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 major modifications since 1983 up to now |
|
| General layout | In
1976 my Fisher 37 was ordered and delivered to Porto Santo Stefano Italy
as an empty hull. The previous owner ordered at a local workshop the completion of the ship. The location of the toilet was in the fore cabin on the stb side. On the bb side were located two berths one upon another. The saloon and the galley were located as today. In a quarter cabin on the stb side, where today is the toilet, were also two berths one upon another. The wheelhouse was shortened by about 60 cm, creating more space in the cockpit, and lowered to somewhat preserve the proportions. In 1982, as I bought the boat, I ordered modifications to restore almost the same layout as the original Fisher showed at that time. I did no modifications to the dimensions of the wheelhouse. I'm pretty satisfied with the actual layout. We seldom need 4 berths, almost 2 are enough. A bigger cockpit has an advantage in the hot Mediterranean summers. See the actual layout as pdf file: layout.pdf |
| Bowsprit | At the beginning, the
original Fisher 37 didn't have a bowsprit. Many years ago, I ordered
at a local workshop a bowsprit in AISI 316 steel, who is very similar
to the original mounted now on the Fisher 37. The bowsprit has an anchor roll, a pulpit and is covered with a teak deck. See a general drawing and some details of the anchor/chain roll as pdf file: bowsprit.pdf original drawings made by me (in German) scanned in 1 bit mode |
| Bow thruster | In
the spring 2000 I mounted a Vetus 80
kgf 24 V bow thruster. The installation was fully done by me. The necessary high current load is carried through a 75 sqmm cable directly from two batteries of 110 Ah. The GRP tube was laminated to the hull sides with carbon fiber and epoxy resin. A bow thruster for the easy maneuvering of a heavy boat with a long keel is a must! See a picture out of the original Vetus catalogue and the shape of the tube outlet as pdf file: bowtrhuster.pdf |
| Roller reefing | As
many years ago I upgraded to a roller reefing system, I choosed the Hood
SeaFurl system for the foresail and a StoBoom system for the main sail. In the same time I ordered an Hood BiStar Cruiser roller reefing genoa and a Hood boom reefing full batten main sail. The genoa is a good sail and the SeaFurl system is also good. The main sail is an unsophisticated one and the boom reefing system, as all boom reefing systems, is not very easy to use. |
| Blister | About 5 years ago I ordered a North triradial blister. It's a beautiful sail. Now it's upgraded with a Snuffer Plus. |
| Bathing ladder/gangway | Originally my boat was equipped with a stainless steel bathing ladder of 9.5 kg weight and an aluminum gangway of about 12 kg weight. Last year, as I needed the space on the roof of the wheelhouse to install more solar panels, I decided to combine the ladder and the gangway in one element and I fabricated an inner shape with very light and thin plywood. The weight of this skeleton was of about 3 kg. The skeleton was then laminated with diagonal and unidirectional carbon fiber coated with epoxy resin. The new ladder is only 6 kg heavy and swims! For the use as a gangway a glass and carbon fiber board can be applied over the ladder. pictures |
| Refrigerators | Originally
in my Fisher was a common, side opening refrigerator with a normal Danfoss
compressor. The compressor was mounted in an locker below the floor in
the wheelhouse. The cooling of the condensator was poor. I substituted
the old refrigerator with a similar one and realized a top opening freezing
box of about 50 Liter volume. The conventional refrigerator has a normal evaporator. The freezing box is equipped with an eutectic cold accumulator plate. Both refrigerators are served by a piston compressor and the condensator is a cooling coil mounted outside the hull of the boat. Even in the hot Mediterranean summers, I can store fresh meat, vegetables, fruits and all the other food for at least one week. The compressor, eutectic plate and condensator are fabricated by Frigomar. |
| Electric toilet | Three
years ago I substituted the membrane hand pump element of the toilet with
an electric piston pump. OK it's consumes energy, but the comfort is very much higher and the almost yearly substitution of the membrane on the old pump, of course in the wrong moment, was complicated. Now three year without any problem. I substituted the black melamine cover and sitting by one out of massive, glossy coated teak. The toilet was made by ORVEA. |
| Warm water | As
I bought my boat, no warm water was installed. A 45 litres Vetus
boiler heated by the motor cooling water or through an electrical 220V/1500W
element is now installed at the far stb below the wheelhouse floor. The warm water deserves all taps including the shower installed in the cockpit. |
| Engine | In
the spring 2001 I substituted the old AIFO
M806, 125 hp, 6 cylinders, 5.5 litres, atmospheric, fix mounted engine
with the IVECO/AIFO 8041 M09, 95 hp,
4 cylinders, 3.9 litres, atmospheric, mounted on Vetus LMX flexible mountings. The old engine was equipped with an hydraulic 3:1 rev gear consuming about 20 hp. The new one is equipped with a Technodrive TM 93 2.77:1 gear consuming about 5 hp. The old engine was fixed coupled to the shaft. The new one is flexible coupled with a Vetus Bullflex coupling. The insonorisation of the engine room is completely made with Vetus SDP type sound reduction plates. The reasons for this modification were: 25 years old engine (but still working perfect), some fume at high loads, sound intensity, vibrations and high weight. I have evaluated a lot of engines in the range of 80 to 120 hp and choosed not to consider turbo charged engines because of the limited reliability and poor performance at idling or low revolutions. After one summer of experience, I'm pretty satisfied with the new engine. OK, that's only an impression but I noticed only marginal improvements in sound intensity and vibrations (less hard). |
| Propeller shaft | Because
of the flexible mounted engine, I had to substitute the old fixed
mounted propeller shaft with a "swimming" one. The old
shaft was of 60 mm diameter out of AISI 316. The new one has a diameter
of 45 mm made in Remanite 1-4462. On the old shaft there was a fixed stuffing box. The new one has a "swimming" stuffing box. Shaft, stuffing box, torsion protection and the new propeller are from Vetus. |
| Rudder | I
don't know how good the rudder is realized now on Northshore
Fishers but on my old one the rudder was built out of an inner stainless
steel skeleton and two GRP halves coated and probably laminated each other.
For many years I noticed fissures between the two GRP halves and rusty
water was coming out of the rudder. I don't know if the stainless steel
used for the construction of the rudder skeleton at that time was out
of AISI 316 or 308/312. I decided to order at a local workshop a new rudder
with a bigger surface. The new rudder is completely made in AISI 316 stainless steel an the cavity is filled with polyurethane foam. No any problems since. As expected, the reverse maneuverability of the boat improved very marginally. I notice less rudder given by the automatic pilot in normal ahead use. See some of my drawings as pdf file: rudder.pdf |
| Electric circuit | Two
years ago I decided to substantially improve the energy production in
my boat. For a long time I have evaluated to install a diesel generator but the noise, the complexity of the installation, the weight and the poor space in a 37'' boat were the arguments for an other solution (see also solar panels and wind generator). I upgraded the whole electric circuit with an additional 110A/24V alternator coupled to the engine (originally on my boat there were 2 alternators of 45A/24V each). Two Vetus Battery Watch/diode splitters for the charging and deserving of the common consumers. I have connected each other the two battery banks forming 440Ah capacity at 24V for the common users and installed two additional batteries of 110Ah/24V for the engine starter, the anchor windlass and the bow thruster. See a drawing of the main electric circuit as pdf file: electricmain.pdf |
| Solar panels | In
my continuous search for energy sources I have mounted on the roof of
the wheelhouse (see the picture in the home page)
6 panels connected to 3 x 2, 24V/36W panels. In the peak hours last summer
I have reached a current load of 6A. The panels were made by Sunware and are very simple to install (simply coating to the roof) and are very thin (you can stand on it). All panels are connected together through a diode splitter and a charging regulator directly to the main batteries. Last summer, after two days on anchor in a bay and without economies with the consumers (2 refrigerators, day and night!) the batteries were still about half charged. Beautiful! Clean, no noise! I had only to push away the boom to the side to prevent shading. |
| Wind generator | For
an additional energy production I have installed on the fore side of the
mizzen mast a wind generator Western
Marine Aero4Gen 24V. It works OK, but needs wind of at least 15 kn. You see the wind generator on the left side of the picture on the home page just below the radar antenna. |
| Cockpit benches | During
the winter 1994 I substituted the benches by a new construction. The old
teak plywood was wearied out and the openings for the lockers were to small.
The substructure of the benches and covers consists now of marine plywood
full coated and reinforced with glass fiber and polyester. All benches
and covers are covered with massive 10 mm teak ledges coated with epoxy
resin and partially bolted. For pictures see the Pictures section. |
| Aft pulpit | The whole cockpit is now surrounded by an AISI 316 stainless steel pulpit. Two life belts, the outboard motor and a Magma marine kettle are fixed to the pulpit. |
| Osmosis
protection/ anti fouling |
The
original Fisher 37 has below the water line a transparent gel coat who
is more resistant to water diffusion than the pigmented one. My boat was never affected by osmosis because it is only at maximum 2 months per year in the water, but I was informed about Fishers who were affected by osmosis. I don't know if Fishers of current production are better protected. The whole hull below the water line is now protected against osmosis with a 5 layers coating with International Gelshield 200. The coating is expensive, but very simple to apply. The preparation of the hull is otherwise a hard work! I needed about two weeks for the preparation and one week for the application of the Gelshield coating. I use International Micron Extra as anti fouling and apply only two coating layers all two years (limited utilization in water). I never had fouling (very limited time in the water!). |
| Gas Installation | Spring 2002. Installation of 2 x 3 kg Camping-Gas gas bottles in a gas tight stainless steel box in the rear aft of the cockpit drained to the outside of the hull, electromagnetic check valve, copper tube without intermediary connections and a manual check valve in the galley just before the range. Installed a gimbaled Force 10 range with 2 top burners, grill and oven. |
| Hull | Spring 2002. Full recoating of the hull above water (not the deck) with 3 layers Awlgrip snow white polyurethane top coating sprayed. Substitution of the lowest 2 teak ledges (80x30 mm) on each side and new ledges on each side like the original Fisher. For pictures see the Pictures section. |
| Waste water system | Winter/Spring
2003. Realization of a waste water system consisting of a 230 liter GRP-tank,
collection of waste water out of the sinks in the toilet and in the galley
and out of the WC. All 3 can be switched directly to the sea. Realization of a shower in the Toilet room. See the drawing of the system as pdf-file: Waste water system.pdf |
| Floor Panels | Spring 2003. Out of 6 mm Teak ledges. Seams filled with white Sikaflex 295. Coated with 5 layers of Veneziani Woodmat 2 components polyurethane varnish. See the pictures section. |
| Fore cabin | Winter/spring
2003/2004 full restructuring of the fore cabin, elimination of the water tank below the floor (reduction of the water capacity from total 1000 liters to about 750 liters), insulation of the hull walls, walls and ceiling out of teak and so on. See the page with some pictures taken during the restructuring |
| Winter/spring 2004/2005 |
See the page with some pictures. |
| Winter/spring 2005/2006 |
Installed
a Webasto AirTop 5000 24V Diesel
cabin heater |
| Winter/spring 2006/2007 |
Not a lot of work because the boat wintered in Kemer/Turkey
and I only had a few tools on board. |
| Winter/spring 2007/2008 |
Sanded the teak ledges on both sides and also the
teak pulpit. Applied 4 coats of Coelan
Grundierung to the exterior teak parts. Coelan Grundierung is a
base coat out of isocyanate, UV-stabilizers and yellow pigment. Penetrates
the wood well and remains breathing active. At least 4 layers have to
be applied. Is a little to high pigmented and the natural grain of the
wood will be covered to much. |
| Winter/spring 2008/2009 |
Repainted the teak outside and repainted the floor inside. Polished the hull. Sealed the acrilic of the hatches with silicone. |
| Winter/spring 2009/2010 |
Repainted the whole deck with International Perfection with a 1:1 mix of cream S070 and white B000. Until mid may it was practically impossible to get good painting results. The most previous trials ended in "to do it again" :-(... The weather was simply to cold and to wet. I used brush, short hair rolls and fine sponge rolls. The best results were obtained with the fine sponge rolls but they had to be substituted after max. 1 hour. Painted the antiskid with the same paint + antiskid powder. Repainted the exterior wood parts. Complete overhaul of the WC. Installed an EPIRB GME MT 403. New Magma gas fired barbecue. New sun roof for the cockpit. New GPS antenna Raymarine Raystar 125. Substitution of the motor for the compressor of the fridge. New 43m2 genoa and covers for the hatches from Elle Sails Portoferraio. |
| Winter/spring 2010/2011 |
In a long work replaced the silicone sealing between
the acrilic glass and the aluminum frame of the fore hatch by the appropriate
Sikaflex combination. New membranes for the watermaker. New VHF transceiver Raymarine Ray 218E. New speed/log Raymarine + transducer ST60+. New Wind instrument + mast unit Raymarine ST60+. Substitution of the fridge compressor and of the exterior condensator coil. Substitution of the seat in the wheelhouse. Sustituted the 140 m x 10 mm galvanized anchor chain by 100 m of an inox chain out of DIN 1.4570 / AISI 316Ti and also substituted the chain sprocket of the anchor winch. |
| Winter/spring 2011/2012 |
Varnished the side Teak ledges 2 x with Cetol Marine. 2 x International Toplac to the waterline. 3 x Coelan Primer to the cockpit benches. Painted & some grp repairs to the dinghy. |
| Winter/spring 2012/2013 |
Substituted the Vetus BCC2000 chager/inverter by a Mastervolt Mass Combi 24/2500-60 charger/inverter. |
| Winter/spring 2013/2014 |
Substituted the level gauge of the black water tank. |
| Winter/spring 2014/2015 |
See some pictures here. |
Winter/spring |
See some pictures here. |
Winter/spring |
Sanded the teak handrails, applied 1 coat of Coelan Bootsgrundierung yellowish primer and 5 coats of Epifanes Clear Varnish. |
Winter/spring
|
- Substitution of the 4 lateral solar panels on the roof of the pilot house. The old ones were of 36Wpp each. The new ones of 110Wpp each flexible ETFE marine solar panels from Offgridtec were bolted to the roof. |
| Winter/spring 2018/2019 |
See some pictures here. - Varnished the door to the pilot house. Applied 6 coats of Epifanes Clear Varnish. - Slightly sanded the teak grating of the bow sprit and oiled with teak oil. - Slightly sanded the teak toe-rail and applied 2 coats of Epifanes Clear Varnish. - Slightly sanded the teak seats in the cockpit and applied 3 coats of Coelan Bootsbeschichtung diluted 50%. - Slightly sanded the floor of the pilot house and some othere interior parts and varnished with two component Veneziani Wood-Mat - Thoroughly sanded the lateral teak ledges and oiled with 7 coats of Owatrol Decks Olje D1. - Applied two grease nipples to the stuffing box. - Substituted some parts of the watermaker. - New Sunbrella cover for the windlass. - New Victron 50W fotovoltaic panel for the winter. |
| Winter/spring 2019/2020 |
- Varnished the exterior teak ledges with 5 coats of Owatrol Decks Olje D2. - Slightly sanded the teak toe-rail and applied 3 coats of Coelan Bootsbeschichtung diluted 50%. - Modification of the Schenker watermaker from two 24V pumps to one 220V pump. This allows to raise the pressure to 7.5 bar and to get about 70 Liters of fresh water per hour. The 220V pump uses about 550Wh fed by the inverter. - Due to the Covid restrictions it was not possible to carry out further work. |
| Winter/spring 2020/2021 |
See some pictures here |
| Winter/spring 2021/2022 |
See some pictures here |
| Winter/spring 2022/2023 |
- substitution of the four upper parts of the sunroof for the cockpit |
| Winter/spring 2023/2024 |
- substitution of the 3 membranes for the watermaker. |