Picture - access to foredeck

As you can see, right now, the access to the foredeck is, let's say, industrial?

Certainly not too friendly for kids or older people. That's too bad because the view is great.

We plan to put in stairs like the picture below. A lot more comfortable don't you agree?

We also plan to make a foundation on the starboard side to install a hydraulic crane at some point in the future.

Picture - winch room

Right now, the winches used to get the fishing nets on board again are located below the bridge. The picture below, of a ship being scrapped, shows them in more detail.

We plan to convert this area to a dining. We'll also made it wider so you can actually walk around the bridge (see the section with "drawings" section of this blog) and have more space below.

This winch room will also be extended forward to accommodate a living room. On top of it all, a 5 wide and 9 meter (16 x 29 ft.) long sun deck, connecting with the top deck from which this picture was taken.

And, we'll still have 1.7 x 8.5 meters (5.5x 27 ft.) of free main deck space on each side.

By the way, the bridge house and upward is all aluminium.

Picture - front deck

Here we are at the forward top deck of the ship. The red structure on the right is the anchor chain guide. The winch is below deck.
We plan to make a minor modification to put this whole structure below deck and get a nice clean deck.
The hatch on the left gives access to the anchor winch chamber. Through it, you can also access what is now the forward engine room which we are going to convert into two staterooms.
Obviously, access won't be through this hatch :-) !
But, we plan to put a small crew cabin with 2 berths in the anchor winch room.

Plane onboard - with floats

We plan to make our vessel suitable for helicopters to land on the stern top deck. But, we ran into an interesting option last week: an amphibious plane.

Like for instance the Zenith CH 801 sport utility aircraft, a true 'bush plane' with STOL performance (short take-off and landing) that takes a pilot and 4 passengers, can be equipped with amphibious floats, a cargo pod and has wings that can be removed easily (during long voyages or Panama Canal transits (they would stick out one foot on each side).

As this drawing below shows, this plane would fit quite nicely on our vessel.

Compared to a helicopter, a plane is a lot cheaper to operate, easier to fly (which makes it easier to find pilots), has a higher payload and a real STOL plane also lets us get in and out of tight spaces. The Zenith CH 801 is made by Zenith Aircraft Company in Missouri.

The floats are now made by a Canadian company called Can-Zac Aviation Ltd., the Zenith distributor in Canada. Here a few pictures of Zenith aircraft equipped with their floats.

Zenair Floats™ are produced using proven design techniques with modern aviation aluminum alloys that are durable and corrosion resistant. The respected Heintz-designed floats have been installed on dozens of different kit and ultralight planes and are in use around the world.