our view is an aesthetic enhancement, and functionally a big plus.

If we ever meet up over there, you are welcome to come take a look (many have ).

Cheers,
David

[robert sailor]

[QUOTE=David B;2299582]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Hi Robert,
Well, we have had two guys hanging off the davit ends and bouncing up and down on their arms, but no movement of the davits or the arch.
Our tender is a 3.4 metre rigid-floored Zodiac with a 6HP 4-stroke (23kg unfortunately - darn heavy things, bring back two-strokes !!!), and it is very solid.
The arch and davit extensions are of heavy wall SS tubing, and thumping it, swinging on it etc is like trying to thump a steel girder.

We are very pleased with it. I spent the preceding year looking at every arch I could find, and slowly developing the design for ours.

The key points regarding the aesthetics are the double curve (vertically, plus fore and aft), and that it is integrated into the pushpit. We used semi-flexible frameless solar panels to follow the vertical curve, and with one central, and the side ones fanning out, the fore and aft curve is followed as well (you don't see the angle from below due to a SS bar under each join). Also, all 12 cables are run internally (3 x RF, 6 x solar, 2 x lighting - cockpit and rear flood, 1 x passarelle lift), so that keeps it neat also.

They key points regarding the rigidity are the 10mm mounting plates, the heavy wall tube, and that it is integrated into the pushpit.

Particularly when the angle grinder came out to cut into our pushpit, we were wondering if we were doing the right thing, but the end result in our view is an aesthetic enhancement, and functionally a big plus.

If we ever meet up over there, you are welcome to come take a look (many have ).

Cheers,
David

Sounds like you've done a world class job on the design and build, wish I could say the same on ours. Thanks for the feedback David. R

[David B]

[QUOTE=robert sailor;2299731]

Originally Posted by David B

Sounds like you've done a world class job on the design and build, wish I could say the same on ours. Thanks for the feedback David. R

It would be most interesting to get a price on the same arch made in Europe. The one we were originally quoted on in France was only 30mm tubing (matching the pushpit), and flat top. If the opportunity arises, I might ask the question.

[olddream]

Here is our Arch, done in Alghero/Sardinia for about 3500 €. Rocksolid for 2 x 100 watt panels and our 2,7 m dinghy. If you come here you can take all measures and I'll bring you in contact to the guys who did it. But bring a little time, at least 6 weeks.

[Pete7]

Does it have to be stainless steel?

Galvanised steel which is then powered coated to your colour would be a damn sight cheaper and a DIY option, rather than have to pay someone to bend, weld and polish a stainless steel frame.

I am thinking about using these folk for a large single solar panel, probably 42.4mm single frame with supports to the deck or pushpit.

https://www.themetalstore.co.uk/products/tube-clamp

Pete

[olddream]

The challenge for me was to build a solid structure, which is not too much changing the shape and appearance of our boat.

So we tried to hide the arch to the maximum and integrated it in the existing stainless steel structures. This is why we took off the original pushpit and replaced the vertical structures by the new arch.

I cant believe that you achieve that with a different material than stainless steel.