And now for something different. We are pleased to report that FPB-1, Avatar, has just finished her first day of testing with the swim platform extension and get-home engine. The lovely clean release above is at eight knots with the little Yanmar pushing her along.

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Since we’ve been boring you with technical posts all week why change the rhythm? These photos are from Friday, and cover FPB 64s five through seven. We’ll start with seven, shown above,  the skeleton of which is just starting to be assembled.

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After some 5000 cruising miles since delivery in March of 2011, I have some pretty specific thoughts on how Iron Lady is working out. Some were surprises to me. At the top of the list was that I felt safe on Iron Lady. While I can’t necessarily identify all the features that make the boat safe, between how comfortable the boat is at sea, at anchor and how it stood up to the punishment of a grounding all gave me tremendous confidence in the boat. My husband is also much more relaxed about things and that, in turn, makes me comfortable. My other comment was that I never would do what we have done on Iron Lady on our last boat. By the second day out of New Zealand to Tonga on our first really long passage, I was standing watch – something I would never on our last boat.

It is the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year 2011, and we have a new batch of photos from Circa, a few of which we’ll share. That’s Avatar, FPB64-1 in the yard, back at her birth spot for a get home auxiliary to be installed. After two years of cruising and many thousands of miles she is looking good. FPB 64-3, Iron Lady, is in the area as well. And then there are FPB 64s five, six, and seven, under construction, which we shall get to shortly.

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The excitement of sea trials and open house is over and we are back in Arizona with a load of photos and video to process. The link at the bottom will take you to another eight minutes of video, this time with lots of visitor comments plus a bit of action with the seas abeam and behind as well as on the nose. Read the rest »

The various rules to which yachts are built are based on seagoing loads. If you design to ABS or Lloyd’s, odds are you will be OK  offshore, but there is little extra margin for the mistakes which are a part  of cruising. With an ABS keel structure, if you go aground, it is almost certain a trip to the boat yard is in your immediate future. But if you engineer to four times ABS, you are probably going to continue with your cruising.

We have tested these these theories ourselves, and had our owners repeatedly test them on our sailing designs. Now we have some real world verification of the FPB 64′s factors of safety.

The photos which follow were taken of one of the FPB 64s after it tangled with a reef in the Fiji Islands. She has been hauled to replace a damaged stabilizer fin. At the end of this post is a link to the details of the event which has some excellent lessons for us all.

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Traditional get home systems on single screw powerboats are typically not very functional. They tend to deliver 50 to 60% of the normal cruising speed in calm conditions, and be essentially useless in a stiff breeze fighting a head sea. This has made no sense to us. Why pay the weight, cost, and drag penalties, and make life more difficult maintenance wise in the engine room, if you can only accomplish what can be done with a dinghy acting as a tug? Especially since we have a get home sail.

If we were going to have a diesel powered system we wanted to have a respectable passaging speed, and the ability to make progress to windward in less than ideal conditions.

We now have that system.

Here is a batch of photos from last week on FPB 64s five and six. We will start with putting lead into the bottom  of number five.

Progress continues in New Zealand on FPB 64s # five and six, with five being fully plated now.

Steve Suters, John Gowing’s FPB 64-4 captain, has been kind enough to fill us in on some of the details of their recent brush with storm force winds (55 to 65 knots), steep seas, and a breaking entrance bar crossing. We have included the photo above of FPB64-1, Avatar, as a reminder of boat scale versus the waves about which you will shortly read. A the end of the blog are two short videos.

As you go through the following keep in mind one key fact: this was taking place in an area of south flowing current, opposing the wind driven waves, steepening them and causing them to break.

We’ve been going through the very short video we have posted on Osprey’s adventure, and found a few interesting waves. As previously mentioned, the steepness of the seas is a result of current opposing the wind. Note that these were taken before it started to really blow, i.e. the breeze here is 35 to 40 knots and it blew up to 65 later on, and that photos always visually shrink wave size.

Bill and Sue Henry, owners of FPB 64-2 Sarah Sarah, are the first to make use of the threaded inserts on the house sides for kayak storage. If you look carefully at this lovely photo, sent in by Brian Rickard (as are the others), you will see one of the kayaks stored just above the windows.

We look at photos of FPB 64s under construction typically on a weekly basis. And although we have seen this many times before, with older designs, and with the FPBs, we still get a buzz. The long time SetSailors amongst you will have been through this with us as well, but it has been a year or more, so we are going to post updates from time to time. If we are totally boring you, protest, and we will take theshowing under advisement.

Starting with the pointy end, the Circa fabricators are getting ready to tack on rolled plate.

With Iron Lady cruising in Tonga and Osprey about to head off to Australia, attention has turned to the second series of FPB 64s.

We have just received a few photos of Iron Lady which we thought might be of interest.

Over the last couple of years we have had numerous questions about the FPB 64′s hinged mast system. This is a costly exercise compared to a fixed rig.

None of the conventional approaches to get home systems in use today have the ingredients to meet our expectations. They all have shortcomings which we feel make them unacceptable. This led us to develop our get home sailing rig which in combination with a powerful dinghy tied alongside for close to harbor propulsion is a reasonable compromise.

Now, with the swim step extension, there is another option which makes the FPB 64 get home system even better.

With the first run of FPB 64s nearing completion we have been at work on a few options for the next group of boats, most of which are retrofittable to the first run. We have also updated the drawings closer to the real world, the originals being somewhat out-of-date.

Let’s start with the back end of the boat.

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The second FPB 64, Sarah Sarah, is resting quietly in Neah Bay, Washington, having made landfall at 21:34 UTC.

FPB 64 #2, Sarah Sarah, is within a day of putting finish to their passage. The crew must be relaxing as they have sent in a long report, which follows.

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: WDF4288
TIME: 2010/10/16 00:00
LATITUDE: 43-37.351N
LONGITUDE: 133-22.67W
COMMENT: Partly to mostly cloudy, air 58°F, sea 61°F (corrected temperatures), 1026 mb, wind light/variable, 0.7m swell from NW with no wind waves.

As you will note from the report above Sarah Sarah has positioned herself under the benign influence of a high pressure system (1026 mb) to complete her passage. Boat and crew are well, and plans are being coordinated for friends and family to meet her as she makes landfall.

Sarah Sarah and her intrepid crew are entering their seventh day a sea from Hawaii. The predicted frontal passage has occurred, just a bit early. Boat speed and good weather routing now has Sarah Sarah positioned within the influence of a high pressure system. They should be able to make their landfall without further frontal boundaries and their gales.

Having completed their fifth day at sea Sarah Sarah’s crew is undoubtedly celebrating having half of the 2275 nautical miles to the Straights of Juan de Fuca behind them (actual distance with weather jogs is likely to be closer to 2400 miles). According to Rick Shema (see below) they have one more frontal passage, perhaps gale force, and then the long range forecast is quite good considering the time of year and location.

TIME: 2010/10/11 23:59 LATITUDE: 33-47.92N LONGITUDE: 149-29.92W COMMENT: Back on rhumbline to C. Flattery @ 15:23Z, ave. 9.6 kts.  Overcast, occas. rain, air 68°F, sea 76°F, 1023 mb*, wind SE at 18 kts.*, 1.2m swell from E

The second FPB 64, Sarah Sarah, is on her way from Hawaii towards Seattle, a 2300 mile passage. The crew just sent in the report which follows.

Following is the latest report from the second FPB 64, Sarah Sarah as they make their way towards Hawaii.

We’ve had some partially clear nights lately, and with the Moon approaching full, we could oftentimes clearly see the clouds and waves, which made night watches much more interesting. We didn’t encounter any more vessels after our last report, three days out of Pago Pago, American Samoa.

On September 21st, at 19:16 UTC (8:16 in the morning by ship’s clock), we crossed the Equator and entered the Northern Hemisphere at a longitude of 161°43.88′W. This marked Bill’s first ocean crossing of the equator, and he joined John and Brian in the ranks of “shell-backs,” being a “pollywog” no longer.

A lovely photo taken by Ed Firth of Circa, showing what every owner, builder, and designer looks forward to – launch day. This is Sarah-Sarah, the second FPB 64, destined shortly for a trip from New Zealand to the Pacific Northwest, on her own bottom of course.

We are on our first “passage” from Poole to Plymouth in the UK. While short, it is giving us a chance to run up some of the systems and electronics. In particular we wanted to test our five year old Village Marine NF800 watermaker which has been in storage mode for eight months

We’re on a roll with this new photo server. So, for our third offering here are one hundred and one details. You will find everything from

Last night we had a chance to photograph the great room aboard Avatar for the first time. This is a test run – we’ll do better with practice – but we know there are a lot of folks waiting on these photos so we are going to post them anyway.

One of the design goals for the FPB 64 was a space that would function as an office. Having just spent the last 24 hours cruising aboard Avatar and using this space we can tell you it works really well.

We’ve had several e-mails this week asking about the flying bridge. Time is short today so we’ll just load the photos for your viewing pleasure before we head down to the boat.

A quick look today at the Owner’s suite.

We’ve been showing you build photos for so long we figured might as well give you a look at things during the last few days the first FPB 64 is coming together (before she is ready to “show”). It is amazing what being able to look outside the great room windows does for the feeling of spaciousness.

First photos of Avatar afloat. She is in light ship trim plus tools, ground tackle, and dinghy. There is just 1500 liters of fuel aboard, and some water. Note the clean wake at slow speed.

We’re getting close! Circa are starting to remove the protective coverings on the cabinets and prep the boat for launching. You are looking here at the galley.

The final assembly of the first of the FPB 64s is at a fever pitch right now. The head and hull liners are now installed, and the last of the furniture modules is in place.

Lots to share this week including another sign that the first FPB 64 is getting close, the deck tread is being installed.

Trying to get a feel for the interior of a boat under construction is difficult. Furniture is covered, lighting is bad, there are no embellishments to give the image a finished look. But now that the upholstery is starting to go into the first FPB 64 you will be able to get sense for the space. The photo above is taken from the aft end of the port side guest suite.

We’ve got a lot of photos to share in this update, starting with the now installed bridge electrical panel. Our philosophy has always been that we want the hidden stuff to look as good as that which is exposed. It costs a little bit more, but the pleasure knowing that things are done right, and look good, even when out of sight, is well worth the cost to us. This gives us more of a buzz than the front side.

Here’s an image to set your heart aflutter (with a little imagination). Add the sun/rain awning to the framework, move to a lovely anchorage in the tropical South Pacific, insert puffy cumulous clouds, coconut palms, and translucent warm water, and then relax with a cold drink and good book.

We’ve got a new batch of photos covering the electric panel details which we thought you might find of interest. We’ll start with the panel adjacent (to starboard) of the main helm.

When you see the “sparky” (Kiwi speak for electrician) working on the outside lighting and electronics it is a sign launching is within six to eight weeks. This photo also demonstrates the advantage of a hinged mast (aside from vertical clearance). It makes maintenance and changing electronics easier.

We’ve been discussing various design considerations with a client headed for Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic and thought some of the dialog might be of interest. We’ll start with the logic behind single vs. twin engines, and get home systems.

Everyone wants the safest, most reliable yacht. The question is how do you achieve this? Contrary to what you may think budget is usually not a major factor. Clear thinking about the risks and rewards of various approaches is the key ingredient.

Lets start with the risks as we see them, and our approach to reducing or eliminating these.

One of the more difficult design areas on the FPBs has been the forward “mast”. It does a number of jobs, some of which conflict with each other and/or different requirements. We’ve been fiddling with this on the FPB prototype Wind Horse since launching. What you see here is the result of that thinking and experience.

The first FPB 64 reached a significant milestone this week, indicated by the photo above. The red Murphy sight gauge with level alarms provides an important clue. There is now oil in the engine. But wait, there’s more.

There are so many photos to share from our recent trip to New Zealand that we’ll do update #22 as a series of which this the first (to be followed over the next few days by further updates and posts under the FPB 64 Series Notes category).

While it is difficult to ascertain the quality of most of of Circa’s work on the FPB 64s from construction photos, the engine room being nearly completed gives us a hint of what is to come throughout the boat. These photos do not begin to give what you really feel – but short of a visit to New Zealand they will have to suffice.

As mentioned elsewhere, it is difficult in the extreme to have a functional and aesthetic engine room. There are so many hoses, pipes, wires, and pieces of gear that a beautiful result takes patience, dedication, a lot of effort, and the willingness to do things over – sometimes three or four times. Most builders do not even try. They simply hide the messy looking stuff. The problem with this approach is that it also hides the problems. We have always preferred to expose everything, where we can clean and keep an eye on all of it.

The lead photo (above) is taken from the aft starboard corner, looking diagonally across the engine room towards the forward port corner.

Consider this and the photos which follow in the context of how this engine room will look when the floorboards are covered with the same material as the galley soles, permanent lighting is installed and work lights and their wires are removed, and the Owners have strategically places lovely artwork on the bulkheads. The end result

This is the second in a series of reports on our November visit to Circa in New Zealand. In this blog we’ll deal with the interior of the first FPB 64 (the preceding report covers the engine room).

It takes some imagination to jump from a yacht under construction to what the completed boat will be. When viewing these photos keep in mind the lovely view out the 17 great room windows, now add sophisticated counter tops, finish the galley lockers, install flooring, and fit head and hull liners upholstered in Ultraleather to your mental picture (or review some of the FPB 83 interior photos). The result will be stunning.

We’ve got an interesting batch of photos to share with you this week. We’ll start again in the engine room, this time with the salt water feed system.

Welcome to progress report #19.We’ll start with a sure sign that we are in the 21st century. The opening photo shows the start of the NMEA 2000 “backbone” which we are installing in the FPB64s.

The sun is headed south towards New Zealand, and although spring is a little wet right now, soon it will be summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Progress continues on the first four FPB64s, hulls one and two of which are shown above in the fit out bay (one is on the left with its windows in place). From here on out as the interior goes in the photos will show a degree of visual chaos which will continue right up to the day before launching.

Now to some details.