Opinions on Apreamare boats?

[ThirdHatt]

You may want to look at the 30' Osprey. They are twin Volvo Penta diesels with the duoprop. A member of our club had one before he went back to sailing and this boat was built pretty solid and had a nice pilothouse. He even had controls and steering in the cockpit. You just have to check if there is a generator to run A/C when not at the dock as you may need it in a fully enclose pilothouse.

On another note, does it have to be a twin diesel? There are a lot of boats in that size range that now have twin outboards. Hanging the engines off the transom will afford you a lot more space in the boat. In addition, you can trim the engines up to really keep them out of the water.

Osprey is yet another boat that I was not familiar with. VERY rugged and alll business boat, much like my current Ocean Master but I don't have a cabin. I do have an issue with Duoprops or any outdrives, pods, etc. I am a straight inboard (or outboard) kind of guy.

I do like outboards, but only on smaller boats of say 25' or less. Because I plan to spend the night occasionally on whatever ~30' express cabin cruisier I end up getting, I must have diesels because I would never sleep on a boat with a gasoline powered genset due to safety concerns. I would not consider outboards and a diesel powered genset with a different tank for the genny, etc. Too complicated. The one feature that I would absolutely LOVE would be the ability to trim up in shallow or questionable waters, but that is the price I pay for the simplicity of inboards.

[Flick]

Byron,
How about a 1974 31' Sport cruiser? See below - Boats for Sale.
31'9", length 11'9" beam, bridge clearance of 10'3" and a draft of 3' 1" (prop pockets). Gas engines, no generator but factory wired for one. Engine access through cockpit, (three large hatches makes easy removal for diesels). The 31' Sport cruisers were never as popular as the 31 Bertram but the Hatt has a larger cabin and a better cockpit as there are no engine boxes. I don't want to be a two Hatt owner come spring.
Flick

[stormchaser]

I think you are really limiting your chocies by insisting on twin diesels in an under 35' crusier. Most under 35'ers seem to have either twin gas or a single large diesel. Its a cost thing...twin diesels would jack up the price of the new baot so high that it would be out of the reach for most and therfore it's jsut not a common thing. wither modern powerplants being very reliable, i would not hesitate to have a single scerw diesel. In fact many/most high end offshore trawlers are single screw and the owners seldom worry about failures. I suspect you are basing everything on your experiences with twinh OLD diesels that have had problems for you. Newer diesels aer VERY reliable. I had a single screw trawler for 8+ years and never had to be towed in.

[ThirdHatt]

Flick, your 31' Sport Cruiser looks like it is in great shape! I appreciate the suggestion, but unfortunately the beam is still just a bit too wide to fit in my lift, plus I would have to repower and get a generator, etc so your boat will not work for my needs. I wish you the best of luck with the sale!

Stormchaser, thank you for your opinion. You are correct and I do understand that I am limiting my options somewhat but there are still plenty of boats out there even smaller than what I am looking for with twin diesels. Albemarle makes a nice 28' with twins and Apreamare makes a 25' with twin diesels. Look at all the Cabo's, Luhrs, Blackfins, Hinkley 29's, etc in the 30' range all with twin inboard diesels. The boats I am looking at are at the high-end of this size range and all seem to have a $200-350k+ original MSRP when new, so I don't believe that a $25k engine really offsets the price that much. I'll gladly pay extra to have twins.

My experiences with coming in on one engine have nearly always been a fuel issue. It doesn't really matter how good a diesel engine is, it won't run without fuel. I have had clean, freshly changed filters plug in rough seas just from a little crap at the bottom of the Racor bowls getting tossed up and into the filter! I am well versed at changing filters and repriming at sea, but sometimes they just don't prime very easily and when you're in rough stuff you just want to get back. With only one engine, you have one way to get home. If you can't fix it, start calling for a tow. That second engine is invaluable at that point. To me, having two engines is 100% better than just one. I know that lots of boats are single diesel and do just fine, but it is not for me. I like redundancy.

[stormchaser]

I totally understand, but like you said, it's mostly fuel problems and if you are running both engines off the same tank, you arevery likely to have both fail due to the same bad fuel. Unlike the design of Hatteras, most boats dont allow you to select which tank to pull from and return to.

[ThirdHatt]

Good point. I did not think about if you only had one tank that both engines pull from but my Ocean Master has two completely separate tanks, therefore two completely different and independent sources of propulsion. There are three valves so that I can pull from either tank with either engine but I have always kept them separate. I know the Apreamare's have two tanks. Now I have another requirement to add to my list, TWO TANKS!

[stormchaser]

Not only do you want two tanks...you want the fuel rail/valving setup so you can CHOOSE which tank each engine runs off of and returns to. I'd bet msot boats ahve two or more tanks, but few have the valving so you can switch which tank each engine pulls from/returns to. That's one thing I LOVED when I first saw the setup on my Hatt.

[ThirdHatt]

Now that you mention it, that is where my Ocean Master would be lacking as it merely has valves to choose where the fuel is pulled from. The return lines only go to their respective tanks. That would become an issue if I ever had to run any distance while pulling from only one tank as it would greatly reduce my range. If I were keeping it I think I would add the necessary valves to be able to choose return flow as well.


THANKS!

[SKYCHENEY]

Okay, here is the answer. Buy that 31 Hatt. Rebuild your dock and lift. Repower the boat and get it just the way you want it. All and all you probably won't have any more money into the whole thing than if you bought a new 31 of some kind. And, after you get done, you'll have exactly what you want plus it will be a showstopper classic. Come on, just go for it.