On The Fishy Side

37 Billfish Construction 

Welcome back to the 37 Billfish blog!

As you know, Ocean Yachts is a leader in the innovation of new products in the sport fishing boat industry.  Innovation often involves the use of new and improved methods and materials, many of which have been incorporated into the 37 Billfish.  We’ve received many inquiries from our customers and the boating community regarding the Billfish, so we thought it would be interesting to share with you one of the many innovations.  While the 37 Billfish’s hull lamination is similar to our other models, the lamination and installation of the stringer system is a new and different process.  The following explains how our hulls and stringers are manufactured and fused together.

 Hull Lay-Up

The 37 Billfish hull lamination is completed using the same process as all of our models.  The open hull mold is first waxed and then sprayed with gelcoat.  Fiberglass mat is hand laid with blister resistant vinyl ester resin.  The hull sides above the water line are cored with a high density foam called divinycell.  The bottom from the water line down is laid up completely with solid fiberglass.

 Stringer Lay-Up

The stringer system is laid up in a one-piece, female mold in the lamination shop.  This is done in a similar manner to the hull lay up.  The mold is waxed and sprayed with gelcoat and then laid up with fiberglass mat.  The difference from our other models is that the Billfish’s stringers come from a female mold instead of a male mold.  When the stringer system is fully cured and the part is “pulled”, the top side of the stringer has a smooth, gel-coated finish.  This smooth finish is built in, as opposed to having to grind, fill, and fair.

 Stringer Install

After the stringer system is trimmed, the part is dry fit inside the hull.  This insures proper tolerances between the stringers and hull.  Then the outline of the stringers is traced onto the hull.  This ensures the stringers go back in the exact location where they were dry fit, and also serves as a guide for the application of the bonding material.

The dry-fit stringers are lifted out of the hull so the bonding agent (Ocean uses Plexus) can be applied.  Plexus is applied along the landing surfaces of all stringers, cross members, and panel stiffeners.  Plexus is a methacrylate adhesive that chemically fuses at a molecular level, forming bonds stronger than the substrates themselves. This installation process creates panel stiffness above ABYC standards.

After the Plexus is applied, the stringer system is lowered back into the hull using a weighted fixture that helps press it into place.  In addition to ensuring acceptable installation tolerances by dry fitting, inspection holes are located throughout the stringer system at inspection points so that proper bonding is assured visually.  Each panel section of the hull has bonding material applied around its perimeter.  In the center of certain panels there is an engineered non-contact area.  These “purpose gaps” are engineered so that the stringer grid makes contact with the hull around the perimeter of the panel as designed, not in the center of the panel where there is no stringer.

Once the stringers have been installed and the bonding agent has fully cured, the stringers are then foam injected for added strength and sound dampening.

 Through-Hull Installation

The hull and stringer system now bonded together as one, moves into the mechanical stage where engines, pumps, through-hulls, etc. are installed.  The stringer system on the 37 creates a unique situation when installing through-hulls.  Most through-hull fittings need to be installed in the purpose gap panels of the stringer system.  To provide the most reliable, leak-free installation it is best to install each through-hull fitting “hull to hull”.  To do this we must remove a section of the stringer liner around each through-hull installed in the boat.  This guarantees a solid installation.

Hello Everyone,
We’re proud to show you all what we have so far for the Flybridge, Main Deck, and Profile. Just click on each drawing to enlarge…enjoy!
-J4

Modern technology…WOW! We just finished building all the large molds for the 37, and I thought we would stick the plugs together to see how they look and fit. (Plugs are what the molds are built from, they are full scale replicas of the parts that will come out of the mold.) I stood there looking at the plugs for about five minutes and I think my exact words were, “Man, this is sweet.” Not only was it amazing to see my creation start to come to life, but the fit from part to part was so exact! I designed the entire boat using a program called Rhino 3-D. Ocean has been using Rhino to design parts of their boats for over 10 years now, but this is the first time using it on a new design project from start to finish. The old school way was to design the boat by hand on paper first, and then plug it all in to the computer later.

Designing this boat on the computer from scratch really forced me to think out every detail of assembly in advance, instead of just drawing a nice looking boat now and figuring out the details as we went. And what makes using this 3-D modeling program even more effective is the 5-axis CNC technology available for tooling. The design of each of our parts was emailed to a company in Florida called Marine Concepts where the plugs were carved out of a block of structural foam using a computerized router. And talk about having to make your design perfect, the router spits out exactly what you put in, so there’s zero room for error. The plugs were finished down there and then trucked up to Ocean’s R & D shop to build the molds. I’ve been in the marine tooling biz for 20+ years and I have to say I’m very much impressed. The exactness of the CNC milling was amazing. Designing this boat in 3-D was a real milestone for our company. I learned to tool boats using traditional lofting methods so I’m a bit old school myself. But I believe that with the diverse talent our company has and with the new technology we posses the doors are wide open for future designs. When I put those two plugs together out on the plant floor, and they fit perfectly, that was all the proof I needed.

As you can see, the Ocean 37 has a look all its own. No other production boat builder is making anything like it. With it’s open aft bulkhead/hard enclosure concept, this boat will be sure to please the express boat owners who are sick of leaky windshields and enclosures. The flybridge on the 37 adds another whole dimension beyond what an express boat offers. It affords the flexibility of commanding the action from the flybridge when you have a full crew on board, or the ability to run the boat from the lower steering station on the salon deck if you are just fishing with a buddy or two.

Throughout all of Ocean’s product line, with all the ruffles and frills, I sometimes wonder if we forget why we go boating. Somewhere between the automatic blinds, electric doors, and pop-up televisions we can forget that we own boats to be at sea! The 37 is designed to be a simple day boat built for exactly what people love about boating, being out on the water. On the 37, with its open aft bulkhead, side windows, and front windshield, the owner will be able to enjoy his or her surroundings on the water, breath in the open air, and take in the views from all around.

The design of the Ocean 37 has intentionally been kept simple. Ocean Yachts has always been proud that we build boats for owner-operators and we constantly hear that we manufacture the easiest boat to care for. The 37’ will be a shining example of that. Things like the molded gel-coat stringers that go from stem to stern (like our warranty) will be appreciated by our owners when they need to wipe away any debris that may fall into bilges or engine room. Simplified systems like the fuel system, head system, and water system will make the boat easy to care for, so you can spend more time actually enjoying your boat. The gel-coat finish throughout the salon deck will be simple and clean. The boat can be hosed and shammied, then forgotten about until you are ready to go boating again.

With this opportunity to add the smallest model to our fleet comes the ability to grow in manufacturing techniques, assembly processes, and built-in quality. Ocean Yachts is constantly testing new methods and materials that could enhance the way we build our boats. With this boat more than ever, we will be able to implement some new technologies and make them part of our normal production. The single biggest new technique we will be implementing is a fully-molded stringer system that will be bonded to the hull with Plexus, a fiberglass fusion material. We have been using Plexus for the past ten years with much success. We began experimenting with it on our demo boats in non-structural locations. Once it proved its strength and durability, we began using in more areas. Now we are so confident with it (and other manufacturers in the industry are too) that we will be bonding our stringer system into the 37 using it.

The stringer system is a feat of engineering in itself. This stringer system incorporates all longitudal and transverse members, all panel stiffeners, all floor supports, and all other hull structure. The beauty of this system, is that when it comes out of the mold, it is a shiny gel-coated part. The raw side goes down and gets bonded to the hull with Plexus, and the pretty side is up leaving a shiny white finish in the boat’s engine room, bilges, and lazarette. Although more difficult to build than a traditional stringer system, the new system will add quality to our product and provide a beautiful low maintenance product to the customer.