Balance 580 - Build Progress

Balance 580 - Build Progress - Part 3

Рет қаралды 7,434

Balance Catamarans

6 ай бұрын

Пікірлер: 17

@bertmacdonald337 6 ай бұрын

Awesome vessel! As you saffers say, "Lecker man, lecker" Well done Johnnie !

@user-eu7rt6ni2v 6 ай бұрын

Beautiful guys- keeping a good eye on this one!

@kirkb3473 6 ай бұрын

Damn, we should have got a 580 ❤

@drknight8519 6 ай бұрын

Gimbaled cameras are great but not if you want to show all the areas of the build. fantastic boat. Pointing the camera into the locker to see the steps would be great. Can't wait to see the performance once completed. do you use the carbon stringers to run cables? The helm-up cart plotter should be a swing one that can be swung up. when not in use it would be flat and protected. Jack and Jill's heads are fantastic and work so well. saves a lot of space. would be great to see the design rendered drawings of before and after changes to see the thought processes. I want one already but may have to wait a little longer. Fantastic guys well done.

@balancecatamarans 6 ай бұрын

Thank you very much. If you want to chat about the 580 or the like, please free to reach out to us on email, info@balancecatamarans.com . The renders on our site are very much renders of our standard 580 layout in the salon and show the master owner cabin, but on the 580 we can engage in a higher level of interior customization for specific needs. We are currently building a 3 cabin owner version, and a 4 cabin with office convertible. We will soon start on a 4 cabin only version and we have one on the books with a lof of bunkbeds for a flock of kids! When you move into this size and above, the 580 can still easily be operated by a competent couple, but some of the buyers want a skipper, some want to do occasional charter, some want simply more berths and space, and some simply want a much larger and more luxurious owner only boat. We can do them all at Balance with pleasure.

@pred7949 6 ай бұрын

just lovely, however no matter how many design changes are brought on, this will always be the Nexus60

@balancecatamarans 5 ай бұрын

No, this is a totally newly designed catamaran from the ground up. Newly designed, new engineered, different in all respects from the first 60, other than the quality carbon/epoxy build.

@pred7949 5 ай бұрын

@@balancecatamarans well, you can type all that but in the end of the day with business and marketing geared towards floridians aside, it will always be the legendary Nexus 601.

@mahesh1simhadri 2 ай бұрын

Hi, any plans on building forward helm station and forward cockpit in the future???

@balancecatamarans 2 ай бұрын

In our view, until you get into a cat over 60 feet you give up too much salon and cockpit space to make a forward cockpit appealing. We also do not like reefing and sail handling in the front as it is cold and windy and wet. But it's nice for a morning coffee at anchor or sailing off the wind. We do offer a forward cockpit on our 75, but carry two bulkhead helms aft of the salon, one of which is a versa-helm for cold piloting and steering down below when required.

@dc1544 6 ай бұрын

Great Boat, do you offer shaft drive hybrid engines?

@balancecatamarans 6 ай бұрын

We do not offer shaft drives on all of our models 58 and below in length as we do not like the negatives of placing engines under berths, both the added noise and vibration of a shaft over a saildrive is even more magnified when inside the living spaces. We also prefer the engines are in their own watertight compartment for safety reasons. Even if you knock off a rudder or saildrive and water comes into the engine space the water level coming up would be minimal. Further, there is a dramatic misnomer that shafts are less maintenance than the new current model saildrives. You must look after "dripless seals" which are not dripless!, you must replace cutlass bearings often enough, and you must sustain perfect alignment of them to avoid vibration. Finally, any shaft draft offer less horsepower at the prop because the prop is not on a perfectly horizontal plane to the water. On your typical 45 HP engine you lose about 3 HP at the prop. Obviously on our 75 footer we have shafts because there is no other option in that size of motor. Finally, we are working on a hybrid solution that will allow us to sustain saildrives, which we prefer. That said, all hybrid solutions come with pros and cons and the diesel engine with Integrel alternators remains the most reliable green approach, the least costly, and offers the most speed and range generally.

@waltervanderboor 6 ай бұрын

I see things IN this design that I do not understand. For instance. Do you really want to be exposed to the boom whilst taking a sun bath? With my 6’3 I’d be overboard if a sudden gibe happened. In that case, maybe I live if I don’t drown. But you’d kill a person/child if the boom hits the top of their head! It’s unbelievably irresponsible in my opinion to even mount a sun pad on a roof like that. Unless you make the boom 2.5 meter high, which is not working when you need it low to get more speed and be able to control the sails on the boom, I get that. But the sun-pad under an exposed boom? I would never even consider. And you’re not the only designer to do this. We live in Asia and Middle east, you do not want to be in the sun for more than a few minutes here. The larger the boat the more sense it makes to have control over the boat from the centre. Put the driver more central and give him as much visibility as possible. Making a covered flybridge with helm and line control a very ergonomic design. The versa helm looks great, yet if rain is poring like here around the equator, I do not thing you see anything, but grey mass. As for the last part of docking? Use Dockmate to have the hands on the deck level and see all that’s important. No design will give all corners visible, and speed and comfort and space. etc. There is are always a.. a balance.. a compromise. A fly bridge is being ridiculed sometimes because of the centre of gravity, higher mast, sail position etc. But it offers extra living space, helps to position all controls near the mast, helps to keep lines short and direct. And assuming a roof/bimini can offer protection for weather, space for solar. And yeah the price for that may be less speed and a somewhat higher purchase price. Hence that’s what I miss in this design. I think many clients would take comfort over more speed. 16 kn? 20 even, I think despite that most cruisers will never outrun a squall, The hull speed of that boat is around 10-11 kn, above that you’re creating a planning vessel and the forces on everything will create enormous tear and wear. I don’t think that’s favorable for any cruising sailor. As for squalls? Even gunboats get squalls. just my five cents.. I keep saying: “At sea all boats are small, don’t judge it in a marina, nor in a garage.”

@kirkb3473 6 ай бұрын

Hi Walter, you raise some great points, but they are truly not a concern if you had a chance to step aboard one of Nexus's boats. As the boom moves outwards its elevation changes and clears I'd guess any person that's shorter than 7'2" tall. There is A-Frame or German sheeting so the main is always prevented, there cannot be an accidental gybe. Balance will build you a hard or soft Bimini/Dodger if you choose, so this is up to the individual owner to decide. Dockmate is an option, and when it's pouring rain, you can see no problem when helming from the lower position of the Versa Helm. This is a boat built to sail extremely well in light air and weighs less than half of the flybridge/more comfortable catamarans you speak of. But you'll be sailing this boat in 8-10kts of wind where the flybridge production cats won't bother lifting the sails until the wind is over 15kts and then you'll plod along at 7kts while this boat will be sailing past you at 13kts with your wine glass sitting on the table smooth as can be. It is definitely not for everyone that is for sure, but that's what makes the world a great place is you have choices and I'm personally glad there are guys out there like Balance building something a little different. Cheers!

@jmwindify 6 ай бұрын

I'm the owner of the 580 in the video. We aren't putting that coachroof lounger as it's not practical, that picture was just a concept. Instead we have 4.8kw of solar on the coachroof. We own a Balance 526 and have often clocked in 15kts avg for 24hr periods, so these boats are fast and handle so well. They can also downgear easily. As for the versa helm, on long passages and in rain you get an almost 360 view when down below. It makes rough and rainy conditions a lot more reasonable. We will also be getting a dockmate installed, it's a big boat. I've been docking our 526 stern first in the bahamas for 3 years without a bow thruster and you get used to her dimensions and handling.

@waltervanderboor 6 ай бұрын

That makes much more sense. Congrats on the purchase@@jmwindify

@balancecatamarans 5 ай бұрын

Sun pads are only used at anchor. Some people want them and like them and we are happy to do them. You lose a lot of solar space, however. But the bulk of our customers do not request a coach top sun pad. Further as someone else comments here our boom is designed to go over the sun bimini easily when sailing. We lower the boom on the mast to make it easy to reach the halyard and raise the clew of the mainsail to keep the boom height over the sun bimini. And yes, with the A-frame an accidental gybe is hard to occur as the sail is always in a vang position. Anyways, our boats are designed to be safe or we would not sell them.