And she said nothing about the idea as such? That's surprising. My commander-in-chief would kill me if I'd just mention a boat with no flybridge. Not that I disagree with her, mind. Leaving aside what has already been said ref. the convenience of helming from upstair (at least in some circumstances - though personally that accounts for 90% of the time, in my case), I can't think of a better place for having dinner in cool breeze, enjoying a 360 deg view. No restaurant terrace on earth comes close. Besides, better boat behaviour due to lower CoG?!? Talk about wishful thinking. All the rest of the boat is so heavy that by stripping 1k lbs or so up there (if that!), the CoG will move down by one inch (again, if that). And a lower CoG doesn't necessarily mean a better behaviour overall, BTW. In fact, since you mention that she's not stabilized, if you think that a lower CoG can make the roll more comfortable, well, think again. Roll comfort is mostly about period (and the lower the CoG, the shorter and more hectic the period), rather than angle. PS: I fully agree that the loss of value, if any, is irrelevant in this case. Plenty of more valid reasons for doing nothing, without even considering that.
We have the 42 model Bertram motor yacht, and I, too, have thought about just losing the whole bridge area. As you can see, we only have a bimini up there anyway, so we wouldn't gain but a few feet of clearance. My wife has a leg condition that makes climbing to the bridge pretty hard for her, so she never does it and so that we can interact, I run the boat from the lower helm, 99.9 per cent of the time, anyway. If I had found one for sale at the time, without a bridge, it would not have stopped me from buying it, if everything else was right. We have a 13 foot Dell Quay Dory that I would love to be able to hoist and store on the roof. But, I'm with you, I wouldn't worry about the resale. I'm 63, driving a 48 year old boat. I figure it and me are both going to be about shot at about the same time! I don't want another boat, I really love this one. So, resale means nothing to me. My kids can hate me after I'm dead! But, you never know. Maybe classic boats will experience a resurgence in twenty years, like classic cars have had!
Last fall I started re-finishing the bridge cowling. Going to be easier to remove it. Think were starting removal this fall. Huckins Boat Yard already penciled in. Sadly, the Bertram shop in the Key does not need anything from us. So will have lots of stuff for sale in a while. The box seating I hope somebody could be interested in. I just installed the helm seats, that a great friend just gave me.
Oh yea she would look great without the fly bridge looks like this was changed sometime in its years with the hard top .
Wise choice. With the boat as she is, the arch certainly isn't the most elegant bit of design, but passable. With the flybridge stripped, it's an eyesore...
Will you put a short mast or something up there? Looks odd to me to just have the flat roof with nothing on it.
A tube & plate mini arch. Top of will be approx 18" over the roof. Look at the picture, inside the side window behind the windshield, the first vertical column is the conduit passing cables, hoses and tons of wires to the bridge now on each side. These will be re-used passing wires straight up into the mini arch sides. The mini arch will hold the nav (R&G) lights, VHFs, AIS, and Wi-Fi stick antennas on each side. Radar, GPS sensors, Cell antenna, TV antenna, wind sensor, steaming light on top. Hailer speakers, air horns hanging under. Either on its own stick or off center on top, the anchor light. The 23' big VHF sticks are going away. Hopefully get a pair of 14' sticks up there. Later, a davit in the factory location, after-port. Low profile support pads and a dink in the far future. Naw, it wont be naked.
Hey CR! Come on you know everything ( mostly) looks better Topless! I think it will look good, a traditional flush deck motor yacht...I think? Anyway , it will look nice. BUT, you have to finish what you start. And remember, nothing is easy. It will be a bit of work.
Depends on how YOU use YOUR boat. As much as love the way the 53 Hatteras MY looks topless I would never remove mine. We use it way too much.
@SplashFl may need to get all that photo-shopped as well. You may want to try cardboard cut outs to get the visual as you design the new arch as well. This can help with the eyeball test.