hailing all 53MY and 58YF owners (and everyone else too) :)

[67hat34c]

i got that tid bit from another dock neighbor who is restoring a 41twin cabin.

if you hang around the dock with out the broker or owner then maybe you can get the low down

[MarioG]

edit: wrong boat

[Nonchalant1]

Angela,

Re: 58CPMYs and 53MYs for charter. You mentioned you were looking at them as well as 58YFs. They're great boats and much bigger aft deck space for serving dinners (and charters tend to live on the aft deck in the Virgin Islands), but you also mentioned that you're a diver, and diving off a YF is ten times easier than a MY. The same is true for getting your guests up onto the boat from your dink. Sure, it's possible to climb the stern laddrr, I do it all the time, but for ease of charter cruise passengers, you can't beat the YF configuration. I know you're currently on that path now and I hope you get your 58YF, I just thought I'd mention it.

Doug

[Angela]

I've been back and forth on whether to do diving off the boat or by rendevous. It's a great feature and I think that's what has made McGregor such a popular and successful charteryacht. But I'm not an instructor, and McGregor's owner is - that's a big attraction. I'm not sure how he handles tank fills - dive tanks can't be filled with an ordinary compressor - maybe he has a tank compressor onboard. I still want to look into this, and what kind of premium I'll enjoy with a scuba endorsement. But, it will take two of us to run the boat anyway, and I'm just one which means I'm going to have to hire a second person. Maybe I can find a captain who is also a scuba instructor.

The 58MY galley up boat has always been my first choice, but there aren't a lot of them, and I can't seem to find one in the condition I want and at a price I believe she's worth, and I don't want to carry much, if any, debt. I'm trying to keep the boat clear so I can move it out of US documentation and into BVI registration so the offshore corporation can own the boat instead of me. I have to move all this stuff around before I start chartering. I've seen US customs pull a foreign chef off a US boat when it pulled into the marina. I was staying on that boat that week, and he didn't even have a chance to get his clothes off the boat before he was deported back to Australia that evening. Don't want that to happen to me if I want to have foreign crew! Sorry, don't know how I got on that rant....

The 58YF is a compromise for me, as was the 53MY, but when I considered what I was giving up by landing in the 53MY, I quickly decided that if I was going to give up the six passenger capacity that I would get with the 58MY galley up model, I wanted a cockpit out of the deal! Since I'll only be serving meals for 4 on a 58YF, I think the aft deck should be big enough. Truthfully, I'm more concerned with how darn small that galley is. I'll be serving 4 or 5 course dinners and there isn't much prep room down there! Everything is made fresh, even in the ice cream - every day.

My plan for the 58MY, at some point, would have been to add the cockpit. And if I don't buy the 58YF afterall, then I'm still hunting that 58MY!

But, I do agree, the 58YF is an excellent charteryacht and I think the cockpit is a huge asset for guests getting on and off the boat, especially if they are not boaters and not used to all that "climbing" around that we take for granted every day.

Ang

[SKYCHENEY]

How about a 58 cockpit MY? I don't think that there were too many built, and I'm not sure how many of those had the galley up, but it might be worth checking into. That way you still have your 4 staterooms, a large galley and the cockpit. The only thing that you lose is the aft deck. So, on second thought, maybe the aft deck is more important than the cockpit. You'll have to decide.

[Nonchalant1]

Ang,

Some more thoughts on McGregor II:

Tim has a dive compressor and a watermaker on his boat. He says the watermaker makes a huge difference. We could use all the water we wanted on our trip, but Julie said Tim used to be a water use control monster before they got the watermaker because they were out for week long charters and needed refills from expensive desalination plants on the islands or had to refill during their 48 hour prep periods.

McGregor II will take 6 passengers too, in which case, Tim and Julie sleep on the sofa in the salon. Otherwise they take the forward stateroom unless there are kids on the cruise that would rather have that. One of the problems with 6 passenger trips is where to put the passenger's empty suitcases.

Re: your fuel estimates from long ago - Tim runs her slow all the time. I don't think he got over 1200 RPM the whole trip with some of it at 800, but of course the BVI islands are close together and the whole idea is to laze around. He's getting at least 1 NM per gallon.

BTW - Julie is an excellent cook. Tim occasionally cooks the meat on the big gas grill on his aft deck, but Julie really works hard at cooking and also crews, not the other way around. They never use the galley table except as a countertop and the entire footwell under it is food storage for Julie. Every meal is served on the aft deck with a folding table for 6 that stows behind the sofa in the salon. I would guess that the quality of the food, the friendliness of Tim & Julie and the excellent old Hatteras yacht outweigh the other things, although scuba was one of my favorites personally. On our last day out, Julie said she was planning on taking diesel engine mechanics courses too (WOW!)

Doug

[Angela]

I have already planned on two generators and a watermaker (Miami Boat show?). Even being alone on the boat, I would want a watermaker. In a hot climate, I like to shower a few times each day, especially after coming out of salt water, and I never want to be limited on water. And I would NEVER want to have to tell my guests to limit their water use. A watermaker is an absolute must. I don't want to use the salon for a guest stateroom though. That puts whoever is sleeping there at the mercy of being on the schedule of the last person to go to bed and the first person to get up, and the other guests having to tip toe around people sleeping in a common area. I just really don't want to tie up the common area like that. I may reconsider for certain situations like a family who may all be on the same sleeping schedule...that will be one of those "inquire prior to booking" things.

I never did plan to use the dinette for meals either - maybe crew. Much of Tim and Julie's routine sounds like the plan I have. I'll need a captain who can run the grill out back when needed. And I don't plan to go fast everywhere or run the boat cruising all day. I expect 20 hours or less on the engines each week.

I am looking forward to meeting them the first opportunity I get. If they are Hatteras people like the good folks here, I'm going to like them a lot. Julie sounds a lot like me - loves to cook great meals and entertain guests, but I'd also give up a day on the beach to hang out in an engine room to learn something. I know that if Julie can pull off serving 6 plus crew in that galley, I should be able to do it too; just looking at the small size, and knowing how I really spread out when I'm cooking, scares me just a little, but like everything else...I'll adapt.

For a large crowd taking a charteryacht vacation together, especially Hatteras people, I think it would be neat to do a tandem charter with McGregor II since the boats are identical, as well. His is a 1976 and the one I'm looking at is a 1977 - same boat.

I've seen only a very few 58 cockpit motor yachts, and none of them were galley up, four stateroom models. The old brochures indicate that floor plan was an option, but I've not seen one yet. I'd be open to that idea as well, but none have surfaced for me to see.

Ang

[ThirdHatt]

"Tim runs her slow all the time. I don't think he got over 1200 RPM the whole trip with some of it at 800"

Does anyone know for sure if Tim has 8V71TI's or 8V71's aboard McGregor II? I have seen the year model of his boat listed as 1972, 1975 and now 1976. The floorplan shown on the website shows two aft showers, which came out in 1975. It also shows the older style flybridge, which was redesigned for 1978 so it is probably a 1975-1977 8V71TI boat. If it were a 1972 it could be either, but if it is indeed a 1975 or 1976 it will be turbo's as that was the only engine choice allowed for a 58YF. I am curious because I when I was looking for a 58YF/53MY I actually wanted the 8V71N's so I could run them at low RPM's for extended periods of time and have much less worry about carbon build-up and dramatically shortened rebuild intervals. As luck would have it, the boat I ended up purchasing has the turbos but at least they are freshly rebuilt. I have made sure to plane the boat and run 1950rpm or so for a short time every time I use the boat, but as a low-rpm cruise guy I sure get nervous with all that boost pressure and extra stress on the engines! At 2000rpm in the engine room they sound like they are turning more like 5000rpm! If Tim has turbos aboard McGregor II I wonder if he ever planes the boat and runs the RPM up to get the temps up. If not, I wonder if he has seen any consequences of such extended low-rpm cruising with turbo's.

[MikeP]

There is no requirement to run a TI at any higher RPM than a natural engine. The only reference DD makes to this involves engine temperature - ensuring that the engine stays within the normal operating range. The DD manual states that engines should not be idled for long periods of time BECAUSE the engine temp may drop too low which could cause carbon to build up. Consequently they state that if there is to be no load on the engine for extended periods, it should be running in the 900RPM range TO ENSURE THE TEMP STAYS UP. Note that the factor is the temperature. The "proper" operating temp of the 8v71TI, according to the service manual, is 165-195.

[Genesis]

Note that marine engines should not run over 185. The reason is that the thermostats are fully open at that temperature, and once you run out of thermostat control range, you're also out of cooling capacity.

Overheats happen VERY quickly from that point north on the temperature gauge, and even a mild overheat will usually crack a head.