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Just
the other day a friend of mine asked how long I’d been testing boats.
It was an innocent, off-handed question that promptly produced a burst
of gratitude—I mean, 13 years is a long time to be doing anything
you really enjoy. A couple of revelations followed. First, I was struck
by how much boats have changed since I started testing them in 1987, not
only in terms of styling and design, but also in terms of construction
and engineering. And second, I was struck by just how well a specific
boat I’d recently tested in Stuart, Florida—the Luhrs 340
Convertible—illustrates where mainstream boatbuilding is these days
and where it may be headed.
Not
that scaled-down battlewagons are anything new. Over the years builders
like Ocean, Albemarle, and Luhrs itself have offered several to the sportfishing
public. But most of these vessels were only noteworthy by nature of their
size—designed to resemble larger models, they often suffered from
small interiors and fairly narrow cockpits. Such is not the case with
the Luhrs 340, however. This thoroughly accoutered little fishing machine
offers a beamy, full-bodied footprint and a lofty layout to go with it.
Moreover, the 340 incorporates advances in construction and engineering
that point to the next level of boatbuilding for Luhrs.
Consider
the 340’s construction. The basics are similar to what many production
builders have been doing for the past decade or so. The hull bottom is
solid glass, and the hull sides, decks, soles, and superstructure are
cored with Baltek AL600/10 balsa. Longitudinal and transverse hull stiffeners
are of glass-encapsulated
marine ply, secondarily bonded. ISO-NPG resins are used throughout the
laminates, with woven and some knitted fabrics. The hull-to-deck joint
is secured with screws and tenacious 3M 5200 adhesive. While none of this
is exactly groundbreaking technology, another feature of the 340’s
construction is something of an envelope-pusher—the extensive use
of nonstructural, thermoform parts.
Thermoforming
is an increasingly popular manufacturing technique, whereby thin, flat
sheets of ABS plastic are placed over heated, male molds and drawn into
place via numerous vacuum ports. When cool, the parts are pulled from
their molds, trimmed, and usually used in cosmetic, semistructural applications
like glove-box interiors and dashboard moldings. They are typically strong,
resilient, good-looking, less bulky than fiberglass, and a lot lighter.
In fact, Luhrs estimates that the use of thermoform components in the
340 reduced her displacement by a whopping 1,000 pounds.
Accounting
for most of the weight savings are stowage bins and locker interiors in
the master stateroom as well as in the practical “split head”
just abaft it, a feature that allows one person to use the MSD while the
other takes a shower in an entirely separate compartment. Luhrs introduced
the split head in the late ‘80s on its 3400 Flybridge Motoryacht.
Additional weight savings accrue in the saloon/galley area, where there’s
a large, thermoformed overhead rod-stowage locker (with a capacity for
seven big rods or 11 smaller ones) and an attractive thermoformed valance
system that keeps the window blinds from dangling and tangling. A multipurpose
cabinet at the rear of the saloon on the starboard side also showcases
the versatility of the technique. Inside, a complicated, elegantly molded
thermoformed part protects and secures the nether regions of a whole raft
of equipage, including a Paneltronics electrical panel, a set of Perko
battery switches, a Black & Decker Space Saver coffee maker, and an
optional Raritan icemaker.
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Luhrs 340 continued > Page 1, 2,
3, 4, 5
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