Bestevaer 49ST

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by cj88

This has been a most informative thread right from the beginning. I know your specifications to the builders must be like a bible and you have mentioned some of the key things you were wanting but I'd be quite keen to know more about the various smaller details you specified and why as I think they might be quite educational too. Anyway, congrats on the build and I'm sure you can't wait for the splash.

Hi Cj88

Regarding the small things, there are dozens. Is there any particular area that you are interested in?

For example, for the settees and beds the height of the timber strip retaining the foam at the edge was specified higher than usual. I find it annoying if the trim does not capture the cushion well and it can slip up and over the trim. Anything used to raise a mattress for air circulation often results in the same thing. If there is no storage under a seat the cushion can be secured down with velcro, but not otherwise.

So 80mm was requested for the trim sticking above the base of the settees and 120mm above the base of the bed to allow for the slats and a 150mm (6") mattress.

SWL

[Seaworthy Lass]

Anyone know what is happening with Photobucket?

All my images have disappeared to be replaced with the attached image.
If I do as suggested and go to www. photobucket.com/P500 it simply leads to someone else's Photobucket.

I can't find anything in my Photobucket account settings to explain this.

[packeteer]

Photobucket no longer allow 3rd party image use. Time to delete and use an alternative servcie

Apparently they're also trying to monetise every image?!?

[Panope]

My Photo bucket stuff is doing the same thing has SWL's. Bummer.

I actually gave up on Photo bucket some time ago as their site was having numerous technical difficulties.

I switched to Imgur. Service has been good.

Steve

[packeteer]

yeah, Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet is the best around these days

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Panope

My Photo bucket stuff is doing the same thing has SWL's. Bummer.

I actually gave up on Photo bucket some time ago as their site was having numerous technical difficulties.

I switched to Imgur. Service has been good.

Steve

Originally Posted by packeteer

yeah, Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet is the best around these days

What a PITA!
Thanks for the tip. I will go check out Imgur.

SWL

[cj88]

Thanks SWL, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of. There must be so many little details that may not be apparent on the surface but they make life better, simpler, more comfortable, more reliable, more efficient, etc. I'm on a learning curve so it's all useful to me, particularly the why. Getting this sort of information from those who have done it, lived it and thought about it is invaluable to me and to plenty of others I'm sure. Perhaps things that could apply to live aboard/extended cruising use irrespective of the size of the boat.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by cj88

Thanks SWL, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of. There must be so many little details that may not be apparent on the surface but they make life better, simpler, more comfortable, more reliable, more efficient, etc. I'm on a learning curve so it's all useful to me, particularly the why. Getting this sort of information from those who have done it, lived it and thought about it is invaluable to me and to plenty of others I'm sure. Perhaps things that could apply to live aboard/extended cruising use irrespective of the size of the boat.

If you go back to the beginning of the thread while we were in the planning stage, dozens of excellent tips were posted by members. Some of these we had already included in the specifications, some were added (and some like including a generator were dismissed ).

I have now restored the photos I posted for June (using Imgur). It has taken an hour, so it is not viable to restore all the images. If anyone wants a particular one, let me know.

SWL

Edited to add:
I have now attached all the photos from this year as thumbnails and altered the corrupted images for the last 4 months of last year so that the link to the Photobucket image can at least be opened. I will see how much time I have to go back further. For any members interested in viewing older photos, if you click "Quote" on the post where the photo is and copy the portion between [img] and [/img] , this will give you a link to the photo on Photobucket.

[cj88]

I started reading the thread the other day and have worked through all 87 pages making notes along the way. It's been fascinating following your journey with this build.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Interior lighting info:

Lights are one of the small details that make a surprising difference. Unfortunately, you really need to see the fixtures in the flesh before deciding. Sometimes lights that look attractive in catalogues are not as nice as they appear. In addition, you need to see the lights on to judge the colour temperature and brightness and the pool of light they cast. The published lumen rating and colour temperature numbers do not always correspond with reality.

In the end we went for Prebit. These are quite expensive fittings, but each light has its own switch and driver, which helps reduce installation costs.

Most of the lighting is via these downlights that are infinitely dimmable and can be switched between white and red. They conveniently remember the last setting (even if power is removed). Ours are the matt version of these:


Narrow angle adjustable spots will illuminate artwork:




Wall lights have glass shades. They will be fitted where breakage will be unlikely. These create a lovely warm glow when on. Ours will be the non stripey version of these:






In the shower and toilet area the downlights are slightly different, as they need to be waterproof. Switches have been fitted externally, as it is hard to make them 100% waterproof and showers on boats are wet and humid environments, which is not ideal for switch life, especially low voltage DC switches:

[Seaworthy Lass]

Yesterday, the trim on the front edge of the pilothouse settees and the final trims on the ceiling in the salon/galley were completed.

A very traditional Dutch white beamed ceiling was one thing I wanted since I pored over interior photos from KM's website (most of the Bestevaers have this type of ceiling), and this was reinforced stepping on board Gerard Dijkstra's own boat for the first time.

Our ceilings are not quite as elaborate as his, but they firmly stamp the boat "Dutch built". When the supports are removed I will photograph these looking up.

The floor is only the sub floor at this stage:

[Seaworthy Lass]

Not much else is happening until our interior is closer to being completed. For those of you less interested in interiors and more focussed on equipment, here is a bit about our autopilot.

Our previous boat had a Raymarine linear electric drive. It was fantastic. It could steer in any sea state, never needed any maintenance and was very reliable. Other boats that we met with these drives reported the same qualities. This new boat is a bit larger though and has a significantly bigger rudder, putting the specifications outside the range for the Raymarine drives.

The normal solution is an hydraulic/electric drive. These are powerful, but even the best units seem to need periodic rebuilds when used frequently on a full time cruising boat. They also are reasonably power hungry.

KM suggested Jefa. These are Danish all electric drives, but with purpose made motors rather than the usual modified starter motors. They combine this with efficient planetary gearboxes, instead of the rubber drive belts on the Raymarine drive.

We photographed one yesterday that was being installed on another boat and wow, what a beautiful piece of engineering it is. All metal and looks as tough as nails. At 30 kg (66 lbs) it makes the Raymarine drive look like a plastic toy. We hope this translates to the same or better reliability than the Raymarine drive in practice. They normally fit the Jefa DD2 drive to yachts of our size. This is rated for boats up to 55 feet and the Bestvear with a spade rudder is light on the helm. We specified the larger DD3 drive which is rated for boats up to 70 feet. Overkill is good for autopilot drives .

Running off 24V it should have loads of power. The energy consumption surprisingly is less than the smaller DD2 drive for the same power output. The only problem with the more powerful DD3 is that it is quite large, especially as we wanted room for two permanently mounted autopilot drives (one for redundancy). The mounting support also needs to be very strong. Most boat builders don't do the attachment point well and this is a common failure point. The drive needs to be bolted down with 8x 10mm stainless bolts on 385mm (over 1 foot) centres, which gives you some idea of the torque generated. So it needs a serious mounting structure.

This photo shows the support our 20mm thick aluminium mounting plate that is welded to the hull and bulkheads. There is an identical one on the other side. The substantial dual lower rudder bearing can be seen in the top of the photo:




This is the smaller Jefa DD2 drive we spotted yesterday destined for another boat. What a gorgeous piece of engineering! Sometimes I think things like this should be on display like works of art:



SWL

[Jim Cate]

SWL, do you happen to know how much the clutch on the Jefa draws? We have a Whitlock drive, a similar design, and on a somewhat smaller unit, the clutch draws a continuous 2 amps, which is a serious energy hit for us.

Jim

[Pelagic]

Thanks SWL for the introduction to Jefa power pack for steering.

I had always thought a continuous hydraulic pump with A/B solenoids at the pump was the best for our size of boats but this explanation makes sense.

http://www.jefa.com/steering/products/drives/qanda.htm

[packeteer]

Jefa is well known in racing circles. top end kit