60ft eX race yacht to cruiser conversion.

Hi all, has been a quite a while since posting on BD.net…. But of course , I’ve been busy doing lots of things and I finally decided to share the latest project I’ve been working on .

She started her life as a Sydney harbour day sailer / harbour racing yacht - anyone who sails in Sydney would know of her . An 18m Murray Burns and Dovell design, and built by Mcconaghy in Sydney. She later had a transom extension and her LOA grew to 19.4m or 64ft, she also has a 25m carbon mast, 8.5m carbon boom, and a really nice fin and bulb keel with a 3.2m draught.

She spent a couple of decades exclusively sailing Sydney harbour regattas before being abandoned and in need of a new owner. I could see potential in her in that, unlike many racing yachts - this one had a bit more volume in her despite her flush deck, with which I could work with and convert her into a good , fast , worldwide cruising yacht. And so this is where my story begins with her…



After a round of brief modifications to make her safe for relocating her across the Tasman including some new sails , installing lifelines , life raft, winches and hydraulic systems servicing , autopilot etc , I sailed her from NSW across the Tasman in 6 days to her new home in New Zealand where the work continues…

 

One of the first major things to happen was removing the water ballast tanks and all the systems that go with it . 2x swimming pool pumps, a myriad of piping and valving to make it all work , 6.5kva genset etc- all gone .
We did this to reinstate 2x bedrooms under the cockpit seating, either side of the engine compartment



I had the help of an excellent shipright whilst still in Australia for this and a few other things as I was working in NZ and needed help to get a few things done remotely before I could get back and sail her home.

since returning I’ve managed to get a davit and solar arch built to replace the genset ;


And now starting on a low deckhouse to increase the headroom to 7ft and let light into the saloon area down below;

 

This looks like it will be an amazing project!
Before you started, did you do a detailed weight estimate - perhaps one initially for all the stuff that you are taking off, followed by one for all the new stuff that you are putting on?
Please do post some more photos of this impressive re-fit.

Changing tack, do you still have that very neat power cat (I think a Schionning?) which you built some years ago?

 

No I sold my powercat many years ago, bought a sailing Cat in Turkey and sailed half way round the world - it wasn’t a schionning either - it was my design!

as to weights - no I’m not doing a study of weight added or removed. Why? Because she is 64ft LOA and reasonably light for her size. She is built in foam sandwich / glass and weighed 15tonne on the travel lift when we hauled out a few months ago.


There is ample scope to add a considerable amount of weight to her without dramatically affecting the DLR or sailing performance too much given her 170m sail area (solent and main)
Despite this - everything I’m doing I’m doing like a multihull - it’s all going to be light weight foam sandwich panel - the davit and solar arch is 1 example - that came in a 20kg which was lighter than the solar panel which went on top!

Another example is the table I made for the saloon , this was made from a hollow cardboard interior house door and resin pigment coated for a polished marble look that’s lightweight;


A new galley will be going in hopefully before Xmas , waiting on suppliers , but we’ve chosen to use a product called “duralite” . It’s a foam sandwich panel made from polystyrene core with thin ply skins and a laminate skin available in various timber colours , often used in motorhomes etc and a local product here in NZ. It’s very light weight.

I’ve got plenty of other things on the go , won’t put it all up here at once

 

Nice project!
I’d imagine it would be a very wet ride without the cabin/dodger added, as well as dark and dismal below decks.
Looks like a really fun cruiser, so many of them are just dismally slow sailing.

 

Surprisingly - she isn’t too much of a wet boat without any dodger . Any spray usually blows over in front of the cockpit but the odd wave does make it over the deck and tries to fill the companionway when conditions are brisk . - I’d like to ask for some feedback on the companion way hatch design actually - I’ll have to start building that pretty soon and want something that looks good , is dry, and also satisfies cat 1 rules.
And you raised another point - light inside . Yes, one of The main reasons for the new deckhouse was to allow light inside the living / galley area which is too dark as it is. The look I’m going for is something similar to this ;

Just awaiting my foam and glass order to show up…

And yes , I wouldn’t own a slow boat… usually I wouldn’t own a monohull, I’m a multihull guy, but I decided I can live with this one when she proved she can make 250miles a day across the Tasman

 

Little bit of a side track , but I built a Watermaker for the boat aswell,..
Runs from the house inverter, and utilitizes a variable speed drive and 3 phase AC motor for variable flow rate and variable power consumption. Also has auto flush etc and will be controlled from a remote push button panel in the saloon.

 

Nice project groper, thanks for sharing. I have a question about the watermaker pump, is it a bronze or a brass body? If it's a brass body did you get the optional ceramic pistons?

 

Hiya,
It’s a brass body with ceramic pistons . I honestly don’t know if it’s worth spending thr big $$ on stainless pumps, the first Watermaker I built 10 years ago I used a SS cat pump only to sell the boat less than 2 years later. So my investment in a top dollar pump was all for someone else’s benefit.

Then I met an ex navy engineer in turkey where we built another for the boat I purchased over there, and he convinced me to use cheap Turkish brass pump which worked flawlessly for another year until I sold the boat once again . After that I was convinced that unless you plan to keep your pump for 10 years or more - why spend big $ for something you’ll never get thr full benefit from?
And even then - will a rebuild of a SS pump cost more than a new brass pump ? I don’t know….
But thr brass pumps are so much lower in cost I think you could replace the entire thing 3 times before you get to thr cost of a SS pump. Not that you’d need to, all thr parts are available worldwide for my pump anyway…. With a freshwater flush on every cycle , I really don’t see the need for expensive pumps , it’s just doesn’t make economical sense …

 

Groper,
Cool project. I have another one you may be interested in. I can't get PM's to post here, so could you drop an email to me at harryproa@gmail.com, please.

Ta

Rob

 

Thanks, that's what I thought you did. The freshwater flush is mandatory, but even so I recommend taking the head of every year and looking for signs of corrosion inside. It's good maintenance and cheap insurance.

 

A brand new HP pump is only 230eur! I don’t really care if it dies

So I’ve started to layup the deckhouse , the inner skin laminate and outer laminate of the bonding flange is done , once cured I’ll remove all the forma frames and do the inside laminate of thr bonding flange aswell, then I can flip it over and carry on with the roof etc


the plan is to have the deckhouse completely finished with windows and paint etc then take it down to the wharf on a trailer . I’ll lift it onto the boat using a halyard and mark out the cut on thr deck , then cut the deck out and glue it ok with the bonding flange, all done same day so I’m not leaving the interior open to the weather. That’s the plan anyway !

 

It's not about the price, it is indeed cheap enough, it's about the thing not failing unexpectedly and spraying salt water all over the motor, electronics and whatever else may be in the vicinity.

No infusion this time around? I really enjoyed your last build, hope you keep feeding us pictures.

 

No not using infusion for this, all the laminations are pretty small and fiddly so it wouldn’t be efficient . I’d only infuse something which I could us +20kg of resin at a time otherwise it’s more time consuming setting it all up and more expensive in materials.

flipped the deck house over and starting to lay the roof using 25mm divinycell ;

 

A bit more progress on the deckhouse today …

I want to ask for some input about the companion way hatch detail . Can anyone offer some advice / ideas for building a good companionway hatch on this?
So far I was thinking a sliding Hat section hatch panel which sits over a raised perimeter coming. Then cover the whole assembly with a bolt on cover with drain holes in various places around the edge of the cover . The cover bolts on so it could be removed to repair / replace the hatch . Functional parts hidden by a cosmetic cover so to speak . It’s has to be functional but also has to look good … what else could I do ???