St. Francis 50: "Wayfinder"

[Wakey]

Hugh, if you'd like to flesh out your thought process in regard to boat selection a bit more it might be helpful information for the next guy going in your direction ;-)

If I was you I'd look for something else to obsess over, like ripping a ton of Bluray and DVD discs to a hard drive. Might make sense to put together a catalog of high res audio as well.

Will the TV's be networked together with Cat 5 or Cat 6 so they could stream content all from one source?

Have you thought about getting a drone? I'd think it would be worth the price alone, just to get some aerial shots of the boat under sail.

There, splashdown will be here before you know it!

I don't expect you to comment on any of this if you don't want to, it's simply the stuff I think I would be looking at in this stage of the process. I think I'm about 4 Years out so...


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[parkwest]

Excellent thread, Hugh.

I am currently in the selection process and your comments have helped immensely. I had narrowed down my choices to either a St Francis 50 or the Helio 44 until I came across some videos of the Broadblue Rapier 550. Did you get a chance to review the Rapier 550?

Looking forward to reading more of your adventures.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Hugh Howey]

Originally Posted by monte

Hugh, have you considered having a hull colour others than white. Considering the hulls are painted not gel coat, I think this would be a really nice option. Some of the bronze, silver, gold colours look really nice on cats and stand out a bit from the crowd.

We did consider this. Jaco even printed up a design with a blue hull that looked really sexy.

The problems I've had with painted hulls over the years (captaining the boats, not owning them) are threefold:

1) Very hard to keep clean. Salt shows up really badly.
2) Very hard to repair scratches.
3) VERY hot. White hulls stay relatively cool. Dark hulls soak up heat, radiate it inside, and also make the boat hot to the touch if approaching in the dinghy, or cleaning the hull.
4) Imperfections magnified. The white hides any slight ding. Color makes it stand out.

For these reasons, I love when OTHER people have dark hulls, so I can look at them from my deck with a drink in hand and my feet up. The exact same way I feel about teak on boats. Looks great on OTHER people's boats.

[Hugh Howey]

Originally Posted by Wakey

Hugh, if you'd like to flesh out your thought process in regard to boat selection a bit more it might be helpful information for the next guy going in your direction ;-)

If I was you I'd look for something else to obsess over, like ripping a ton of Bluray and DVD discs to a hard drive. Might make sense to put together a catalog of high res audio as well.

Will the TV's be networked together with Cat 5 or Cat 6 so they could stream content all from one source?

Have you thought about getting a drone? I'd think it would be worth the price alone, just to get some aerial shots of the boat under sail.

There, splashdown will be here before you know it!

I don't expect you to comment on any of this if you don't want to, it's simply the stuff I think I would be looking at in this stage of the process. I think I'm about 4 Years out so...


Posted from my buggy iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum app

I've ordered a waterproof, floating drone. That's a must these days, I think. Especially since you can "peek" underwater and check out the coral from a distance.

I only have one TV onboard. You can put TVs in the staterooms, but at the size they are, I'll just use a 17" laptop on a tray by my knees. That gives you the same size of a 32" or 42" inch at some distance. The TV in the saloon is massive at 50". Most of my movie viewing will be here.

I've got a huge DVD and Blu-Ray library. I'll take ripping stuff with me and give the discs to other cruisers.

[Hugh Howey]

Just heard that my dinghy has arrived and is being fitted out. People have asked about my choice here, so I'll upload some pics of the thing before it ships off to South Africa to join the cat.

I also spoke with the owner of hull #18 yesterday, who got the exact same dinghy, and he has me very excited about our choice. Says the machine is a blast and gets right up on a plane with him alone.

The dinghy we went with is a 13' AB ALX w/ a 40hp Yamaha. Can't wait to scoot around the islands in this thing!

[Hugh Howey]

More pics from the yard. Amazing progress with getting the interior furniture built out.

Wayfinder | Wayfinder Build: Part 8 – Furniture

[BlueBuddha]

Originally Posted by Hugh Howey

More pics from the yard. Amazing progress with getting the interior furniture built out.

Wayfinder | Wayfinder Build: Part 8 – Furniture

Wow the carbon fiber instrument panel will look amazing. It seems that Wayfinder will mark a major change in the look of the SF - for the better! They really need to update the pics on the SF website with pics from your boat once it is finished!

[EllisElectric]

Hi Hugh, nice looking build-out. How easy will it be to open the black Plexiglas backing to get to splices and connections behind it or do you just do that at each piece of equipment (instrumentation)?

[Hugh Howey]

Originally Posted by EllisElectric

Hi Hugh, nice looking build-out. How easy will it be to open the black Plexiglas backing to get to splices and connections behind it or do you just do that at each piece of equipment (instrumentation)?

You would pull each instrument. The ones you'll access most often are the AC and DC panels, and these have piano hinges at the bottom and thumb screws at the top, so it's tooless and very quick.

And that's carbon fiber, not plexi. You can see the weave up-close.

[Hugh Howey]

Originally Posted by BlueBuddha

Wow the carbon fiber instrument panel will look amazing. It seems that Wayfinder will mark a major change in the look of the SF - for the better! They really need to update the pics on the SF website with pics from your boat once it is finished!

Totally agreed. It's really a different looking boat. The new windows, the large fixed portholes along the sides, and the square cockpit seating are the biggest changes. The interiors are moving toward lighter woods as well. And while the builder loves the curved molding on all the doors and drawers, I think a future owner should talk them into going square with a boat and really upping the modern look and feel.

With all this, you still have one of the fastest cats out there, with very good aspect ratios to the hulls, light weight, and extremely stiff construction. Plus a stout rig and sailplan. It's just my opinion, but I think the SF50 is the finest bluewater cruising cat built today, and I think hull #19 is far and away the best of them. Until hull #20 comes along, of course.

I've been talking a lot with other owners and comparing notes, and I'm sure the next few SF50 buyers will be in touch with questions and ideas, and as I'm shaking mine down, we'll work on making each boat more spectacular than the last. Just today, I've received two emails from the yard asking about preferences on little things. They hand-build these, use the products you prefer, and go way overboard in making sure it's the boat you want.

Of course, you can also just have them build the boat as they see fit, if you don't want to make all those decisions. The hull I sailed on that led me to buy this boat was a spec build, meaning they built it with no owner in mind. And it's a dynamite boat. I very nearly went with it.

[Hugh Howey]

A few pics here, in case you don't want to click through to my blog:



The galley. Stove is in. Cabinets are all in, except for the one that extends over the window there.



I'm going with a 50" Sony TV. It's very light and thin. Weighs less than the 32" TVs I used to hang in other boats. Perfect position to watch from the saloon. Also: The table will drop down to form a day bed. Movie nights are going to be a blast!



A great shot to show why I laid out the interior the way I did. The nav and settee meet at the dead centerline of the saloon. This puts the port side of the settee so that it faces out the cockpit door and right down the middle walkway that leads to the aft deck. So sitting here, with your feet propped up toward the camera, you're looking right out over the anchorage. This will undoubtedly be the most popular place to sit on the inside of the boat.



The new nav station with the carbon fiber paneling. Why go with carbon fiber instead of a wood finish? It helps all the disparate systems that get installed blend together more. Since they all have black frames, but these frames are built by different manufacturers, the various shapes and styles disappear a little, leaving just the screens. When you install all those instruments on wood, the menagerie effect stands out, and it looks all cluttered and disorganized. Also: When you inevitably change some of the systems out, you can put a black frame around smaller components to fill in voids, and you won't see them as much.

You've got room for two here, so a second set of eyes can go over weather maps and proposed routes. Or two people can sit with coffee in the rain and look forward. An electric set of engine controls and access to the autopilot mean you can drive from this station as well. Plus, the expanded counter to the right now has room for a full rack of drawers, so there's a place for all the office supplies and knick-knacks a boat needs. Oh, and the wider counter at the nav station means a wider lift-up cubby. There will be room inside for all the paper charts, dividers, parallel rules, and nav stuff.

[beiland]

Originally Posted by SVNeko

An interesting and unusual arrangement but I like it. Looking at it from the aft view, it seems the chamfer panels are run all the way aft to accomodate the bed. In the layout photos you can see just how far the bed intrudes into the bridgedeck. Sort of like forward bridgedeck cabins but aft. I wonder how it will affect slamming.

I wondered about that 'wave interference' as well. I wrote them an email asking this evening.

I also ask about what appears to be two booms on the 66' design, a std one and a wishbone affair ??

On a related note, I really like the integrated all-weather ventilation and rainwater catcher. Smart ideas.

Yes, good ideas.

[beiland]

I might make suggest you might want to consider, especially considering that you seem to have a see-thru opening in the top of that cover over the cockpit.

Many of these cockpit coverings on vessels are white colored. This can be very hard on the eyes after you viewing the glare of the sunshine off of the water. I once saw a big cat where the underside area of the hard cover over the cockpit had been painted a dark cool blue. It was much easier on the eyes when out on the water in bright sunlight.

I'll see if I can find a photo of that boat, but it was some time ago when I was reviewing some building possibilities over in Thailand

[Hugh Howey]

Originally Posted by beiland

I might make suggest you might want to consider, especially considering that you seem to have a see-thru opening in the top of that cover over the cockpit.

Many of these cockpit coverings on vessels are white colored. This can be very hard on the eyes after you viewing the glare of the sunshine off of the water. I once saw a big cat where the underside area of the hard cover over the cockpit had been painted a dark cool blue. It was much easier on the eyes when out on the water in bright sunlight.

I'll see if I can find a photo of that boat, but it was some time ago when I was reviewing some building possibilities over in Thailand

I can imagine how much that would reduce the glare. Sounds like a brilliant idea. Please share the pics if you can find them.

[beiland]

I found one of those photos. I'm sure I have a few more, but have not found those yet.