The Wheelhouse Round-Up discussion

Good job Carl!

I think this wheelhouse collection is a very good idea which I hope will be followed by Galleys, Engine rooms, Master cabins a o...

At my first browsing through all the bridges, I remember the Lürssen SKAT as being very professional and good looking and the ISA built April Fool as one of the nicest, making a neat use of the new flatscreens, but as with many yachts with angled windscreens they should be positioned further back to avoid reflections.

One of my own designs that I like is enclosed. It has a bridge with 360° view under the truly flying flybridge, with glass that can change from almost black to clear by LCD rasters.

Captain and first mate is sharing a comprehensive setup of monitoring and navigational aids and the joystick controls is on an arm that can swing over to the guy in command. (To avoid confusion of twin controls, this is a very fast waterjet boat). The guests has a revolving dining/observation group behind in an open plan.

Just waiting for reality to catch up...

In the good old days when I was a captain, we had a steering wheel and no chair at all...

This is the Moonen 85.

As with engine rooms, it varies a lot. Owner, captain and project manager are all involved in selecting equipment and positioning it after their individual experience. The designer use to make the packaging or the design concept of the bridge and today when many work in 3D it is helping to get the ergonomics right.

The electronics are often left to the end of the construction period to ensure the latest models are installed. Since the development is going fast, we have to be on top of what is going on and what is feasible for the yacht in question. The analogue instruments are today only available in the engine room or in an adjacent room while the bridge have digital alarm and monitoring systems.

If you like you can have one big flat-screen for almost everything, but it is of course safer and more practical to divide it into several. The yachts TV-system often have extra channels so anyone can monitor what is going on from anywhere.

Then you have the communication and entertainment systems...

It still varies from yacht to yacht. When making the conceptual design, a good designer, one of the handful that exists , will make an initial proposal to the owner that corresponds with the general brief. As an example I enclose a pretty nice bridge from a 46 m design I made in 1992. This is an airy, split level wheelhouse with an observation area together with the communication and navigation station on the raised part.

Forward, a feet lower, is the steering positions where no guests should be allowed when underway, at least not when other boats are near. Access to the wing stations is through the practically angled doors.

With this as a base, the owner and captain can discuss if it will accommodate the needs for technical installations and if so, the wiring will be prepared for power supply, antennas, low volt signal cables and optic fibres, initially just as pipes to the right spots. Later the same designer or a special interior designer is taking care of how the different pieces should be framed and usually the bridge get the same materials and colours as the yachts basic interior.

So in best case, there will be one designer taking credit of getting it all together in a nice and purposeful way. Same as with galleys, engine rooms and the general accommodation. But as we have seen many times in the past, the bridges are often neglected, small and not really nice with just the raised sofa where nobody would like to sit and where the watch-keeper of course is forbidden to sleep...