Here's another picture of the mast lay-out. Radar, VHF antenna's, Flir, augmented reality, horn, wind instrument, iridium. White nav light and anti-lightning rod on top. GPS and AIS as well, of course. And integration with augmented reality. I'll post a pic tomorrow on how that looks.
Mast and antennas can be folded forward to lower the overall max height above the water line of the ship to 3m40. Anything under 3m50 allows those wanting to cruise Europe's inland water ways, to the extend of being able to cross the continent from the North Sea to the Med (or back), via the canals and rivers of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France.
This way, our design complies with Beebe's original long-distance motor yacht cruising philosophy: you want to be able to cross oceans so that you can cruise the places you visit. If I remember correctly, he even gave the above example. "Sail your motor yacht to Europe, then use your yacht to cross France via it's channels." Or words close or equal to that.
To that extend, and making use of modern communication and navigation aids, I decided to go for a relatively low mast/radar/etc. set-up, in terms of height. And I proposed to our NA that we should make the mast fold forward to achieve a wider inland cruising capability.
The maximum beam of 5 meters of the LM65h design also supports the more narrow lock designs one finds inland. France's inland locks, for example measure, 5m10 in width. Yes, fenders won't fit, but mats do and that's what the 5 meter wide standard professional barges use.
Regards, Edwin.
