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Building a new 62' Offshore Pilothouse

Discussion in 'Offshore Yacht' started by Smiley0514, Jun 9, 2012.

  1. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    We are building a new 2013 62' Offshore Pilothouse M/Y "Many Waters" this pic shows the hull out of the mold and gel coated for Hull #98. Lots of fun decisions and tweaks going on between us and the builder / factory as we finalize all of the interior decisions. Enjoying the research on all of the great new electronics and functionality from our last yacht in 2008.

    We have twin Cat- C12's, ZF Drives and the joystick maneuvering system with I Anchor that we can't wait to use and enjoy and hydraulic bow & stern thrusters which will be a treat. We are taking the best of what we like from 6 other 62' Offshore's that we have been on and want to thank the owners for allowing us to see their beautiful yachts to get ideas.

    It has been great working with the Offshore Team and vendors providing us quotes and appreciate their flexibility. Hope to be at the Miami Boat Show and cruising Many Waters on the east coast next spring!

    More pics to follow if this of interest to the group and thinking of starting a blog on the build process.

    See you on the water,

    Smiley

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  2. YachtForums

    YachtForums Administrator

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    The myriad of details in building a new boat can be overwhelming. How are you going to find time to do a blog too? And once commissioned, what waters will be native?
  3. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    First, I will say there is not a perfect boat and there is a series of trade offs that you go through as the process evolves. I also believe there are many great yacht designs and builders, and the choice of a yacht is as personal as the name you put on her.

    Our main criteria was safety within vessel design, redundancy, equipment add-ons for a short handed crew, longer range for cruising with enough power to get to a protected area when the need arises and a page of many other items on the “short” list. There certainly is a myriad of details, for us it started just over a year ago when we sold our last yacht to allow us to start the process and get really serious on the next one. But even when we were on our last boat you start to think about what the next one will be. We originally planned on purchasing a late model 55’ to 65’ pilothouse and spent quite a bit of time over the last year in and on many other yachts from a handful of builders that met our criteria. One thing we did do was take tons of pictures, as well as countless hours on YW, and we traveled around from the west coast to the east coast, with several boat shows in between. We came close to pulling the trigger on a used 62’ Offshore, but after going back and forth (my wife and I) we decided to take as much of the best of all the boats we saw and build new, and the low interest rates helped that decision. So we pulled the trigger on a new build just over a month ago and haven’t looked back since.

    Along the way the process evolves, you visualize yourself living on your new yacht, from the helm to the galley, and just when you think you have it all figured out, you see something on another yacht or a picture you found and you start to rethink it. In our case, we also try to factor in resale on how other people may live on this yacht, as we know we won’t own it forever. The galley is an area we thought we new exactly what we wanted, we saw it on the used Offshore, but as we got into it, we went back and forth, drew it up a couple different ways, slept on it, tried some different appliance manufactures to get everything to fit and finally came up with the final design which pulls in elements from at least 3 different yachts. We have to say, the team at Offshore has be great to deal with and providing input along the way, and a fair amount of patience.

    There are also still many decisions we have in front of us, some small and some pretty big ones, like electronics. It is exciting to see the speed of how things are changing and evolving with marine electronics, the enhanced safety and capabilities, user interfaces, etc. and it can be mind boggling at times. Fortunately we have time to make that decision so we are continuing to educate ourselves on a handful of suppliers that we like and have had past experience with. Probably going to choose our final electronics package at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show this fall.

    For us, it is the journey and not the destination, but we do a ton of research on the front end and planning stages, and my wife has a great touch for the interior design elements, and we talk everything through. And yes, we do go back and forth on decisions until we both agree it is the right answer for our next yacht and the way that we plan to use it and live on it.

    Finding time to write a blog, our last journey was just over three years from Cape Town, SA to Ft. Lauderdale, with a couple of laps up and down the Caribbean. We used a blog to keep in touch with our family and friends as well as reflect back on every once in a while. Our only regret was after social media took off we slacked off on the blog the last year or so of the journey and didn’t finish it with the last season and sale of our yacht, oh well.

    Native waters you ask, Many Waters is the native translation of where we “call home” in the PNW, but M/Y Many Waters will be kept in warm waters more often than not, we know we are warm weather boaters, and we intend to cruise the entire east coast and Caribbean as our journey continues.
  4. dennismc

    dennismc Senior Member

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    Not to be critical, but I would like my keel a little deeper to protect the running gear as much as practical, specially in the PNW waters.
    Good luck on the project, will be exciting.
  5. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    Thanx, one of the trade offs you go through, but we will based in FL. and be in plenty of shallow waters from the Caribbean to the ICW and many other waters, we wanted to be just under 5' draft and a low center of gravity. Maybe someday we will do the Panama Cannel and The Big U the other direction (great book by the way), as that is on the bucket list.
  6. Kafue

    Kafue Senior Member

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    These are great boats. There are probably a few members rolling their eyes hearing me writing this again!
    Spent many sea hours on my 58', which is a 62’ without the extended marlin board.
    You have approached this like someone who understands the best way to proceed. Reading your posts I can see why.

    • Have you considered having the cockpit doors positioned in the centre of the stern, 2 doors, each opening opposite? I have seen a couple in Australia set up this way and it makes the marlin board an extension of the cockpit. Very nice way to access the water for diving etc.
    • Also, on mine, the lazerette hatch was attached to the trim tab hydraulic pump by an arm, so a push of a button and it raised or closed, makes for easy use of a large, heavy opening.
    • Recently I was on a new Fleming 55 and the cap rails and covering boards were teak, or so I thought! I mentioned to the broker what a PITA it was maintaining these and he happily told me it was NOT teak, but gelcoat done to imitate teak. Apparently created by Burr, the Fleming dealers in the US. For me, I would definitely go with this. Not sure where you could get the “recipe”, but knowing the Taiwanese yard that builds Offshore, I reckon they will get this for you. Very hard to tell the difference from real teak, so it won’t look tacky!
    • Those pilothouse doors are so useful for access etc., as you know, but I would go with doors that were similar to what we used to call stable doors, i.e. top opens while bottom stays shut. That way you get to open the door (top) whilst underway. Having the whole pilothouse door open whilst underway creates a LOT of water ingress, even though at the time you think it is minor sea mist or a trickle, over time that water trickle discolours the master cabin wall, shorts the lights etc.
    • Given a choice, I would add a TNT or similar lift as well as a davit on the flybridge for the tender. So often you move anchorage and having the tender lifted quickly/safely on the water is best, especially in high winds, bad seas. Getting a tender onto the flybridge was often a challenge. Plus the added deck “on or in the water” is good fun.
    As dennismc commented, looks like you have made the keel shallower? How will this affect handling in following seas etc.? Mine was good in all seas.

    Good luck and Enjoy!
    Cheers.
  7. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    Thanx, the rear side by side cockpit doors that you are referring to are a nice option and really does open up the cockpit and swim platform, sitting in the saloon and looking out also gives you great view of the water.
    We decided on the more traditional P/S cockpit doors as we plan on having some outdoor furniture where the doors you are referring to are located and wanted the option for a further owner to do a molded seat / storage if that was what they wanted.

    The upper / lower PH doors I have not seen on late model or new yachts, we have certainly taken our share water / mist in through doors and hatches over the years and many times when you would least expect it. We did add the phantom screens which may help. The standard PH doors have a great seal and easy to operate, so we are not planning any changes but it got me to thinking what I could do to minimize this when we do run with the PH doors open.

    The TNT lifts are certainly nice for many applications and we have certainly had some not so fun experiences getting the tender secure in some rolling seas / anchorages.

    The keel, I had to go back and look at the pictures to figure this out and what I believe to be the case is that there is a keel extension that is added in front of the prop pockets, possibly designed to break away and sacrifice? That was the design of our previous boat and looking at the two pictures it would seem to be the case here. I will follow up on that further as we do have a 5' draft and the finished picture shows the full keel.

    Thanx for the input
  8. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    Keel

    Here is a pic of the finished keel on a different 62' Offshore. Bottom of the keel is 5' bottom of props is 4' 8" is what I find on the standard specs.

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  9. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    Pressure testing the fuel tanks

    3 fuels tanks holding 1,000 gals under going pressure tests over the weekend. We are also planning a Maretron monitoring system for all tanks, main engines, hydraulics, fuel management, temp's, water pressure, bilges, security and remote monitoring, and a handful of other monitoring points. We saw this system on another Offshore and was impressed with it's capabilities and the peace of mind it will offer us while cruising as well as the times we are away.

    Let's hope the tanks held the pressure tests!

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  10. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Why are they using metal fuel tanks? Most Tiawanese builder's are fiberglassing fuel tanks into the hull from what I've seen in the last decade.....
  11. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    Fuel tanks

    I honestly don't know about most Taiwan builders, the Offshore has 3 aluminum tanks, epoxy painted and interconnected with cross feed lines and very large and accessible clean outs for the tanks. Water tanks are stainless steel and the grey / black holding tanks are molded into the hull.
  12. Smiley0514

    Smiley0514 New Member

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    Main deck comes out of the mold

    Yesterday the main deck came out of the new mold. Offshore retooled their molds back in 2009 (I believe) and the new tooling adds flush leakproof windows, doors and hatches, higher bulwarks on the bow, a non-skid to the PH roof with a slightly different profile I believe and a larger molded helm station on the FB to accommodate the electronics, among other things.

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