So I take it the Artnautica is a "borrowed" Dashew design?
One thing I have always wondered about with this approach... the so-called great room is common living space and helm, but that seems directly counter to the boat's primary mission as a passage maker. To me, when running 24x7, you want a separate dark room for the helm so it can be dark without constraining other activities on the boat. With a common space, if someone wants a cup of coffee at night, they either have to make it in the dark, or spoil the helmsman's night vision.
The more common power boat arrangement is to have a common helm/salon on coastal cruisers where 99% of operation is day time, and a separate pilot house on boats expected to operate with any regularity at night. This seems like a boat that is highly optimized for passage making (and done so at the expense of other operation) in all ways except the helm/salon, and those are optimized as one would for a day boat.
I have always been puzzled by this.
Hi Peter, really appreciate you taking time away from what is I'm sure a very busy schedule building your new N68 which I'm enjoying following on your blog as well.
As per Christine's response I think there is the same kind of genetic or category similarity between our XPM78 Mobius and other boats such as the FPB's which have similar external esthetics being raw aluminium very slender LDL type passage makers. I think this is the same as in the much more prolific case of trawler style boats which to the unfamiliar eye "all look the same". As a pragmatic example if you do a Google Image search on "trawler yacht" you and I would see this vast range of distinctly different types of trawler style yachts from many different builders. But to those unfamiliar with these type of boats, it is easy to see how they do "all look the same". I am not aware of a name having emerged yet for our type of boat but if you type in "pilot boat yacht" you will see a similarly wide range of boats which have a lot of similarities and yet a lot of differences depending on how well acquainted you are with these types of boats.
While the design we evolved with Dennis at Artnautica began with a very blank slate we also started with a very full SOR wherein we articulated all our first principles, priorities and use case. For those interested I wrote an
early post detailing all of this on our Mobius.World blog.
While voyaging under power is quite new to us, prior to our meeting six years ago Christine and I were both full time single handed sailors so we had very clear ideas and visions for what we wanted in our new boat and then spent over two years evolving this into a completed set of 3D models and build plans with Dennis. We certainly had a very large number boats and designers which influenced us and took full advantage of
"standing on the shoulders of giants" as I referred to it in another post here. One of the largest was the ocean crossing work boats which we shared an anchorage with in the several years we spent in Majuro in the Marshall Islands. In particular we were aboard several of the brand new pilot boats and ocean tugs which stopped in to fuel up in Majuro as they were being delivered to their new owners both to the east and the west of us. Their influence on many of our external features and overall design esthetic is quite easy to see I think from that image search above on "pilot boat yachts".
Throughout the entire design phase and now during building we continue to use our SoR and use case document to guide all our decisions and keep us focused on creating what we initially referred to as "Project Goldilocks" in reference to getting this boat "just right, just for us". This was very much the case as we were making our decisions between having the helm combined with the salon vs having the helm separate. We have done long passages on quite a few very different boats with different layouts and for us a kind of "hybrid" design was what evolved to be best for us.
As you've seen and commented on, our "main helm" is part of our "SuperSalon" sharing an open single space with the Galley, Dining area and Lounge. As Christine noted earlier we have both covered a lot of nautical miles and a lot of ocean crossing passages spanning several weeks in many cases both single handed and now as a couple, so we had some very clear ideas as to what was "just right, just for us" in this regard as well. With just the two of us aboard 98% of the time and 100% on passages, our night time situation is different than most other boats I think and essentially the same as when we were single handed. When one of us is on night watch the other person is sleeping so there are rarely any lights on during the night when we are on passage.
I appreciate that this is in stark contrast to most other boats that have larger crews and different preferences where there are multiple people near or around the helm and where a well separated helm would be preferred.
However with our use case and the negatively raked glass, no equipment or anything else above the bottom window sills and carefully situated dimmable LED lighting, we think that our open style main helm area will work very well for us.
And please don't take any of this to be dismissing the value of maintaining good night vision as we know that value very well and we have put a great deal of thought into the many ways of ensuring we can maintain excellent night vision in both helm areas and whether we are by ourselves or both there at the same time. In the very good example you sight of someone wanting to fix something to eat or drink late at night for example, one thing we are doing is surrounding the countertops in the Galley with short above counter lockers which have dimmable indirect lighting around their bases. In addition to dramatically reducing any light that might get up to the helm area this also provides good night lighting when we are on night watch and want to fix up something in the Galley.
However as I mentioned earlier, we have also created a bit of a hybrid model by having a second helm station up top in our SkyBridge and that will be my preferred spot when I'm on night watch on long passages. Not so much for night vision concerns as I find our lower helm setup to work very well at night, but for the greater visibility this higher vantage point provides as well as greater situational awareness from its more open design. Your sharp eye will have also noted the untraditional aft location of the helm chair in the SkyBridge which puts it right on the pitch centerline for even greater comfort at sea. We were very careful to design this such that our eye level when seated in this helm chair provides great sightlines all around and for example I can see the first 2.5m/8' of the bow when in the helm chair. We are keeping this SkyBridge minimally enclosed to keep weight as low as possible but keep the wind and rain out so there is no HVAC up there and the sides are simple sliding acrylic. So this won't be the place to be on really cold night passages in higher latitudes but otherwise I think this upper helm will be my preferred location when I'm on night watch.
I think that "best design" is always an incomplete statement lacking the relative context of "best design for me/us" and a given use case so please don't misconstrue my comments here as trying to talk you or anyone else into going this route. I appreciated your question and wanted to explain our logic in evolving our designs and making our decisions. For our use case and preferences this is the Goldilocks "just right, just for us" design and we think it gives us the choice of an isolated helm area and a combined helm/salon.
Thanks again for your interest and thoughtful questions in our new boat Peter and we look forward to continuing to follow and learn from you as you build your new Tanglewood.
-Wayne