Expeditionyacht.org

We’d like to create a bridge with a smart layout that’s easy to move around and has all the necessary equipment without overdoing it.  Not a bridge designed for the magazines but a bridge that’s great to work on at night passing through the English Channel.

Right below you can see our first effort at creating this “perfect” bridge.  We got good feedback from readers and now moved to a 2nd draft with a few big changes.  For the better we hope and we invite you again to comment.

For starters, we added the side doors.  This was something I felt was missing for quite some time but I didn’t quite know how to fix it until I got inspired by a bridge lay-out of Lars Modin Design.  Especially when mooring these doors will improve the traffic flow.  We also moved the chart area to the rear of the bridge, combining with with a bigger ‘office’ space that doesn’t interfere with the flow of people and can be used at night as well without blinding anybody using a curtain.  And we added a little “coffee station” which will also have a small fridge.  The toilet is 10 steps away behind the bridge.

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When we started asking feedback on our galley design from chefs, the response was overwhelming.  It lead to suggestions on laundry equipment, tableware and a lot more.  So, we’re going to dedicate a section of our blog to crew-related issues such as crew accommodations, crew management, crew-guest relations and a lot more.

Of course there are online forums dealing with these issues.  There are Dockwalk forum, YotCrew.com and Yacht Forum to name a few and please visit them if you are crew. But our purpose is to get back specific feedback and there are things we cannot do on these other forums like posting questionaires or posting images.

We appreciate your visit and we love your feedback.

Here are some direct links to crew-related topics:

• General crew feedback & forum
• Galley design
• Bridge lay-out and equipment
• Helping the stewardesses
• Crew spaces

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thorwald Westmaas
Project manager

In our continued effort to create the ideal yacht for guests AND crew, it’s now time to get feedback from the stewardesses. While converting an existing vessel obviously creates some restraints, we’ve made a considerable effort to make life for crew as pleasant as possible.  As you explore this site and the yacht’s proposed layout, you’ll see things like never more than 2 crew members per cabin, a decent cress mess not tucked away below the waterline,  a big laundry space with pro-line Miele’s, no white carpet but easy to clean parquet; all seating with leather(like) covering instead of hard to clean fabrics,  bathrooms that will be easy to clean (no nasty edges,  showers that always drain to name a few features of our low-maintainance interior design.   No silverware either!

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Our yacht galley is really coming together now.  With our interior designer making progress, there have been some minor changes to provide access to the rear cabins as well. In December we had made the galley bigger, added a dumpwaiter (from Lift Emotion) and moved the entrance  The exact list of galley equipment is still to be decided but this list is what you see in the drawing below (click on link for big version).   We have consulted with some people in the restaurant business and hope to get more feedback from yacht chefs in the field (see form below) and THANK YOU YachtChefs.com for posting this request on your website!   And thank you too Palux in Germany for your outstanding customer service.  If you need a professional galley, contact this company. You won’t be disappointed and their quality equipment will make any chef smile.

Click here for a general arrangement of the yacht. This is how it looks currently.  Click on the image BELOW for a bigger lay-out with an updated distribution of the galley based on your overwhelming input of the last few weeks.

June 10
Thank you, thank you all for your feedback!  We added the ‘stewardess station in the front’  and  have added an automated sliding door.  We hope to find a better option for the fire door, ideally to panes, turning outwards of the galley.  The walk-in cooler and freezer rooms will be on the deck below the galley.  Do we really need 6 induction zones? This has been a long discussion but eventually we decided to go for 4 zones and add the more flexible variocooker.  Yes, occasionally we may have 20 guests but it won’t be a-la-carte dining. For such big groups you’ll know the menu for the whole week in advance.  Wouldn’t you rather have some more counter  space?   And that’s what we did.  Of course, comments are still welcome.  Please use the form below.    Read the rest of this entry →

It’s amazing to see the kind of spaces crew on some mega yachts have to live in.  Having worked as crew myself, we’re trying to find an acceptable compromise.  This post is meant to gather some feedback from crew and yacht designers and have them share their thoughts on our crew spaces.

Below 2 drawings showing the crew quarters in respectively the aft and fore of the vessel.  We have planned a few changes including adding a dumb waiter covering 3 decks in the galley and extending the galley by removing the office but other than that and regulatory-mandated changes that might be needed, this is the plan.

May 2009 update
See our updated general arrangement in PDF here.  The  office will go to make a bigger galley (see post here) and the dummy waiter shown on the May plan will also go to provide more space and equipment in the galley. Hey, we all want to keep the chef happy right?

Let us know if you find it an improvement.  Not all the quarter will meet the future ILO180 guidelines (7 m2 per cabin, 1 crew member per cabin, all cabins aft) but the cabins and crew mess are all above the waterline and have port holes and/or skylights.

By the way, the idea is that this ship can be managed by a knowledgeable owner couple and a crew of 2 if needed but we also want to be able to go away for a week with 24 friends.   The crew cabin all the way in forward would be for occasion ‘crew’ like guides or other temporary visitors . It’s not intended to be used during a transatlantic voyage in the fall !!

What can we do to improve?  Give us your feedback with the form below.

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