MEDICAL UPGRADE REQUIRED

“We arrived at the shipyard in the middle of winter to a warm reception by the Huisfit team. The main works of Ethereal’s in-water-refit are the complete replacement of the programmable logic controller (PLC) systems with the latest technology. The PLCs form the redundant nerve system of the yacht which controls all onboard systems. This requires the yacht to go ‘dead ship’ whereby all of these systems are shut down for several weeks.

Therefore, independent safety systems were installed by the Huisfit team for bilge alarm and fire detection. Alerts for alarms were set up to send via SMS to crew and Huisfit personnel. With no propulsion or winches, the yacht is well positioned with lines and stable mooring poles to keep her secure. Taking advantage of this ‘dead ship’ time and the availability of a specialized team, a long list of additional tasks are taking place in the engine room, technical spaces, interior and on deck.”

“For myself and the crew, working with skilled builders – a number of which were involved in the build of Ethereal – is a wonderful experience. The management is well organized and responsive and of good service.  Our shoreside requirements have been met in a ‘one-stop-shopping fashion’. This has been important to us especially during the COVID pandemic, where all but essential services are closed in Holland.

Ethereal is benefiting greatly from this downtime spent at her makers, and in the good hands of the team  at Huisfit, as we prepare for a summer of cruising and more far flung adventures , if COVID will allow.”

UPDATE JULY 2021  –  Shortly before the re-delivery Ethereal’s Captain Grubb also kindly shared his final conclusions, and told us of his overall experiences with Huisfit’s upgrade “with surgical precision”:

About the quality of the work

“We are happy. A lot of people working on Ethereal know the boat so intimately and the quality of work was high. It has been a good experience. Overall it was a lot of engineering work: all the PLC’s, and there was a list of work the engineers had for some years never really got to work on. So that list is now nearly down to zero, which is great. I feel in a very good place right now.”

About the progress updates and financial reports

“We worked very closely with the project manager and the project controllers, having weekly meetings to follow the budget and the work flow. Of course we added a couple of jobs along the way: some were requested by the Owner and other things were discovered as the work progressed, but a lot less than I thought there would be: a lot of it had been captured originally.

The project controllers here did a really good job of identifying the jobs and putting costings to them. And they were quite accurate when they came out at the end. And we have been able to follow everything. They have a quite sophisticated system where they can project hours and where they are on a certain job: sort of a percentage how far you are into it and how much resources you have got left and how the budget is going. So we were able to monitor that weekly and follow it. There really weren’t any big surprises as we went along. It was really good.”

About Huisfit in Royal Huisman Amsterdam

“It has been great. We were staying in Amsterdam “Noord” [ed: North] in apartments there. Access to the city was great; especially when you had a bicycle. Really easy: you could be downtown in 15 – 20 minutes from the apartments. And also close to the shipyard: I rode my bike every day. We had engineers in the apartments at the shipyard, which was great as they could monitor the boat. It’s been a good experience.”