Flemming 55

This beautiful hull design and highly sought after motor yacht is The Flemming 55. The owner of this classic style Flemming asked us to fabricate a new solid swim platform inspired by the original one in order to match the style and beauty of his boat.

Boat owners have different preferences on fiberglass versus teak swim platforms; however, there is a general consensus that custom teak provides a more classic and aesthetically pleasing look. Teak is resistant to rot and decay and is considered durable to impacts. Teak swim platforms also provide a silky and smooth surface that is superior in comfort to a fiberglass design unless covered in foam decking which takes away from that traditional classic look.

After meeting with the owner and captain of this yacht we knew it was a priority to increase the thickness of the platform to prevent it from feeling ‘springy’ when walking on it. He also wanted to increase the overall size to improve comfort. As Big Ocean Marine’s carpenter and owner Ryan has told us in the past “It’s important to carefully outline the goals and priorities so that we can truly customize boat repairs and meet the specific needs of our owner”.

We collaborated with our metal fabricator on this project as the original platform’s brackets had suffered storm damage and new brackets had to be made and extended to achieve the desired goals. This project required a lot of attention to detail and a high level of accuracy with the sequencing of each step to ensure the fit and look was right.

All the material was first milled on the bandsaw and then put through a large planer to achieve the correct thickness and a smooth face. The next phase of the project involved building a jig that would allow us to bend the material and put all boards together. The first set of boards were then meticulously aligned with spacers between them and carefully clamped into position. Holes were then pre-drilled and fasteners set. This process was repeated for each board creating enormous tension of the wood and requiring very careful manipulation of the clamps.

The set up was then taken apart to allow us to glue together each individual piece using mortise and tenon joinery. Big Ocean marine carpenter-Griffin W- describes a key part of the process is “being meticulous and paying a lot of attention to details was really important as we repeated the previous steps to place the boards back together after applying the glue”

Finally, selected hand tools were used to round and smooth the edges.

At Big Ocean Marine, the team really prioritizes the specific needs of the customer to ensure that all boat repair and boat restoration projects are as smooth as possible.

To best accommodate the needs of this vessel’s cruising schedule, the swim platform was installed while the boat was still in her slip. It was not an easy feat but with the careful coordination from the captain and the Big Ocean Marine team we reinstalled 2 of the 4 stainless steel brackets and added extensions to 2 other brackets. It was critical that we ensured adequate sealing as there is through hole penetration below the water line. Best described by carpenter Ryan “This gorgeous Flemming 55’ is a classic long-distance yacht with beautiful lines. This new teak platform-inspired in the original look-really matches the classic beauty of this boat”