You are looking at as lovely a piece of yachting jewelry as has ever been afloat. The creation of Circa’s
Larry Brown, this is the inboard end of the new FPB boom control strut. It starts with a pair of Lewmar traveler cars, running on two parallel tracks along the side of the Matrix deck. It provides a two axis articulation for the strut. The base contains a large bearing captured in an o-ring sealed turret. Similar fittings exist on the booms.
The car position on the track is adjusted with a four to one tackle, which in turn adjusts boom position.
Another detail from Larry’s machine shop, the hold down system for the solar panels.
The chippies (carpenters) produce many gems as well, much of which is hidden.
Take these plenums which connect air conditioning evaporators to the barrel vents.
These are lined with EPDM for noise and condensation control, and even have cleaning ports.
We will close with another example.
Eventually this might be known as a stairway to heaven.
Posted by Steve Dashew (October 26, 2015)
October 26th, 2015 at 6:12 pm
thank you for sharing some intimate details of the build process, any more?
October 27th, 2015 at 7:19 pm
Lots more to come, Scotto:
Stay tuned.
October 29th, 2015 at 9:07 am
Hi Steve,
Great to see these pictures, I am constantly amazed by your attention to detail. A couple of questions regarding the FPB-78:
a) why no solar panels at the top of the matrix deck like the FPB 97-1? The extra surface would almost double the kw/hour and make the generator redundant
b) why no seekeapers (or other gyro) for stabilisation? With a set (or triple) you would achieve incredible roll reduction without speed/efficiency loss incurred by fin stabilisers. Have trialled on a off-shore fishing boat and the results are impressive
Cant’s wait to see the launch and first trials, all the best
Jack
November 1st, 2015 at 2:02 am
Hello Jack:
The solar panels on the upper roof are a vertical center of gravity issue and they are very difficult to maintain. With ten panels and a 1500 amp hour battery bank, the genset will rarely be used. We have been following the SeaKeeper gyro development and while they do offer benefits they are not as powerful as the fins we use and require generator power.