Motor Boat & Yachting — August 2017

The multi-chine hull needed

building up to give the new

Sleipner fi ns enough clearance

On the hard waiting for

the old Vosper mini fi ns

to be removed

All polished and

prepped ready for the

bow thruster propeller

The new bow thruster

tunnel gets glassed in

and built up in layers

Silver Echo is lowered

back in ready for her

fi rst sea trial

lorry with a tail lift and a pallet truck on board and
rented another two Transit vans towing trailers
(one of which diverted off to Poole to pick up our
new tender, an Avon mini RIB with a 50hp outboard,
sourced by the guys at boats.co.uk).
Despite being stopped four times by the police
to ask what was in the van, our trucks and trailers
made it safely down to Antibes. We spent a couple
of days afloat, prepping for the removal of the
KoopNautic system, and then it was off to Chantier
Bleumer at Baie des Anges where Philippe Hourez
once again helped us out with forklift trucks,
welders, polishers, antifouling and anodes, while
the guys from West Coast Marine got stuck into
the bow thruster and stabiliser job.
There were plenty of pumps to move around and
this time they were changing the position of the
fins from the very back of the engineroom to a
much more effective location at the front of it. We’d
noticed en route from Palma that being located so
far aft caused the boat to wander about, and even
the autopilot struggled to hold a steady course.

Sleipner agreed that the new position further

forward would be better, and thanks to the low

height of the SPS actuators (just 260mm), they

could be fitted under the engineroom’s floor plates.

HANDLING THE HYDRAULICS

Job one was ripping out the old bow thruster tunnel

and starting the long process of fibreglassing in the

new one, then grinding it down to leave a smooth

finish. The West Coast guys were working until 9pm

every evening to make sure that the next layer of

fibreglass would set overnight ready for progress

the following day.

This time we were tackling the hydraulic pipework

ourselves, both to save money but also to make sure

we got it all done while we were there. Everything

about the SPS 66 system is quite a bit heavier than

the fins we’d used on Silver Dee. The actuators are

105kg each, so getting those down the stairs and

into the engineroom was a mammoth task that

involved using a block and chain to lower them

into position. There was enough space in the

engineroom for the rack-mounted control system

but it was too big to go down in one piece so

everything had to be stripped off, and the rack

cut in half with a grinder before being welded back

together again in situ. For reasons of speed and

economy, we’d opted for one pump driven by the

starboard engine gearbox, even though Sleipner

recommends fitting two for redundancy.

Lots of other jobs were done during this time,

including ripping out four loos and replacing them

with Tecma toilets, changing the forward black

water tank for new fitted Tek-Tanks, plus many other

smaller jobs, so it was two weeks’ solid work before

we were back in the water and ready for the first sea

trial. The automatic bleed cycle seemed to work well

and the fins were moving across their full range on

the berth running off the auxiliary power pack. And

this time we’d even bought a hydraulic pump with

the right rotation!

We set to sea for the first sea trial and the fins

just locked over fully to port and wouldn’t move. We

could get them to centre up as we turned them off

SILVER DEE

James’s original

52ft trawler yacht

OWNER’S UPGRADE