450: Lagoon 450 Modifications

[DavefromNZ]

Yes I expect that may be the case. If so it would have been nice if Lagoon had informed in the manual...

[IanClarke]

Hello Dave,
on our L450 only the Port engine heats the water. If you look at the engine you will see the extra hoses used to go to the hot water. I agree with you that the hot water situation is too limited. I have been caught a couple of times where a guest has had a non boat shower ( ie 3 second shower), and I was left with a cold one.

One the Seawind 1000XL that we had there was a gas continuos flow hot water heater. This was a great solution for hot water.

Glad to hear that you are enjoying the L450. We are in the USA at present and really miss being on ours.

Regards Ian

[DavefromNZ]

Hi Ian,

I have turned the thermostat on the water heater up from the normal 60 deg C to 80 deg C which will give a bit more shower time, but only with generator use. I think using a brazed plate heat exchanger will give continuous hot water.

On another matter the eberspacher heater system gives a nice hot 'coolant' fluid circuit but the rest of the design is @&ap. The radiator fans in the saloon had almost zero air being pushed out. That is because the intake under the seats was right next to the fans. I have fixed that and next job is to fix the almost zero airflow into the shower area.

Cheers
Dave

[downunder]

Does it get cold in NZ ?

[DavefromNZ]

Never, sunny here 24/7 :-)

[Kinch]

This post is for those of you who think the original boom fixation piece is only strong enough for a Laser.

I decided to change mine after I realized how weak this essential piece of the boat seemed to me.

Here are some photos ...

(the original is the left one ;-)

[boom23]

Kinch,

Did you have the piece custom made or is it a readily available?

Thanks.

[Kinch]

Custom made in Barcelona. Same inox cie which did the dinghy engine crane.
I don't know the precise cost yet, but it should probably be around 1200-1500 €.
An expensive fix, but I feel its a ow cost for tranquility of mind.
Of course, I'd rather if Lagoon chose stronger Goose neck (is that the correct english name for this piece ?) for their future units. I know that my spanish dealer shared this with the factory team in France, although these wouldn't admit any weakness with the original piece of course.

[roetter]

Strong points for Jordan Drogue:

We have had our L450 for 6 months now and have done about 6000 Nm, mostly in the Med. We are now heading toward the Canaries and then across the Atlantic. In preparation I am doing several modifications.

Here my design for the the attachment of the Jordan drogue. Many professional skipper don't use any drag devices, but I want to be able to put the boat in a safe condition even if the autopilot fails. I plan to lash the rudder to center. The brake on the wheel is not strong enough so use lines on the wheel too. Deploy the drogue and go to sleep until the storm abates or you get your strength back and want to deal with it in an active fashion.

During this trip we have often been rafted together during anchoring with another L450. Power boaters have thrown us some big waves and we could see the aft cleats move significantly under the shock loads. So much that we thought they would pull out. A few weeks back I removed the rope box under the cleat to see what is going on in there. Just 2 square washers about 50mm in size support the cleat and no other visible beefing up of the laminate. Anyway, the cleat position would have the bridle lines for the drogue chafe on the aft stations, so the attachment point had to be moved further aft.

The design for the strong points reinforces the cleats at the same time, giving me confidence that in a marina with swell (we had two or three of them already) the cleats will not be ripped off. I will reinforce the forward cleats a similar manner in time as well. I will again use a top and bottom plate. On the aft cleats I could see how they had already compressed the laminate which could lead to failure as well.


The design consists of two stainless steel plates. The top one is 10mm thick, the lower one 5mm. All have the same hole pattern. Two holes are for the cleat bolts, the others for the 10mm bolts for extra compression onto the fibre glass for a well distributed load transfer from the bridle, through the stainless into the laminate.
The longer plate is longer and polished and has a hole at the end for a shackle.
It goes on to of the side deck. The shorter plate goes underneath. Both are connected via four 10mm through bolts and the two 18mm cleat bolts.



The underside of the laminate is quite bumpy and also somewhat curves down toward the aft. I am planning to put some mastic polyester with fibreglass in it on the lower plate and then bolt it to the top pate again to bridge the peaks and valleys.

The pictures are from the work in progress. I still have to clean up the Butyl caulking and do the mastic polyester levelling.

Here is the exact design as manufactured in Palma. We paid 200 Euro for a complete set for one boat. Our buddy boat is getting the same strong points.

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Rolf

[boom23]

Rolf,

You did an amazing job! Please let us know what you did on the bow cleats.

Thank you for sharing. I saved all the information.

I am not sure if you can set the drogue, tie the wheel and go to sleep with a drogue though... Maybe, with a Sea Anchor. I would think that with a drogue you will still have to do some heading corrections. I hope someone with actual experience can give some input.

Theo.

[coldar1]

I'm about to become a L450 owner and have been following all this info with great interest and fascination. Dissapointing of course that the builder doesn't do the job right in the first place, but lots of owner-experienced shared on this forum can't have a value put on them, especially for those of us just about to embark on that long-held dream! Well done and keep the great info coming!

[boom23]

Rolf,

One more thing... I would use 3M 5200 sealant at the underside of the laminate. This will make the underside plate permanently attached.

Thanks again.

[Lagoon4us]

Best advice is to accept advice from actual LAGOON owners/ex-owners, you will be very satisfied :-) Cheers Frank

[roetter]

Originally Posted by boom23

Rolf,

One more thing... I would use 3M 5200 sealant at the underside of the laminate. This will make the underside plate permanently attached.

Thanks again.

I was planning to use mastic polyester to attach the backing plate. I need to bridge some bumps of the inside fiber glass too. Also, towards the aft the inside hull curves slightly down so the plate is lying hollow. I would have to tighten the screws too much to make it follow the curve that I could break things.

Here a quote from a manufacturer:

"Polyester mastic reinforced with glass fibres. Mastic based on unsatured polyester resins and glass fibres. Featuring good mechanical resistance, low shrinkage and very good spreadability, it is particularly recommended for filling up edges and bends, filling and for gluing boats longerons and bulkheads in the production of fibreglass hulls."

It is meant to by used for these kind of applications. What do you think?

Rolf

[boom23]

I don't know how large the gaps are, so I'm of little help here. Basically, you will need something that has the consistency of play dough, when un-cured, and does not shrink or compress much when cured.

I have had great luck with 3M 5200 before but the gaps were 1/4 inch or less.