Stairs or sprial stairs to bridge (ladder replacement)

[wwgilman]

I own a 70 foot CPY and want to replace ladder to bridge. I have seen this done to make it easier to acess the brige.This could be stairs with hand rail, spiral stairs, or power lift. Please advise of solution and who is capable of installing these. My boat is a 1991. I am also replaceing a 16 foot whaler and 70 hp Johnson with a rib inflateable. If you have any suggestions on size or power let me know. I have been advised the the smaller jet units are not manuaverable or satisfactory to use as dingys.I am also putting closed circuit cameras in the engine room and the generator compartment, and am not sure why the captain wants or needs these. Thank you for your advice as it helps me to talk to the experienced. Sincearly,WW GilmanFONT]

 

[SeaEric]

I'm going to guess that you may perhaps be the new owner of "Delite" previously from Annapolis. If so, congrats. Nice boat. Getting the weight of that Whaler off the roof is a great idea. Friends have suggested to me that the RIB boats with the center console steering are the most comfortable to run and easy to handle. You have enough space for a healthy sized unit. That will be a nice addition. As far as the bridge stairs go, I was aboard a Hatteras 64 last spring in Ft Laudrdale. She had been used for some charter and the bridge access was changed to a wider, deeper, rather robust "stairway" style ladder. It had nice sized treads, big handrails, and was really very easy to go up and down. I have searched to try to find a photo of that boat and installation to no avail. Something like this would be a fair amount easier to engineer and install than anything circular. Hopefully someone here will come up with the name of a yard to recommend.

 

[StratPlan61]

ww gilman maybe I can give you a perspective on those cameras in the engine/generator rooms. Whenever cruising I conduct a walk-in engine room (all 3) check every hour. I sniff, I look around with a flashlight (even though the overhead lights remain on while running), I check the on-engine gauges and eyeball everything - pulleys, belts, prop shaft, ventilation, blowers, etc. I had a 20kw generator fire last winter crossing the Gulf of Mexico. I caught it during my hourly checks. The safety system failed to shut-down the overheated - on-fire generator ($30k in damages). I manually shut it off and activated the co2 system for the genny room. CCTV cameras would have shown the dense black smoke to me much earlier at the helm. I am presently reviewing all of the various models and will install them soon. They seem pretty cheap given the alternatives.

Bear'
1984 61' MY Strategic Plan

 

[REBrueckner]

I put in my own CCTV engine room monitoring in my 48 ft YF. It was a mix of components from Radio Shack and works just fine. The biggest difficulty is seeing the TV screen, about eight inches, in sunlight on my flybridge. It's like trying to watch TV with bright sunlight..very difficult. It is also impossible to replicate the detail of a periodic engine room visual check in person, but as has been noted, heavy smoke should be readily visible via CCTV. My only concern there is that diesels consume so much air (smoke) they might disspate most of the smoke making it less visible. But overall CCTV is a nice safety feature.

Related to this is a rule I follow: never run the genny while underway. 99% of fires and failures I hear about result from a genny malfunction while underway where main engine noise prevents any sound monitoring. Addition of alternator(s) of sufficient size to power an inverter and run appliances from main engine(s) is far more efficient than operating a separate genny. Of course if you run air conditioning full time, this isn't practical because of high power demand. An alternative is to provide genny instrumentation right at your most used helm station. That may provide feedback before an alarm condition occurs. A salt water flow meter for the genny is inexpensive and provides immediate feedback if salt water flow is lost. A simple 120v indicator lamp at the helm can warn when power is lost but the genny is still running.

Does anyone know of a smoke detector for an engine room, one with a remote alarm indicator??

Regarding Whaler replacement, you don't mention why you are replacing it nor your intended use, so suggestions are difficult. But generally fiberglass RIB's are drier and the VEE RIB hulls offer natural cushioning difficult to achieve with a Whaler. I'm not sure any weight difference will make any difference aboard your boat. In general, RIB's will plane a bit easier than a Whaler because of their additional beam relative to length. If you leave your tender in the water for long periods, an inflatible will have to have the tubes and bottom painted with bottom paint to prevent marine growth, just like an all fiberglass tender.