Upper or Lower Helm

[Okydowky]

Surprised with the majority like the upper!! I would definitely would like to stick with a FB boat for the nice days and unobstructed viewing. But with knowing my finance manager and what also makes her happy, is to be together while cruising while she putters doing what she loves baking.. so I will need lower helm. This style we currently have and it’s proven to us.

I may need to go bigger budget and bigger boat to get inside access to FB or look at a pilot house. We are more northern than most and want to extend our cruising season, this will make it more comfortable I’m sure.
I will still be looking at this Fu Hwa 36’ but have my doubts, if it’s the trawler style for us.

 

[rslifkin]

I like my layout, which is just an upper helm, but it's not a flybridge. It's basically on top of the aft cabin with deck space behind it and stairs down to the salon right next to the helm (so it's not far from anything).

It's not as nice as a good lower helm or pilothouse in bad weather (no heat, roof is just a bimini and if you put the back covers up, visibility goes from good to crap behind you). But in a lot of ways, it's nicer than a flybridge (not quite as high up, real windshields with wipers, plenty of space around the helm). And the center windshield opens for nice days when you want more airflow.

 

[Codger2]

We see some "station wagon" affect sometimes, sometimes pulling up moisture onto to our aft enclosure panels. Not always and not horrible anyway, but I wonder if that might impact visibility through an aft-facing camera.

Our aft facing camera is mounted outside the flybridge enclosure, Our forward facing camera is mounted inside the flybridge,in front of the instrument panel, shooting through the venturi. (No reduction in picture quality!)

 

[Dougcole]

In the past we have had both, flybridge & down helm. When we went looking for our present boat, it had to have an enclosed flybridge, with a hard top and helm and no salon helm. We wanted a dinette in that location. After about 3 years of constantly looking (It had to be an Ocean Alexander) we finally found the boat.. We use the dinette constantly and the visibility from the bridge is fantastic! BTW, note the sliding doors to the cockpit barbecue .

Very nice.


I would love to see a Mainship 400 without a lower helm. I've often wondered if they could have made the master cabin a bit bigger of they eliminated the lower helm.


Production boat though, so fat chance!

 

[rsn48]

A flybridge to my mind is location dependent as to where your cruising grounds are. I re-read your initial post and I'm not clear where you plan to keep your boat. So if you will be keeping it in Lake Okanagan then a flybridge might well be suited to you.

Most don't use their boats that much in the off season at the lake and you experience hot sunny days, weather amenable to being out in the open.

In my circumstance with a boat in Comox, most of my cruising will be crossing the Strait of Georgia with a beam sea and beam winds at my side. So I like a low profile that my boat offers, less subject to side rolling. Also the weather isn't as good as Lake Okanagan, particularly if you like off season cruising. I have zero desire to be exposed in late October to the weather I might encounter as I head to Desolation Sound.

And I also think it is a personal matter. My idea of a good time is not out exposed to the sun's rays and heat. When the humidity climbs above 2 % I sweat (okay I might dabble in hyperbole here) when it is warm out. I was sweating in Old San Juan in January. The idea of going to Hawaii to lay on the beaches sounds like torture to me. I'm a lily white person of Scottish descent who turns white/red, white/red/, white/red in the sun, never ever really acquiring any kind of tan. But there are others who seem to possess the body of a snake, happiest laying around in blazing heat.

 

[Comodave]

We had a couple of must haves when we bought our current boat. Absolutely no vertical ladders since we are both getting older and we have an 85# Lab that wants to be with us constantly, not sitting below by himself. Absolutely no built in furniture since we both have back problems and we want comfortable recliners to sit in. No lower helm due to lack of usage and give up the salon space. We bought a sundeck model. It has steps up to the sundeck and then 3 steps up to the bridge. We can go from the salon to the bridge without going outside in the rain. I drive from the bridge and my wife handles the bow lines. When docking or locking through I have to handle the helm and then the stern lines. Bringing the boat home to Michigan from Virginia we went through 75 locks. I found that our dog wanted to be in front of me going down from the bridge to handle stern lines. Many times by the time I could get past the dog to handle lines, especially after he learned that the lock masters would give him a treat, the stern would have blown off the dock or lock wall. I would have to go back to the helm and move the stern back to the wall and try to get to the stern quicker. I realized that in time I would end up tripping and falling by hurrying to get off the bridge. So I put a stern thruster with a wireless remote in. Now my wife gets the bow line ashore and I walk leisurely to the stern and if the stern has blown off the lock wall, I use the stern thruster to put it back on the wall. Works great.

 

[Okydowky]

A flybridge to my mind is location dependent as to where your cruising grounds are. I re-read your initial post and I'm not clear where you plan to keep your boat. So if you will be keeping it in Lake Okanagan then a flybridge might well be suited to you.

Most don't use their boats that much in the off season at the lake and you experience hot sunny days, weather amenable to being out in the open.

In my circumstance with a boat in Comox, most of my cruising will be crossing the Strait of Georgia with a beam sea and beam winds at my side. So I like a low profile that my boat offers, less subject to side rolling. Also the weather isn't as good as Lake Okanagan, particularly if you like off season cruising. I have zero desire to be exposed in late October to the weather I might encounter as I head to Desolation Sound.

And I also think it is a personal matter. My idea of a good time is not out exposed to the sun's rays and heat. When the humidity climbs above 2 % I sweat (okay I might dabble in hyperbole here) when it is warm out. I was sweating in Old San Juan in January. The idea of going to Hawaii to lay on the beaches sounds like torture to me. I'm a lily white person of Scottish descent who turns white/red, white/red/, white/red in the sun, never ever really acquiring any kind of tan. But there are others who seem to possess the body of a snake, happiest laying around in blazing heat.

Thank you RSN, our current boat we shipped to Steveston and did the cruise up through Gibson’s and Powell River Hence my questions and interest on everyone’s opinion on style of boat and Helm. Don’t get me wrong we love our boat, but it’s not what we need to continue our journey.

We put 200 hrs on the engines this summer and got experience everything. We do have FB on our current boat that we really enjoy but also enjoy Cruising from the inside on the wet days. So I wouldn’t say we are rookies to the inside passage, but never to old to learn.

We gravitate to the character of the old trawlers just chugging along the and there spacious layouts. We walk every dock to sneak a peak and talk to that owns who are always smiles with a bleep a@@ grins telling the story of there boat.

Troy