Building a new yacht; seeking suggestions

First Step

Wow! I think your very first step is to give us some background info. Not about what you think the boat should look like, but what is the intended use? Open oceans or coastal waters? Blending into the scenery in the Med or dodging ice up in Norway? Visiting the log strewn waters of Alaska or the skinny water of the Caribbean? You mentioned crew and their quarters. How many fulltime crew and do you want room for temps if needed? How many in your party with guests? Hiring a chef/cook or will that be a family affair? How often do you plan on being aboard? What might be the longest you would spend aboard at any one time - weekends, weeks, longer? Any aspirations to cross an ocean or have it shipped across? I think we need a few parameters to start with before we can start suggesting ideas.

Well, if charter work is in it's future then I'd say 4 master/guest cabins with at least two of the guest cabins being equal in size and layout.

Two gensets either of which can handle the full load of the boat with perhaps a third smaller very quiet and well isolated night genset.

Proper over sized ground tackle and windlass. Two of each.

Well thought out storage of the boarding stairs and passarelle.

Lots of fridge/freezer storage. With excellent use of all available space for storage of food, spares, linen, etc., etc.

A nice well thought out outdoor kitchen on the bridge.

If it's going to be an open bridge have a hard top with perhaps kayak storage on top.

Walk around decks are nice.

Easy to switch to back up pumps for the fresh water, aircon water, holding tank pump out, etc. systems.

And for the holding tank, look at the Headhunter waste treatment system.

I'd look at gyro stabilizers for full time stabilization even at the dock with nothing hanging below the hull.

An up to date A/V system that is truly user friendly.

As to crews quarters, perhaps the captain in the bow with the rest of the crew aft. Where ever the captains and crews cabins are have some form of plotter monitors and system alarm panels in them would be helpful.

Electrical panels that you don't have to get on your hands and knees to read. With good lighting on them.

Reading lights located where people are most likely to sit and read.

Take a look at LED lighting to keep the heat and amperage load down on the boat where you can.

Two sets of washer/dryers.

Some form of stand up lazerette or work room aft would be nice.

I like CAT engines myself.

110' is a little small for a true tri-deck in my opinion. They can end up looking like a wedding cake.

But then I like the looks of boats as different to each other as Calixas yachts are to the Vicem's.

A few parameters from you would be helpful to direct the discussion in a more fruitful focused direction.

Good stuff, are you going with Moonen again or having it built in Turkey?.

Great yachting philosophy.
Since your staying with Moonen, I would work with this (personal favorite) design and maybe massage and improve it a bit, if possible.
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/45054-post209.html

Hi Nilo, I think it is about time for Moonen to build a motorsailer again..

Actually, I could think of something like the old sisters Colombaio Sun/Star. They will give you the best of both worlds, not sailing boat styling as Perini or Alloy and not the "soft" styling Moonen has today.

I have no time to take on a new design, but perhaps a conceptual side view if you can not picture yourself what I am thinking of...

Don´t know, but they look like this; http://www.dianayachtdesign.com/yachts/historical/diana249/

Perhaps design the crews cabins with something like Pullman type bunks so when you need more crew their are berths for them. But when you don't the full time crew have more room.

I like Headhunter and Tecma heads.

It would be nice to either have a davit on each side or a centrally located davit so you can deploy the tender from either side.

I'd also look at perhaps jazzing it up with an integrated touch screen "glass bridge" with some basic back ups.

And either proper wing stations and aft deck controls or at least walk around remotes.

A thruster that will work in something over 10 knots of breeze.

I'd look at gyro stabilizers for full time stabilization even at the dock with nothing hanging below the hull.

Considering that the boat will anyway have stabilizers, I was thinking more for zero speed stabilizers, because for a heavy boat gyro stabilizers will not be very efficient; or you would need to allocate a huge space and carry a very heavy load.

I'd take a second look at the gyros. When talking to the manufacturer at the show the units are not very big and they said at least one 110' was getting away with using only one unit.

An up to date A/V system that is truly user friendly.

Do you have any good systems on offer in mind?

Sorry, not off hand. On the boat I am running and refitting now we are just going with a HD hard drive video player in each room. Nothing to fancy, just simple. But there was a thread about this not to long ago as I recall.

Well, if charter work is in it's future then I'd say 4 master/guest cabins with at least two of the guest cabins being equal in size and layout.

Although my initial idea was to have 3 quest cabins, including the master, I believe yachts in this size may have charter options. I do not charter my boats, but there may be others who would like to do it; hence there is a tendency to go for 4 cabins 2 being equal size and the remaining 2 slightly smaller.

For charter I just think 1 large master, 2 large equal guests and a slightly smaller double guest is attractive to charterers. Or three large and one small. But that's just me.

A nice well thought out outdoor kitchen on the bridge.

Although I have always been a barbeque fan on all my previous boats, I do realize that this has its own shortcomings, if you want to do it on the fly bridge or open area where people do launch. This time I am thinking of have a facility in the galley and there should be a dump waiter to serve the open area.

That is an interesting idea. Just make sure you have a very good galley ventilator.

Walk around decks are nice.

They are more than nice, but a necessity for safe boat handling.

Some boat manufacturers don't seem to think so.

[QUOTE='roundthehorn]Wow! I think your very first step is to give us some background info. Not about what you think the boat should look like, but what is the intended use? Open oceans or coastal waters? Blending into the scenery in the Med or dodging ice up in Norway? Visiting the log strewn waters of Alaska or the skinny water of the Caribbean? You mentioned crew and their quarters. How many fulltime crew and do you want room for temps if needed? How many in your party with guests? Hiring a chef/cook or will that be a family affair? How often do you plan on being aboard? What might be the longest you would spend aboard at any one time - weekends, weeks, longer? Any aspirations to cross an ocean or have it shipped across? I think we need a few parameters to start with before we can start suggesting ideas. [/QUOTE]


Hi Nilo - if you are not bound by too much need to conform to conventional thinking you might consider looking at catamaran/wavepiercer designs that could offer more space, greater speed and fuel efficiency and relatively improved comfort for passage making. You could get a lot in the length you propose. Worth casting your eye over some of the designers' websites perhaps.

Excellent Nilo.................congratulations and good luck.

Tarek