Auxiliary systems

In this section I'll cover equipment like:

• water makers (SeaRecovery)
  
  
• central vacuum cleaning systems (Beamvac)
  
  
• sanitary systems. (Jets)
  
  
• air conditioning (see below)
  
  
• security/fire detection
  
  
• power & battery management (Victron Energy, Asea Power, and more)
  
  
• communication/Internet

First draft of plans by designer

Just got this in from the designer at Herman Jansen in The Netherlands who's turning my sketches into a real drawing. I can't wait to see more.

It shows a front mast we're going to change. Not sure yet what the future one will look like but definitely something smaller. Not that it looks bad, just expensive :-).

The bridge

Our first draft of the new bridge.

Ample space to walk around during operation in port, a nice settee for about 8 guests and room for all the gear.

We also create a little work area, mini-office if you want.

Why a (steel) trawler?

Several reasons. As John deCaro states on his very informative website BuyExploreryachts.com:

"Steel, aluminum, fiberglass and all of its derivatives all have advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, a steel hull offers the best all-round qualities. Low cost of construction, excellent abrasion resistance, ease of repair (newly developed coatings greatly decrease maintenance), durability, and high resistance to impact damage are only a few of these qualities."

I agree.

And I wanted a full displacement vessel. Quoting John again:

"Why is this important, what is the difference from a semi displacement vessel and is one better then the other? Both types of vessels are equally GOOD for their intended use. If you intend to travel only in protected and semi protected waters “coastwise” and want to go faster then what the water line length will allow, semi displacement is for you. If, however you want a long-range offshore vessel designed to handle demanding conditions then full displacement is the only choice. "

North Sea trawlers are some of most seaworthy vessels around, designed to be at sea even if the weather is not for cruising! These pictures show what you cannot do with 'tupperware' :-).

And, with proper maintaince and professionally done paint job, steel ships will outlast fiberglass.

Getting to the front deck

The front deck as shown here still has the cable guides installed (used during trawling. They of course will be removed.

To get on the front deck, one has to climb a ladder (next picture). That will change too.

Something like shown on the 3rd picture.

Exhaust stag

Below a few pictures of the current situation. We looked into a wet exhaust system but that would be too costly and bulky for our size of main engine. Our new generator sets will have a wet exhausts so while at anchor or in port, no exhaust gas will come out of the exhaust on the upper deck.

We're also considering moving the mast about 4 ft. backward. This would eliminate the horizontal part in the exhaust and give us a larger deck space in front of the mast (the roof of the bridge).

Both bridge and mast are made from aluminium.

The hull

A very solid steel hull and here are a few pictures. This is not our vessel but almost an exact copy.

Fuel system

Right now, we can carry 126 tons -just over 33 thousand gallons - of diesel oil.

That's a little more than we anticipate we'll need even for really extended passage making. We'd probably run out of beer before we run out of fuel! With the anticpated economy cruising speed, we'd have a range of over ten thousand nautical miles. Even if we take eliminate the stern fuel tanks and keep our 4 bottom tanks (total capacity 90 tons), we could cruise non-stop from Rotterdam to Tahiti at 9 knots, making a side stop at Easter Island!. Check the route on Google Earth :-).

Fuel is currently cleaned with an Alfa Laval purifier.

My advisors

To make this all happen I rely on several people. And I'm sure this list will grow.

Right now, Willem Kramer, at Herman Jansen BV, the original design bureau of this and many other beautiful and very seaworthy trawlers are helping me put my ideas on paper or better, AutoCAD or similar.

I've also had a lot of help from Leun van Koppen of Maaskant shipyards, the ship's builder. This gentleman knows the ship inside out. I've thrown so many questions at him, he's still digesting them. And, I'm eternally greatful to him helping me find this ship (my wife clearly has a different opinion :-) ) and closing the deal.

On the engine front I've received a lot of help and 'education' from Richard Cuperus at Wartsila/Deutz, the engine manufacturer. He help me refresh what I had learned once about prop demand. They will take back the current 9 cyl. engine and get me a smaller 6 cylinder version.

I've also spend a great day and will surely be more in touch with Wim van Rij of Freetechnics. They make great stuff to keep an eye on anything on board. Check them out!

Jan Klumpenaar at Victron Energy, makers of the very versatle MultiPlus system, thanks for answering my many e-mails and helping me find my way to Asea Power frequency converters, helping me save lots of $$ so I can still built a power system that we want.

Lars Bo Anderson from CJC filters in Denmark, thanks for answering my many questions, sending me lots of info and setting up a great, very informative website; an example for other manufacturers.

I also want to mention Eric Vonk and Karin Schippers, proud owners of another, 44 m. Maaskant trawler. They living near Tampa, Florida and are traveling up and down to see the progress on their Scintilla Maris. They should start a blog too!

Crew cuarters

We're not quite sure how much professional crew - if ever - we need. Basically, we plan to have this vessel manageable by 2 or 3 people. I mean, it's a little bit bigger but hey, the safety is in the size !!

But not everybody operates a vessel this size like that so, to ensure the maximum resale value, we're going to create more crew space. And being a former merchant mariner myself, we're not going to put them into a close like most multi-million $$ megayachts do. Of course, these staterooms make also great cuarters for kids.

We plan 3 staterooms, each with 2 berths forward (one small queen size), under the current 'buiskap' (see picture at the bottom of this page).

One with have a private bathroom; the other will share one. There also will be a crew mess and small crew galley. The 'camera room' is for the diving folks to put their gear when they come out of the water. In this area, we also provide access to the storage below the main staterooms (the 'onder ruim').

In the rear of the vessel, we'll create a small stateroom for the captain and engineer. They will share a bathroom. This way, they'll be very close to both bridge and engineroom. Of course, they will be able to monitor their relevant systems from their stateroom.

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Storage below staterooms

This is an area which we still have to work out. Right now, there's no decent standing space (only about 5 ft/150 cm). But there would be standing space (partly), if we remove some ballast from below.

It would be a great space to but the laundry equipment and provide extra storage, especially if we create shaft to access the deck.

We'll figure out something, together with our friends at Herman Jansen, the original designers in The Netherlands.

Guest Cabins

The biggest modification of all will take place in what are now the fish and net holds.

In the net hold (the area forward of the engineroom) and fish hold, forward of the net hold, we plan to build 6 staterooms as shown.

We are considering to allow the installation of a Pullman-berth in the forward 4 staterooms (picture left) so these rooms allow up to 3 guests or 2 guests in separate berths.

Access will be from the main decks living room.

Below these staterooms there's still standing room (well, almost) and space for supplies and equipment like laundry and maybe some spare berths for crew. Or kids. Access will be from the main deck through the area indicated as 'naar onderruim'.

Forward of the fishhold is the forward engineroom. It has a gen set that was used during its days as a fishing trawler in port but now it will make space for 2 more staterooms so we'll have a total of 8 in this area. Enough for 8 couples with their friends and kids. All staterooms will have queen sized beds and some will have a 3rd berth pullman-style.

All walls, doors and floors will meet SOLAS convention passengership standards and regulations related to fire safety and noise cancelling.

Diving equipment - from Bauer

We plan to install two portable Bauer Mariner compressors, a nitrox blending station and a few tanks for storage. We're still working on the details and trying to figure out the best location in the engine room.

To learn more about Bauer, check out there their (European) products at Bauer Kompressoren .



The American site is at Bauer Compressors.


Our Bauer rep. in The Netherlands is CST Schiphorst. Harry Schiphorst gave us some really good advice on equipment selection and setup saving us big $$. So, the business is his.

Entertainment systems

TV programming, audio systems, Internet access, another area that's more comprehensive I had originally thought. I guess that's the fun part: learning about things I didn't even know existed. Thank you Al Gore for inventing the Internet :-)

We're looking into systems of AMX, Crestron, and Visiomatic (German). And also just learned about video servers of Kaleidescape and an audio solution from Sonos. That's all I can say at this point really. Still trying to figure out and how all those systems work together and what I need, but learning fast.

It's obvious that with enough $$ you can do anything but the idea is to find a reasonable balance between comfort, convenience and cost.