Another new start for Helmsman

[PattiS]

We understand that our new boat will come with 3 lines and 3 fenders so we plan to buy at least 3 more of each before we take delivery. We plan to find out the size and color of both so we can match them.

[PT Bay Watcher]

Nancy and I (Rick) signed a contract for a Helmsman 38e this past Friday. We are expecting a Sept./Oct. 2022 delivery. Boat construction should begin about April 2022.

We are located in Port Townsend, WA and expect to spend 5 or 6 months a year cruising the San Juan Islands, Canadian Gulf Islands, Inside Passage and South East Alaska.

We would be very interested in any pictures of boats under construction and in hearing the reasons why others have made the decisions they did on their boats.

Rick

**Hull number 56

[FWT]

Originally Posted by PT Bay Watcher

Nancy and I (Rick) signed a contract for a Helmsman 38e this past Friday. We are expecting a Sept./Oct. 2022 delivery. Boat construction should begin about April 2022.

We are located in Port Townsend, WA and expect to spend 5 or 6 months a year cruising the San Juan Islands, Canadian Gulf Islands, Inside Passage and South East Alaska.

We would be very interested in any pictures of boats under construction and in hearing the reasons why others have made the decisions they did on their boats.

Rick

**Hull number 56

Congratulations. Lots of reasons cited above, but if you have any questions, ask away.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by PT Bay Watcher

Nancy and I (Rick) signed a contract for a Helmsman 38e this past Friday. We are expecting a Sept./Oct. 2022 delivery. Boat construction should begin about April 2022.

We are located in Port Townsend, WA and expect to spend 5 or 6 months a year cruising the San Juan Islands, Canadian Gulf Islands, Inside Passage and South East Alaska.

We would be very interested in any pictures of boats under construction and in hearing the reasons why others have made the decisions they did on their boats.

Rick

**Hull number 56

Welcome aboard! What options did you guys select? Several of us have listed options in earlier posts. It would be great to hear your approach when you get some time.

[PT Bay Watcher]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Welcome aboard! What options did you guys select? Several of us have listed options in earlier posts. It would be great to hear your approach when you get some time.

Here is the list of options on our contract:

• Kingston gray hull
• Prewiring for generator
• Hydronic heating
• Radar Arch
• Extra helm seat on flybridge
• Modify boat deck handrail
• Cockpit side entry doors
• Swim platform staples
• 650 lb LP davit
• 3 additional house batteries
• 3 solar panels
• 120 an 12 volt outlets in cockpit
• 1 1/2 galley sink
• LED under counter lighting
• Add seacock for watermaker
• 1 towel bar in day head
• Hinged storage under bed
• Grab rail under cockpit cover

That is pretty much it, barring any changes...

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by PT Bay Watcher

Here is the list of options on our contract:

• Kingston gray hull
• Prewiring for generator
• Hydronic heating
• Radar Arch
• Extra helm seat on flybridge
• Modify boat deck handrail
• Cockpit side entry doors
• Swim platform staples
• 650 lb LP davit
• 3 additional house batteries
• 3 solar panels
• 120 an 12 volt outlets in cockpit
• 1 1/2 galley sink
• LED under counter lighting
• Add seacock for watermaker
• 1 towel bar in day head
• Hinged storage under bed
• Grab rail under cockpit cover

That is pretty much it, barring any changes...

That looks much like our list except being on the east coast we opted for a gennie and HVAC’s. We got a 110 volt outlet in the cockpit. Just curious, what will you use the 12 volt in the cockpit for?

[Doug_Snider]

We met with Scott yesterday to go over final details. We added lights on the radar arch, a 120 volt outlet in the cockpit and Caesarstone at the center cabinet (wine bar). Scott put us in touch with Eddie Legard of C & L Marine who sent us an electronics proposal today that meets our requirements perfectly. “Alba Bella” gets more real every day.

[PT Bay Watcher]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

That looks much like our list except being on the east coast we opted for a gennie and HVAC’s. We got a 110 volt outlet in the cockpit. Just curious, what will you use the 12 volt in the cockpit for?

The further North you go up here the better the shrimp taste but they are a couple of hundred feet deep. So a 12 volt Scotty crab/shrimp trap line puller makes it so you don't have the work so hard for your catch...

[PT Bay Watcher]

Originally Posted by Doug_Snider

We met with Scott yesterday to go over final details. We added lights on the radar arch, a 120 volt outlet in the cockpit and Caesarstone at the center cabinet (wine bar). Scott put us in touch with Eddie Legard of C & L Marine who sent us an electronics proposal today that meets our requirements perfectly. “Alba Bella” gets more real every day.

Would love to know about your electronics package. I haven't even started thinking about that yet. Maybe I should get started...

Rick

[Doug_Snider]

Scott suggested that we move ahead on the electronics because of current supply chain and semiconductor shortage issues. We were leaning toward Furuno but my wife’s brother, a marine electrician and certified captain, recommended Garmin. The proposals we received were for Garmin and Simrad. We’re leaning toward the Garmin based package that included the following.

16” multi function displays
Autopilot
Garmin Fantom radar
Chirp sonar
Forward looking sonar
AIS transceiver
Fusion entertainment system
Rear view camera
Modular VHF system

We’ll probably downsize the fly bridge MFD and add an engine room camera.

[Wagamama]

Originally Posted by PT Bay Watcher

Here is the list of options on our contract:

• Kingston gray hull
• Prewiring for generator
• Hydronic heating
• Radar Arch
• Extra helm seat on flybridge
• Modify boat deck handrail
• Cockpit side entry doors
• Swim platform staples
• 650 lb LP davit
• 3 additional house batteries
• 3 solar panels
• 120 an 12 volt outlets in cockpit
• 1 1/2 galley sink
• LED under counter lighting
• Add seacock for watermaker
• 1 towel bar in day head
• Hinged storage under bed
• Grab rail under cockpit cover

That is pretty much it, barring any changes...

Where will the solar panels be located and how will they be mounted? Considering installing some on top of the pilot house but concerned about glare when running from the flybridge.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by PT Bay Watcher

Would love to know about your electronics package. I haven't even started thinking about that yet. Maybe I should get started...

Rick

I attended four days of NMEA 2000 installation workshops last week. In the past I have installed my own electronics. I am putting the order together and will have that completed in the next week or so. I plan to go largely with Furuno. All of the big four do a good job with electronics for the most part.

I installed Raymarine on my last boat, was happy with the performance, unhappy with some of the needlessly complex screens to get things done, and unhappy that they sunset my two year old plotter.

Garmin has pretty good service but sunsets their equipment too quickly for me. Simrad has a forum reputation for poor service. I have zero experience with them, so really don’t know if the anecdotes on their service are one offs or not.

One thing I am pretty sure I will do is go with a Vesper Cortex (Sotdma B AIS with VHF capabilities). It also has the capability for sensors and when accompanied by access to the web, has a remote anchor watch and sensor reporting.

The rest of the electronics are a WiP but will be ironed out over the next couple of weeks. If there is interest I will post the build chart for it when completed.

[bowball]

The Vesper Cortex looks interesting. Any real world experience with it?

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by bowball

The Vesper Cortex looks interesting. Any real world experience with it?

There are reviews online at SeaBits and Panbo.

Here is SeaBits https://seabits.com/vesper-cortex-first-impressions/

[BellevueMatt]

We are looking at a very similar setup.

Interested in how you sized the load for adding 3 additional house batteries. This would provide about 1000 amp hours i think.

We would love to not get the Genset for both cost and maintenance reasons so are thinking about the battery sizing to help avoid. Let me know how you sized the load.

M

[Doug_Snider]

Originally Posted by PT Bay Watcher

Would love to know about your electronics package. I haven't even started thinking about that yet. Maybe I should get started...

Rick

Yesterday we finalized our electronics selections. C&L Marine Electronics, Helmsman’s preferred vendor in Seattle, had given us two proposals, one for Garmin and one for Simrad. My wife’s brother is a marine electrician and has been recommending Garmin. He has installed a lot of systems and has Garmin on his Hatteras 48 LRC. We opted for the Garmin system with a few tweaks my brother-in-law recommended. Our package includes:

GPSMAP 86xx Series MFD (16” in pilot house and 12”on the fly bridge. )
Garmin Fantom Radar
Garmin Panoptix front looking sonar
1000 watt CHIRP transducer
AIS transceiver
Garmin modular VHF
Garmin autopilot
Garmin marine camera in cockpit
Fusion Apollo marine stereo system
NMEA 2000 displays (stateroom and salon)

C&L offers a 10 percent discount and a special labor rate for Scott’s customers.

[FWT]

Doug:

Looks good.

Two transducers? The chirp for fishing?

I am trying to untangle options in that arena.

[bowball]

Originally Posted by Doug_Snider

Yesterday we finalized our electronics selections. C&L Marine Electronics, Helmsman’s preferred vendor in Seattle, had given us two proposals, one for Garmin and one for Simrad. My wife’s brother is a marine electrician and has been recommending Garmin. He has installed a lot of systems and has Garmin on his Hatteras 48 LRC. We opted for the Garmin system with a few tweaks my brother-in-law recommended. Our package includes:

GPSMAP 86xx Series MFD (16” in pilot house and 12”on the fly bridge. )
Garmin Fantom Radar
Garmin Panoptix front looking sonar
1000 watt CHIRP transducer
AIS transceiver
Garmin modular VHF
Garmin autopilot
Garmin marine camera in cockpit
Fusion Apollo marine stereo system
NMEA 2000 displays (stateroom and salon)

C&L offers a 10 percent discount and a special labor rate for Scott’s customers.

Did you consider Furuno? That’s what I’m going with on a 55’. I much preferred their radar and it was less expensive to boot. (Unless your discount is only Garmin).

[Nancy n Larry]

Originally Posted by bowball

Did you consider Furuno? That’s what I’m going with on a 55’. I much preferred their radar and it was less expensive to boot. (Unless your discount is only Garmin).

We are also going with Furuno on our 38. Much prefer their reliability, customer support and the way the system works. Bowball, where did you order yours from?

[bowball]

Originally Posted by Nancy n Larry

We are also going with Furuno on our 38. Much prefer their reliability, customer support and the way the system works. Bowball, where did you order yours from?

Mine is going on a Fleming, so installed by their authorized service center.