53/54 Motor Yachts - introduction and questions

[JohnEasley]

Good Morning,

New member here. I'd like to introduce myself and ask a couple of questions.

My wife, Debbie, and I are in our mid to late 50s and looking at retirement in three years. We recently sold our 1986 42' Chris Craft aft cabin and have started looking at different models for our next and final boat. Our plan is to retire and take off for a year to explore the east coast from our home in Florida all the way to Maine and back. After that, we plan to start exploring the Bahamas and northern Caribbean.

The Hatteras 53/54 Motor Yacht and the Carver 53 Voyager are currently at the top of our list. Granted, they are radically different layouts, each with their own advantages. Our budget dictates puts us looking at late 70s to mid 80s Hatts or early 2000s Carvers.

I am best with electrical systems but also comfortable with plumbing and mechanical. Anything heavy duty like an engine rebuild we would hire out but impellers, starters, cooling systems flushes, a/c maintenance, etc, we can do ourselves.

We like to home base in a marina but we prefer to anchor out or hook to a mooring ball when traveling. When underway, we'll run the engines at cruising speed for about five minutes to flush out the exhaust but spend most of our time running at hull speed. We're in no hurry and the fuel economy/range is great!

Our questions stem from looking at online ads for 1977 to 1985 Hatteras 53' and 54' Motor Yachts. There are some stunningly beautiful boats out there that previous owners have done a lot to upgrade and redecorate. Some of the online photos are awesome; some are horrible. Although some ads mention an upgrade to dripless shaft seals, none of the photos seem to show the transmissions and stuffing boxes. Are they in the engine rooms or are they too hard to get to for photos? If the shaft seals are traditional stuffing, how hard are they to get to?

Also, the electrical systems confuse me a bit. They appear to have 220v, 110v, 32v, 24v, and 12v all at the same time. Single 50 amp shore power cables seem to be normal. Okay, I get 12v for lights, gauges, etc. And the 24v is probably for a bow thruster, if equipped. Is the 50 amp shore power cable coming in as 220v and being split to handle 110v house current on one side and the a/c units on the other? And what's the 32v system for?

Several of the ads we've looked at have photos that show a hatch under the galley sole and another one under the dinette sole. Other boat photos don't indicate those hatches are there. Are those hatches supposed to be there and to what do they lead?

Are the impellers on a Detroit Diesel easily accessible?

Thanks for any information you might have. Feel free to throw in any other advice you might think of.

John
Lakeland, FL

[Boatsb]

Thats a lot of questions an many answers.

Th 53 is a 1510 beam. The 54 is 18.2 i believe.

The hatch or access depends on the model but most have some access to that area easily available.

As a long term boat person Id suggest you start looking through brochures to start and get an idea of layouts and furnishings before settling on a specific model.

Thers a ton of differences year to year, model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer.

[PeterK]

What Scott said except 54s are 17'6" beam.
Also, I have never seen a 32 and 24 volt boat. One or the other. The 24 or 32 runs all the DC systems such as lights and bilge pumps. 12 volt is run off the 24 volt systems for electronics. We have a 24 volt panel in our pilot house with a 12 volt subpanel on it.

We have a '90 54EDMY which is 24 volt. Hard to compare ours to the non ED 54 as the entire layout of the boats are different- only thing common is the hull. Love our vessel as a "full time cruiser" (the preferred term for live aboard
) because we have much more enclosed living space. Many prefer a large aft deck but the ED layout works well for us.

There is a '85 54 at our marina I have been on and they are very nice. We also have 2 Carver Voyagers here. I can see why a 2000 or newer is a similar cost to the older Hatts...

[Walter P]

John & Debbie,

Good luck finding your ideal boat. Both of your choices of Hatteras' are excellent for your purposes but
of course the 54 is a newer model and is also quite a bit larger. The 53 has a hull length of about 53 ft
while the hull length of the 54 is close to 55 at 54'9". The 53 has a beam of 15'10" while the 54 has a
beam of 17'6". The next step up in size would be the 56 which has an 18'2" beam and is also quite a
bit larger overall. Hatteras built two different models in their 54. The first was the 54 "classic" followed
a couple of years later with the ED model. The ED does not have walk around side decks and has a
galley up with 4 staterooms below while the 54 classic is more like the 53 classic on steroids. There are
advantages/disadvantages to all four choices (53 classic, 53ED, 54 classic and 54ED) My advice is to look
at several examples of all the models and make your decision based on that. As far as the Carver is
concerned.....you can get a slightly newer model for the same price point but please remember that it
is not a Hatteras. We recently had a discussion on this forum about that. You may want to read it.

Please be assured that you will have plenty of help and advice available to you from this forum. That
alone should make the choice of a Hatteras more desirable. Many of our forum members may be
close to a particular boat that you may have an interest in and could probably look it over for you
prior to you flying all over just to find a heap of junk.

Walt

[tom5518]

Our questions stem from looking at online ads for 1977 to 1985 Hatteras 53' and 54' Motor Yachts. There are some stunningly beautiful boats out there that previous owners have done a lot to upgrade and redecorate. Some of the online photos are awesome; some are horrible. Although some ads mention an upgrade to dripless shaft seals, none of the photos seem to show the transmissions and stuffing boxes. Are they in the engine rooms or are they too hard to get to for photos? If the shaft seals are traditional stuffing, how hard are they to get to?

Also, the electrical systems confuse me a bit. They appear to have 220v, 110v, 32v, 24v, and 12v all at the same time. Single 50 amp shore power cables seem to be normal. Okay, I get 12v for lights, gauges, etc. And the 24v is probably for a bow thruster, if equipped. Is the 50 amp shore power cable coming in as 220v and being split to handle 110v house current on one side and the a/c units on the other? And what's the 32v system for?

Several of the ads we've looked at have photos that show a hatch under the galley sole and another one under the dinette sole. Other boat photos don't indicate those hatches are there. Are those hatches supposed to be there and to what do they lead?



John
Lakeland, FL

The generator and a bank of batteries are under the galley hatches and another bank of batteries are under the dinette on the 53.

There is only so much you can learn from reading the listings. I would recommend that you find a qualified broker and look at a few. You have plenty of experience with bigger boats so that one look around will answer many of your questions. As far as the electrical systems, they are complex but easily learned. Just stay away from boats where someone has butchered the factory system.

The other piece of advice I have is to get some recommendations for a good Hatteras broker from the members on here. You won't find a better forum with people who know boats inside and out.

[Boatsb]

If you need a broker on the east coast I know a good one. he lives and breathes these things.

PM me for his contact info.

[Walter P]

A really good Hatteras broker is an active member of this forum and in fact he himself owns a pristine
Hatteras MY. His name is Eric Horst and his company is called Bayport Yachts located in Kent Narrows,
MD and Fla. You may want to talk to him, he goes by the name of SeaEric on this forum.

Walt

[JohnEasley]

Thank you very much for the generous amounts of information. Obviously, I've come to the right place. And thanks for the broker referral, Walt.

I did find a photo of the hatch in the galley sole and of the generator room beneath. There's more room in there than I anticipated.

My wife is favoring the 54 for the extra room. It's a full three feet wider than our Chris Craft was.

According to the Powerboat Guide, the 54 was manufactured from 86-88 and wasn't nearly as popular as the 53 because the public was generally moving away from galley down designs. I don't know if that is necessarily true but it isn't an issue for us, considering the overall layout.

So, the battery system is going to be 32v or 24v. Either way, the power distribution panel steps the voltage down to 12v for lighting. Then what's powered by the 32v or 24v systems other than an optional bow thruster?

From what I have read, these models came with a 50 amp shore power connection on the port side and one on the starboard side. Does a single 50 amp shore connection run everything on the boat when docked, AC and everything? I saw a photo of one today that had two shore power cables connected on the port side. Seems like that would be a lot of juice to pay for.

How does one hang fenders on the back half of the boat on an extended deck version, 53 or 54? There doesn't appear to be a cleat or railing to tie one.

[Pascal]

I ll second walter's recomendation of eric

Dont overlook the wide beam 56

Origianlly the boats were 32v for DC. Over the years as they have been modified and 32v things have become harder to find, many owners have added either a 24v or a 12v system.

The 220v shore power feeds a 220v panel for air con, dryer and usually stove/oven as well as two 120v subpanels for other loads (outlets, chargers, smaller loads)

My early 53 has two hatches in the galley... one in the center of the galley on port side and a smaller one unr the dinette to access the stbd batteries. Not sure about later 53s

Yes the transmissions ands stuffing boxes are in the ERs and usually easy to reach as they are just inside the aft doors.

[JohnEasley]

Origianlly the boats were 32v for DC. Over the years as they have been modified and 32v things have become harder to find, many owners have added either a 24v or a 12v system.

The 220v shore power feeds a 220v panel for air con, dryer and usually stove/oven as well as two 120v subpanels for other loads (outlets, chargers, smaller loads)

Good to know about the electrical. Thanks, Pascal.

Yes the transmissions ands stuffing boxes are in the ERs and usually easy to reach as they are just inside the aft doors.

Sounds easy enough. Thanks.