Special K

[otolith]

Of my Parkers, Special K is the most special to me. For several years I spent three or four days a week filming underwater, by myself from her. You get very close to your boat when you spend that kind of time her, which is probably why I lean more to continually work on her as opposed to buying a new boat. Most of the time at sea, I was either filming at San Clemente Island or Catalina Island off the coast of CA.
I've done a lot of work to Special K to make her work best for me. My intention is to share what I've done with her, then discuss what I'd like to do and hopefully get constructive feedback. Because I am asked most frequently about the tower, I'll start with that. Here's a current photo of Special K.

 

[otolith]

I wish I could find pics of Special K as she was when I received her but I can't. What I can do is share a pic of her as she was before I started the tower project. When I first received the boat, she was rigged with a single antenna mounted directly atop the cabin, a top station VHF and a VHF at the helm. Sharing a single antenna didn't work for me so rigged a base on each side of the top station, mounted two antennas and threw the switcher in the trash. This gave a bit more height and radio specific antennas. You can see in this pic, the open array was mounted, basically surround by the aluminum structure. It was "ok" but being so low to the water really limited its performance and I always felt the aluminum structure did the same. The tower project was actually part of an entire electronics replacement project. So I had a lot of issues to address and didn't want to make the same mistakes. I worked with Newport Harbor Shipyard on the entire project, they were the ones to suggest getting my array out from under the aluminum. Another problem I had with the array being mounted on the cabin was, the only safe place on the boat was at the helm. If you stepped out of the cabin, you walked into the radar angle, so I always had to remember to go to standby before leaving the helm, which isn't easy to remember. So here's Special K as she was before I started the electronics project.

 

[otolith]

Like I said, Newport Harbor Shipyard suggested getting the array up off the cabin. They suggested a small mast, mounted behind my half tower. They hooked me up with Alan Scott who would be the one to build the tower / mast. The entire project was a series of evolutions. Once we had an idea, I would go home and ponder it, trying to figure out potential shortcomings and ways to improve on the ideas we came up with. Here's Alan's original first drawing of my / our initial concept.

 

[otolith]

Once I had this first sketch, I turned to Photoshop to look for ways to improve or potential shortcomings. If the mast was going to fold down, where it would sit in the down position was very important. I like to store Special K under cover with the engine cover open to allow drying. This pic is the first of my drawings to show Alan my concerns about the tower in various positions.

 

[otolith]

The above pic shows how I was concerned about the position of the mast relative to the engine cover. Once I started looking at the movement in various pivoting positions, I really started zeroing in potential problems like where would the antennas be in various positions and how would the entire new work interact with the cover, what cover modifications would be necessary etc. In the end, we were able to figure everything out so the cover worked perfectly without a single modification. This next pics shows more of design evolution.

 

[otolith]

One thing I was worried about was the beam angle and how the tower would effect the angle, especially at cruise. Here's a pic of one of the possible solutions; although we didn't go with this adjustment, we just used a standard wedge.

 

[otolith]

Once we we had worked out dimensions and angles, I really started to focus on other details, like lights and satellite weather overlay. This next pic is about the lights add on but also shows GPS and Satellite antennas. The lights are high intensity LEDs, a spot on each side of the yardarm and a flood mounted aft and under the array.

 

[otolith]

I'll share more later, when I have time. I hope I have figured out how to share photos intuitively with my posts. I also hope it's not to much photos. I suppose if it's boring, someone will let me know and I won't share so much later. More later.

 

[otolith]

BTW, I have question. What exactly is the definition of "Classic Parker"?

 

[DaleH]

Looks AWESOME!

Just curious though, why you went to a radome over open array? Most here on East Coast would prefer an open array for better target segregation and bird detection. Again, just curious ... as maybe that is a broadband setup which is alleged to mimic open array performance.

 

[otolith]

DaleH
It is a broadband set up and that is about as technical as I can get. I actually went this way based on weight more than anything. I was mainly concerned about putting too much weight that high. Without actually weighing everything, I can tell you this new set up, mast, Raydome, antennas and everything weighs ± the same as my old open array by itself. I haven't used it enough to comment on the acute differences without blowing smoke, so I'll limit my comments to this. My open array was no where NEAR as clear, able to pick up small targets, or as strong. Both were / are 48 mile radars. If I position my boat at the rear of the screen I can pick up San Clemente island clearly, as I come out of the harbor – a distance of just over sixty miles. There is no way my open array could have matched my new radar.

 

[otolith]

I've been so busy it's taken this long to get these pics.

 

[otolith]

Tower in two down positions.

 

[shawnee83]

That tower design is so well thought out. Can't say enough good things about it. What size is your fresh water cooled I/O? Curious what your fuel burn rate is at cruise. My F225 is about 11 GPH at 4300 or so and 28 to 30 mph.

 

[otolith]

Thanks for the good word.

This boat has a 250 HP diesel.

This may sound stupid to the most people on this forum but I gave up trying to figure an accurate burn rate a long time ago, probably more because of the frustration of trying to get my flow scan dialed in exactly than anything else, which clearly is never going to happen. The best I've seen was ± 4 @ 20. The worst was ± 2.5 @ 20.

One of the reasons I joined this forum is it seems like there is a lot of guys with much more knowledge than myself. I wish I had known about this forum a long time ago. If my logic is flawed, I look forward to being educated.

I don't think burn rate tells you as much with a diesel as it does with an outboard and there are so many variables it just didn't make as much sense to me as figuring averages. I don't think there's been five times when I've had this boat out in conditions which were close enough to call it "the same" and surface conditions have a huge influence on this boat's consumption. Another variable is load. I mostly dive and dive with up to four of us on the boat at a time, which means a lot of weight in gear, especially when I'm filming. Also, consumption is vastly different on the full end of the tank as opposed to the other end. The primary destination is almost always the same place, 105 - 130 miles out. It's usually a three day trip with a stay over at an island 60 miles out. There's always running around at the island and running around at the bank. I always get back into the harbor with ± 40 gallons. The best I've done was three islands and the bank over three days, 431 miles on the GPS and still had plenty of fuel at the harbor. The range I have with this 25' is one of the things I love most about it.

My 23 CC with the F-250 goes everywhere faster! I try to always run my 23 @ 4300, which is JUST enough to keep it planing on a pristine surface. @ 4300 it's just under 3 but it's not doing 30! I'd love to do 30 @ 4300, that must be really nice.

The 2820 with two F-250s, uses so much fuel I like to say I could run my 28 and 25 straight out to sea and when the 25 catches up with the dead in the water 28, it'll still have enough fuel to tow the 28 back to a pump! I'd give you the burn rate on this boat but to tell you the truth I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!!

 

[shawnee83]

That's funny about your 2820. The F250 and the F225 are probable very similar on fuel since it's basically the same engine so I imagine it would not be a stretch to figure you are burning a good 20 gallons/hr at cruise. I just asked about the burn because a friend of mine and I were just talking about the I/O vs O on fuel. Like you mentioned, it's harder to figure out on the I/O's because most don't have it at the push of a button like on the Yamaha gauges. I've not had a diesel but I did have a small cruiser with a VOLVO 5.7 liter 320HP duo prop. My best estimate on that was about 7 gallons/hr. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the I/O's are better on fuel?? I was also curious because I don't see as many Parker's with the I/O's in my area. As far as the level of talent you will find on this site, I think you will find there are some guys that are very knowledgeable. I wish I could say that I was one of them. I'm more of the question asker than the one who can answer them.

 

[Megabyte]

BTW, I have question. What exactly is the definition of "Classic Parker"?

In the very early days of this site, it was known as 'Pilothouses.org' and was owned by another individual.
As I recall, the majority of the members (tho not all) were Parker sport cabin owners.

When possible names for the new site were passed around, It was pointed out that there were several other 'brand specific' boating web sites out there.
ClassicMako, and ClassicSeacraft were two well established hobby sites with a strong emphasis on restoring and maintaining these older 'classic' boats.

ClassicParker caters to both the older, no longer in production Parker models (like mine), but also to the newer current models.
So there you have, in a nutshell, a history of the name, ClassicParker.

 

[otolith]

shawnee83
I'm a question asker myself. I've done a lot of work on my boat but don't have the experience on other boats to be the guy with the answers.

 

[otolith]

@ Megabyte
"No longer in production", me too!

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[otolith]

Hey Megabyte, you might be the perfect guy for this question.

Is trailers a topic of discussion for this forum and if so, where do I post about trailers?