BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

On 1 Mar 2006 10:28:36 -0800, wrote:

Here in the Pac NW they are useless 8-9 months out of the year unless
they are fully enclosed. When fully enclosed with canvas, the boat is
suddenly carrying a lot of "sail"
that the NA never really envisioned. We used to boat on a 32- Bayliner
time share boat years ago, (no wisecracks, please), and the draft was
so shallow and the rudders so small that you had to roll up the
flybridge canvas to reduce windage if trying to dock in anything much
over 10-15 kts.

Yes, we had those issues with our old Bertram 33 which at 21,000 lbs
was probably heavier than the Bayliner. It would sail like a kite in
crosswind landings and since we had no lower helm on that boat it was
a long hop down the ladder in order to get a line on the dock.

A flybridge raises the COG, and increases the "rolling moment" in a
beam sea. I like a boat where the COG is as low as possible.

Depends on the boat. If it's fast enough to run on plane, rolling is
not much of an issue. Our GB49 has a fairly low COG and deep draft
but it would still roll quite a bit without the stabilizers. With the
stabilizers we get lazy and careless about leaving stuff laying around
only to be reminded once in a while that forward motion is required
for them to do any good. We lost a television that way waiting for a
drawbridge to open.

While I have "evolved" to an almost constant use of my Simrad
chartplotter, I still keep a paper chart open on the chart table next
to the helm and directly underneath the plotter. The chart helps me
keep a perspective on the "big picture" while I may be zoomed in on
some small detail on the plotter. In the unlikely event that the Simrad
ever goes "boink" when I'm halfway across the Strait of Juan de Fuca or
trying to pick my way along with plotter, radar, and chart after dark I
won't need to start looking for the chart or wonder where the heck I
am. More Old Phogeyism, for sure, but few flybridges have any proper
provision for laying out a chart.

We've addressed all that with a belt and suspenders solution. The
Furuno chartplotter on the flybridge sits side by side with a laptop
displaying raster charts in the same format as paper, fed by a
separate inexpensive GPS. I usually keep the laptop zoomed out and
the Furuno zoomed in. In the evening we use the laptop to plot out
the next days run, and when underway it gives us a constant update on
distance to go and ETA at the destination no matter how many
intervening waypoints are in the route. We covered over 5,000 nautical
miles last year with no paper charts, and no regrets. Once you get
used to the speed, convenience and flexibility of electronic charting
on a laptop you will never go back. It is great for armchair trip
planning also, as well as giving you a detailed electronic log of
everywhere you've been. If the weather is threatening thunderstorms,
I keep a second laptop running at the lower helm.

We use our boat at least a little bit every month of the year, and
often have guests aboard. When the weather is crummy, the guests seem
to prefer to sit around the dining table within arm's reach of the
fridge and the hot goodies on the cookstove (and directly over the main
cabin outlet for the diesel furnace). It's tougher to get them up onto
the flybridge in cool or damp weather, and it's not social to abandon
them to their own devices.

We run an electric heater inside the flybridge enclosure in cool damp
weather, and have an Igloo picnic cooler for beverages.

Finally, from my pilothouse helm it is one step onto the deck. If we're
trying to make a challenging landing and it is just the Mrs. and myself
aboard, she often needs some help with the lines faster than I can
manage to scramble down from a flybridge.

Yes, that is one of the few times I use the lower helm but rarely find
it necessary.

But what do I know? The most popular selling new boats, even up here in
the Pacific NorthWET, all seem to have eliminated the lower helms to
increase space in the main cabin. My taste isn't always the popular
taste, nor need it be. I think that a majority of people enjoy or even
prefer a flybridge, and the lack of lower helms on many of the new
models doesn't seem to be impacting sales very much. LIke I say, it's
probably not the "rest of the army that's out of step." :-)

The view from 15 feet up in the air is absolutely spectacular. I
wouldn't give it up for anything.