Quintessence Yachts
AM37 speedboat

A mechanical system was required to allow the aft deck to open up & allow the carbon fibre bimini to be deployed.  The motion was to incorporate two distinct stages:

1. Aft deck to slide rearwards by 400mm, on a 4° incline
2. Aft deck to rotate upwards to provide clearance for the deployment of the bimini, & also provide access to the engine bay.
3. Aft deck to return to closed position

The complex shapes of the hull, deck, cockpit cover panels (stowed on underside of aft deck) provided to be a greater challenge than anticipated by naval architects Mulder design. Several design engineers had attempted to solve the problem, but none had provided a satisfactory solution.

After investigating the previous attempts, unfortunately none of the work was salvageable due to structural integrity issues, along with precluding the installation of a retractable swim platform. So we took a clean sheet, asked what an ideal world solution would be & got to work:

1. The rearward motion was handled by fitting a linear guide rail system to custom hull-mounted outriggers. The deck rotation mechanism was then mounted to sliding carriages. These were spaced as wide as possible to ensure swim platform accommodation. Drive was provided by linear actuators.
2. Due to the incline & a requirement for the deck to maintain its angle to the horizontal, a pair of cams to support the front of the deck were created. The surface of these ran on stainless rub strips bonded in pockets on the underside of the deck. Linear actuators were again used to drive the cams
3. The combined geometry of the deck & hull in the retracted position meant a plain pivot position wouldn’t work. So a custom virtual pivot point mechanism was created to handle the rotation. Drive was to be made by two hydraulic rotary actuators.