Bavaria 50 Cruiser (2009) equipment (part 2: 6 photos)

[Viking]

I have added quite a lot of extra equipment to my Bavaria 50 Cruiser, which is one of the very last builds of the "traditional style" Bavarias.
Below are a few of the extras - more to follow. Any comments and ideas are welcome

Carpets
As an experiment, I bought a roll of very thin and very cheap black carpet which I cut and fitted in all cabins within a day. The purpose was to try out the visual effect of a dark floor and to test how it affected the sound and resonance inside the boat.
The result has been quite good - it feels more warm and cosy in the cabins and the box-like resonance in the main cabin has disappeared. So, instead of fitting new proper hardwood floorboards, I have decided to purchase a better quality carpet and have it fitted professionally with removable sections (for easy access to areas under the floorboards and for foul weather situations).
(Photo 1)

Bathroom floors
To have a nice looking and even surface floors in the bathrooms, I opted for ready-made teak grates from Tischlerei Kurt Behn (Hamburg, Germany), who has a semi-series production for some boat brands.
(Photo 2)

Battery monitor
After one sailing season trying to live only with the integrated battery voltage meter in the Bavaria control panel, I gave in and installed a proper battery monitor, the BEP 600-DCSM. It supports 3 of my 4 battery banks (house bank, starter battery for main engine and starter battery for the diesel generator), leaving the battery for the bow thruster and windlass out.
It also supports measuring tank levels, but I do not (yet) use that.
(Photo 3)

Batteries & battery charger
After 3 short sailing seasons, the factory-supplied Quick charger (40 Ah) stopped working. Getting technical support through their official dealer turned out to be impossible, so I chose to install a good quality charger with better charge capacity: a Victron Centaur 80 Ah. The Victron charger has been mounted under the navigation table and is barely visible on the photo.
My batteries had also started to show a voltage drop, so I replaced the house bank with 7 new Varta 95 Ah AGM batteries, in total 665 Ah and a new Varta starter battery for the diesel generator (75 Ah).
(Photo 4)

Diesel generator
I opted for a Kohler 4.5 EFOD diesel generator. It is a quite large unit and comes in a complete casing unit which has been sound-proofed. It has been installed in the 'tunnel' behind the main engine and between the two aft cabins. The control panel can be seen on the photo.
(Photo 5)

Radar signal amplifier
To complement the AIS transceiver, I installed an active radar reflector (Echomax XS dual-band RTE) to enhance my chances of being 'seen' by other vessels not having AIS and to be warned when I am "ping'ed" by someone's radar. The control panel can be seen on the photo.
(Photo 6)

[Stuart]

Hi Viking, great job and good choices on the modifications .
There will be more , it never seems to end.The good thing is that it makes living on the boat that much easier and more comfortable.I envy you cruising the Med,
This link  http://www.bavariayachtowners.org/page8/page6/page6.html        is a link to some of the mods I've done to our boat we cruise Florida and the Bahamas. I installed a water maker a couple of years back and having that has been awesome  .

Cheers

Stuart

[Sweet As]

Viking and Stuart,

You should both be suitably proud of the innovations and general condition of your yachts. Well done.

Stuart, I noted the washdown pump that I assume you have installed under the fwd berth(?). Did you plumb it into the existing sea water supply (fwd head perhaps?). I would like to fit a pump on our Bav36. I was thinking of fitting the pump where you have installed the bookshelf. However, the closest sea water skin fitting is the head which on our yacht is aft of the chart table. I'm not too comfortable about running sea water tube the length of the boat. Any comments?

John

[Stuart]

Viking and Stuart,

You should both be suitably proud of the innovations and general condition of your yachts. Well done.

Stuart, I noted the washdown pump that I assume you have installed under the fwd berth(?). Did you plumb it into the existing sea water supply (fwd head perhaps?). I would like to fit a pump on our Bav36. I was thinking of fitting the pump where you have installed the bookshelf. However, the closest sea water skin fitting is the head which on our yacht is aft of the chart table. I'm not too comfortable about running sea water tube the length of the boat. Any comments?

John


Hi John  Thanks for the compliment. We (my wife and I) are very happy with "Overdraught"

I teed the wash down pump into the head raw water supply in the fwd head.
I'm not sure the pump could draw that far in your boat but I could be wrong.
The only thing I could suggest is drilling another through hull dedicated for the wash down pump around where the transducers are for the speedo if you're up for that  .

Cheers

Stuart

[Sweet As]

Thanks Stuart,

I not inclined to install another through hull fitting just for wash down. Will probably give the long run pipe a go.

John