Our Helmsman 43E

[chanprr]

Outstanding!!

 

[Caballero II]

Hold fast!!

I think we are going to be boring and name the Helmsman the same as the Ranger, “Hold Fast”. It’s the MacLeod clan motto and my wife really liked it. Maybe “Hold Slow”? : )

Oh, I like "Hold Fast". Great motto, noble and brave. "Hold Slow"? I don't think most will get it. Carry on with my best hopes. I'm trying to get far enough ahead of older age issues to jump in line. I want side decks though. Not negotiable. Not trying to sleep eight. No grand kids.

 

[Jklotz]

So how has it been going with Hold Fast? Those 43e's seem like great boats from where I am sitting.

 

[NSM]

We are flying home from Thailand tonight and get our first day on the boat next Monday. Super stoked…

 

[NSM]

First day on the boat getting trained. First impression is this is a smooth handling boat. We got to play with the DMS stabilizer using the demo mode to induce roll on smooth water. Seems to work fine. Need to test it in real swells. And at 6 kts we measured about 0.2 kts speed reduction with the stabilizer deployed. We’ll be doing some more rigorous testing as I build my fuel consumption versus boat speed data set with and without the stabilizer deployed. Ended the day with big smiles…

 

[Helmsman]

I really like the hull stripe. It adds to the sleek look of the 43. You will enjoy learning the boat over the next few weeks. Congratulations again, and keep us posted!

 

[FWT]

Congratulations!

The fun begins.

 

[chanprr]

NSM: Thanks for the photos. Your 43E is a beautiful trawler. Hope to see you up north this summer.

 

[Jklotz]

That is a great looking boat. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

 

[NSM]

This video of our boat just popped up from Helmsman. Not sure I can do any better. I'll post soon on the DMS stabilizer...

 

[chanprr]

This video of our boat just popped up from Helmsman. Not sure I can do any better. I'll post soon on the DMS stabilizer...

Congratulations on your 43E. Just saw the video while on Youtube. Beautifully done and true Helmsman quality finish. Thanks for posting.

 

[Jklotz]

This video of our boat just popped up from Helmsman. Not sure I can do any better. I'll post soon on the DMS stabilizer...

Love the blue accent stripe on that one. Looks very nautical. Beautiful boat! If I were to order one, it would be very similar. Congrats, you are a lucky guy!

I had a discussion with Scott about the DMS stabilizer recently. I'll be most interested to hear your thoughts about it when you get time.

 

[FWT]

That looks GREAT.

Congratulations.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

Woo-hoo! Very nice.

 

[Serene]

[SNIP]

I had a discussion with Scott about the DMS stabilizer recently. I'll be most interested to hear your thoughts about it when you get time.

Not sure if you have seen this;

https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums...-stabilizer-70862.html?highlight=magnusmaster

and this;

 

[Jklotz]

Not sure if you have seen this;

https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums...-stabilizer-70862.html?highlight=magnusmaster

and this;

Yes, I saw it. Looks great. I'm just skeptical of almost anything posted on social media these days, especially something as expensive as this, so I was hoping for some more real world experience. They claim it requires almost zero maintenance. Would love to have some more input from some owners/users. From what little is out there that I've seen, it looks great.

 

[NSM]

We had the boat out today and I engaged the stabilizer in demo mode, using the stabilizer to induce roll in flat seas. Link to YouTube below.

I saw the system and installation at multiple points and am pretty sure this will be a dependable system. Few moving parts and it looks really robustly built.

https://youtu.be/bMuygltHhpk?feature=shared

 

[chanprr]

NSM: The demo on MV Libra was exactly the same except with twin rotors. . Thanks for posting.

 

[NSM]

NSM: The demo on MV Libra was exactly the same except with twin rotors. . Thanks for posting.

And the MV Libra demo put me on my butt while filming from a folding chair. That sold me on the technology.

 

[scout63]

Great looking boat- Congratulations!

What dinghy do you have up top? I wasn't sure what length would fit up there comfortably (our 43 arrives in about 3 weeks).

 

[NSM]

It’s a Highfield 310 FCT center console with 20 hp Tohatsu. Fits well and goes fast…

Congrats on the awesome boat. We love ours.

 

[NWboater2]

Hey NSM — I was leaving GH last Friday afternoon, I think I followed you out. Told my wife I think that new Helmsman's on TF - he has the same tender! Looking good!

 

[NSM]

Thanks. Spent all week loading it up and organizing everything. Now we need to get out and play…

 

[TrawlerGreg]

We are getting our 38E shortly.. we are next up for completion !! Highfield 310 FCT center console with 20 hp Tohatsu is the same set up we are getting as well... did lots of investigation and glad to see many other folks have made similar selection.. can't wait to post photos, etc of We Are!

 

[NSM]

They are beautiful boats. Can’t wait to see how yours gets kitted out.

Cheers

 

[KDT]

My wife signed the contract yesterday and it just got real. I thought I’d list a few of the tweaks we are doing.

For basic stuff my wife liked the RAL 5014 stripe. She also chose a light tan for the cushions. The rest of the furniture and interior build is pretty standard.

We’re getting the bulwark doors outside the pilot house. Not sure how often I’ll need them but I like the idea.

We’re skipping the Seakeeper for now and installing a washer/dryer in the space. I can always drop one in later if we need more stability, but where we’re doing most of our cruising I think we’ll be fine without it. We had a good talk with Scott about this.

I’m getting two 12” Garmin MFD screens at the helm. I have that on the Ranger and really like how it looks and functions.

Another big thing for me is music. I’m having a 10” JL Audio free air subwoofer installed in the salon. It will satisfy my need for bass. I’m working on a spot for a subwoofer in the pilot house but there’s less room to play with. We’ll figure something out. I may have to settle for an 8” JL sub there. Maybe a pair of them?

The last big tweak is the ~1kw solar panel kit. When I get back from paragliding I’ll be focusing on how to harvest the sun effectively. I have lots of solar on my van and a buddy has 800 watts on his van. That gives me hope that we can solve that puzzle.

Ooh, and one more last tweak, Starlink. I’ve been traveling the last month in my van using Starlink and am always able to get high speed access the interwebs. I’m a convert. Just need to figure out an unobtrusive location. May end up with a flat mount but not sure I want the signal degradation that causes. Another puzzle.

I can’t wait for next June…

Anybody want a lightly used Ranger Tug R29CB?

Cheers
Scott

Scott, I would love to see photos of your finished helm electronics layout. I am weighing the differences of two 12" vs one 16" MFD for our in build 43e. Thinking two would be preferred for redundancy ( in case one fails) If they fit! Thanx for any assistance.

 

[NSM]

I ended up going with a single 17” MFD.

 

[Hydraulicjump]

Looking good, Captain! And my advice, for what it is worth, is to go with the biggest MFD you can fit. Given the capabilities of these systems, they are just about all you need.

 

[rslifkin]

I'd lean towards 2 displays. 2x 12" is likely to be more total usable space than 1x 16". And if you want to display both charts and radar, you're likely to get a more usable shaped image (and therefore be able to display more or larger) with 1 on each screen vs splitting one screen (where you'll have taller, narrower slices of display to work with).

Plus there's the redundancy aspect. If everything is networked and one of the displays dies, you don't lose any functionality, just some screen space.

 

[KDT]

I'd lean towards 2 displays. 2x 12" is likely to be more total usable space than 1x 16". And if you want to display both charts and radar, you're likely to get a more usable shaped image (and therefore be able to display more or larger) with 1 on each screen vs splitting one screen (where you'll have taller, narrower slices of display to work with).

Plus there's the redundancy aspect. If everything is networked and one of the displays dies, you don't lose any functionality, just some screen space.

I am tending to agree with this reasoning.