James Maxey thought he’d created his perfect boat by fitting stabilisers to his 52ft trawler, but it turns out there was a bigger twist still to come
Regular readers may remember the article I wrote last year about refitting our sturdy Scottish trawler yacht Silver Dee for use in the Med (‘Silver Lining’, MBY December 2016). The upgrades made it much better suited to its new life in the sun but at the end of our first season in Antibes, our thoughts started to turn to zero-speed stabilisers.
The Vosper mini fins fitted to Silver Dee had served it well since 1976 but rough seas could overpower them and of course, they weren’t zero-speed units. A couple of sleepless nights at anchor with our seven-year-old twins on board soon demonstrated to us that unless we fitted zero-speed stabilisers, we’d have to restrict ourselves to marina berths even when we’d prefer to be at anchor.
We’d been on other boats in the area fitted with Sleipner’s curved-fin zero-speed systems and found them to be very effective, so we went straight to Sleipner for a quote. Bryn and his team at Sleipner UK proved to be extremely friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. We took the plunge and wrote out a cheque for the whole kit to be delivered to our home in Cheshire so that we could drive down to Antibes in a convoy of vans with the team from West Coast Marine at Troon, who had done all the previous refit work on Silver Dee.
FITTING THE FINS
On arrival in Antibes, the first job was to carefully take out the old system so that we could try and re-sell the bits and pieces later, then we set to work on Silver Dee’s unusual hull. The multi-chine hull was designed by Allen McLachlan at G L Watson as a prototype for the RNLI’s Arun lifeboat, without any consideration for future owners wanting to retrofit curved-fin zero-speed stabilisers! This involved lots of careful measuring and grinding away, both inside and outside the hull, and then building it back up to make sure the fins had sufficient clearance.
Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av Motor Boat & Yachting.
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Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av Motor Boat & Yachting.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Lofoten or Bust- Part 4- Grandezza owner Per Harrtoft heads back to Sweden after an epic 3500nm adventure deep into the Arctic Circle to visit the mythical Lofoten islands
After ten memorable days in the Lofoten Islands in the far north of Norway, we are on our way back south towards Sweden. We have already made it as far as Trondheim, a charming place even if it was raining so hard we had to cycle round the city centre clutching umbrellas. But now we are back on board Deamare, our Grandezza 40 Fly, eating up the miles at a steady 31 knots.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YACHT TRANSPORT
As the name suggests it's a means of having your boat moved professionally from one location to another. It might be as simple as hiring someone to tow your RIB a few miles down the road or as complex as shipping a superyacht halfway around the world.
HANDLE A SINGLE SHAFTDRIVE BOAT PART 1
Single shaftdrive boats are relatively rare these days but the reduced costs of buying, servicing and fuelling such a simple but reliable drivetrain does mean they are making a bit of a comeback.
COCKWELLS MOTOR LAUNCH
There can be very few boats that have appeared three times at the Southampton Boat Show and been sold off the stand each time.
INSTALLING AN AUTOPILOT
Rick Channon makes solo boating simple with a Raymarine Evolution Autopilot
GOOD AS NEW
Why fit a brand new engine when Volvo Penta's remanufacturing service can rebuild you an old one to the same standard for a fraction of the price?
BENETEAU SWIFT TRAWLER 54
Alex Smith heads to France's Beneteau HQ for a UK exclusive on what might just be the best Swift Trawler yet
ΧΟ EXPLR 44
Can XO's all-new aluminium flagship really make it big in the Med?
BUYING OUR FIRST CLASSIC
Instead of whiling away their retirement playing bowls, Rob and Shona Adams decided to invest their time and money in a classic Silver gentleman's yacht. Would the gamble pay off?
PRINCESS S65
Torn between the V and F Class flagships? The new S65 might be the boat you've been waiting for...
