Next week we may have some interesting news to share with everyone. Will keep you guessing for now.
John
Wifey B: I'm got it.....Sailor Blue is pregnant? Is that it? :lol:
Next week we may have some interesting news to share with everyone. Will keep you guessing for now.
John
Wifey B: I'm got it.....Sailor Blue is pregnant? Is that it? :lol:
A couple of tricks that might help.....
1) Just remove the handles. I have all my return valve handles removed. It takes a concerted effort to close one. But it does leave you exposed to then forgetting to re-open it if you do have to close it for some reason, like your repair.
2) I have also color coded my fuel valve handles using colored electrical tape. Green valves should always be open. Red valves should always be closed. That makes it real easy to confirm everything is set correctly. Yellow valves are expected to be operated as part of running the boat. So you should never find yourself operating anything other than a yellow valve. And if you find your hand on a red or green valve, you need to stop and explain what exceptional circumstance is causing you to do that.
What started out as a great planned weekend turned into another lesson learned.
John
Motors, switches, etc do not need to be ignition protected unless there is a gas engine involved
Now that we have discussed my screw up I thought it would be interesting to look at a few things including how boats design impacted us. First observation is the location and accessibility if the fuel manifold. It is located on the starboard side of the engine on its own bulkhead and easily reachable. I give the design an "A". The ability to trace the hose back to the engine which went below the removable floor boards, behind the engine to the lower port side was easy. I give the ability to follow the hose an "A". Accessibility to the clamp on the engine side was a tight fit. If I was a big person I wouldn't have been able to squeeze in and lay down. I mentioned when building the boat we thought about adding an panel from the day head to the engine which would have worked great. I give engine port side access a "C plus". My ability to move around the engine room without opening the PH floor was great. Another "A". The ability to work this issue without having to lift any hatches instead using the ER access door really helped by not having to disrupt Mary or SB. As i mentioned many times I would not purchase a boat w/o an ER door for reasons like this. ER access gets an "A plus". I give the operator a big "F". ��
Congratulations on your new Helmsman. I'm curious. Why the Helmsman instead of the North Pacific? It looks to be about the same quality and the same capability. I like the hardtop on the NP45. That was a nice touch. They even look very similar but there is something about the NP45 that I really like. Maybe it's the hardtop. The interior of the Helmsman is very nice but it's very nice on the NP. Was price the main consideration? I think the Helmsman is priced a bit more competitively.
We actually looked at the NP and spoke with Trevor more than once during our research. While our knowledge of the NP line of boats is limited we do appreciate some of their characteristics but in the end we selected the Helmsman 38 for its quality, hull shape, beam, low profile PH, value and proven capability based upon two other Nordhavn owners who owned H38's and used them hard in the PNW including many trips to Alaska. Hull design is very important to us and we discovered the Helmsman design is more a modified full displacement hull than a semi displacement hull which try's to offer both FD and SD speeds. The Helmsman hull is soft in all types of weather conditions where a SD design can be a little more rough. She is a 7.5 knot boat which was the speed we were looking for. Yes she will top out around 12 knot's but we will never reach those speeds and burn a ton of gas. We burn under 2GPH all day have a range of 800 miles which meets our needs. If we had to do it all over again we would build another Helmsman without spending another two years researching everything else out there. Hope this answers your question.
John
Hi dirtdoc1
What make boat is on your avatar. Looks interesting. Have you other photos?
Cheers!
Art
Hmm, John I believe an FD hull around your length would top out at about 8kn. The fact that you cruise economically at 7.5 and top out at 12 means there is quite a lot of SD in the Helmsman hull. Of course the NP may be even further towards the planing end of the spectrum. And I hear what you say: your 38 rides soft, so they have got the displacement right and pretty much nailed the amount of SD characteristic to include.
While looking at the schematics I noticed that there was a 200 gal gas tank right next to a 175 gal water tank on each side of the boat. The two 175 gal water tanks could easily be used for gas instead. That would give her another 600 miles at 8 knots - at least. That would give her a range of approximately 1500 miles - conservatively. I'd add a high capacity water maker and put a 40gal water tank in the lazaret. I talked to Trevor about that and he said it could easily be done but suggested using the boat as is for a while, which I thought was sound advice. Any thoughts?
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With the watermaker you might go to just one of the 175 Gal Water Tanks but I'd never consider only 40 gallons. Too often timing just wouldn't work. Depending on how frequently you need more range, if it's a necessity for a crossing or something, they you might consider bladders.
While looking at the schematics I noticed that there was a 200 gal gas tank right next to a 175 gal water tank on each side of the boat. The two 175 gal water tanks could easily be used for gas instead. That would give her another 600 miles at 8 knots - at least. That would give her a range of approximately 1500 miles - conservatively. I'd add a high capacity water maker and put a 40gal water tank in the lazaret. I talked to Trevor about that and he said it could easily be done but suggested using the boat as is for a while, which I thought was sound advice. Any thoughts?
I think any difference in the hull shapes are primarily marketing between the NP and the Helmsman. Both are SD hulls with the strengths and weaknesses inherent in an SD hull.
Both are well built boats. I would pick the one that has the layout that works best for you.
As for water/fuel tanks. 400 gal of fuel is a LOT of fuel. Unless you plan to cross oceans, or intend to drive the boat at it's max speed, it has plenty of range for a coastal cruiser. 350 gallons of water is a lot. I don't have a water maker because the PO pulled it out. He found he never needed it so it was a burden to maintain. A water maker would be good to have but I would hesitate to eliminate a water tank. The large tanks gives you a buffer in case you are in locations where you don't want run the water maker.
Btw, if you want to do passage making and want longer range, then I would suggest you not look at either the NP or the Helmsman. They are great coastal cruisers, but not passage makers.