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.
Bu hikaye Motor Boat & Yachting dergisinin August 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Motor Boat & Yachting dergisinin August 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
LOFOTEN OR BUST PART I
Swedish MBY reader Per Harrtoft fulfills a lifelong dream with a high-speed dash to the remote but beautiful Lofoten islands in the far north of Norway
WEST COUNTRY GOURMET CRUISE
The promise of a gastronomic tour of the South West coast persuades Gilbert Park's reluctant sailor wife to join him on a summer cruise with a difference
AXOPAR 29
To say the Axopar 28 is a tough act to follow is an understatement - can the Finnish brand's latest iteration offer genuine improvements on its super popular predecessor?
SUNSEEKER OCEAN 182
Sunseeker's tri-deck sibling to the Ocean 90 offers exceptional living space, particularly in the new enclosed upper deck. But how does a boat with such a broad footprint perform at sea? Hugo Andreae finds out
TIME FOR A KEYS CHANGE
Elliott Maurice pulls out all the stops with a Florida cruise his son will never forget
SNOW PRINCESS
Charter company Lumi Yachts is named after the Finnish word for snow, but a few days on board its brand new Princess Y80 is enough to melt anyone's heart
BOAT CUISINE
Phil Sampson visits an historic establishment on the banks of the Beaulieu River
AZIMUT 50 FLYBRIDGE
Azimut's 50 Flybridge is one of those boats that really ought to come with a health warning.
TO THE ROOT OF THE MATTER
Phil Sampson discovers that things are not always as they appear...
HOW TO NAVIGATE IN FOG
Being out in any form of restricted visibility, due to heavy rain, snow, mist or fog, is a major concern to all boat users because three things immediately come into play.
