Need advice on learning skills for Hatteras living

We are halfway through our 2-year plan to liveaboard a 53'+ Hatteras. We have already revamped our finances, sold our house, downsized dramatically, and got rid of years of stuff. Now, in my final year of prep I am trying to prioritize my preparation to minimize some of the learning curve pains once we start living aboard. I am a youtube genius but want to better understand systems to help me better troubleshoot what actually needs to be fixed. Here are the areas that I think I need to work on, would love your opinions on what matters and what doesn't.....

• Troubleshooting electronics - I am currently restoring a 1967 pinball machine to teach myself how to learn schematics and basic wiring logic
• Mechanics - There is an automotive class at the local community college. How much does car engine knowledge transfer to boat diesel engines?
• Navigation - I am well versed in aviation navigation so switching to boat nav will be less of a pain
• Weather - Same, I learned a lot to pass the FAA exam but want to up my knowledge of ocean weather forecasting. Any good suggestions here?
• General knowledge/OUPV - I am working on OUPV content, I want to have the knowledge portion complete in the next year, then can get the on-water experience portion completed in the first year onboard
• On-water experience - I am actively looking for crewing opportunities to get some on-water experience. Any great resources to find someone willing to take on a smart newbie for a week or two?

What am I not thinking about that I should be spending energy to learn?
What am I spending energy on that could be spent elsewhere?

I appreciate your advice!

One thing I will say is, you can't learn everything at once.

I don't think you will be able to get the on water experience in one year.

Experience counts for a lot.

So, just keep learning and doing and checking stuff off the list.

Your questions indicate a depth of knowledge and a willingness to learn that qualifies you as better than the average Sea Ray owner.

Go forth and gain experience. Happy to have you in another Hatteras on the water. Bring whatever the problems you run into to this forum and you will be able to learn as you go.

I've read my old posts back to 2001 and they describe the evolution of an idiot on the water. Happy idiot still, and always.


Bruce

Freestyle

1986 62 CPMY (54MY with ext)
Tampa

Any mechanical experience will be useful to you, but a course on marine diesels, if anyone offers one within a reasonable distance, will serve you the best. Virtually all Hatteras yachts of the vintage you are looking at were powered with two-stroke Detroit diesels, so you might join boatdiesel.com and look at the section of their forums that talk about DDs and maintenance of them.

I suspect you will find that the navigation part comes the easiest to you.

The car engine class locally can't hurt. Most of the work on boat engines that boat owners do is pretty basic- oil and fuel filter changes, seawater pump impellers, changing zincs- those sorts of things.

Learning the various ship's systems- the electrical ones, the AC, the fresh water, stabilizers if the boat you buy will have them, is what takes the most time. All 53s have some age on them now, so you will get plenty of opportunities to figure out things even on a well-maintained boat.

It will take two years to get enough hours for the OUPV sea time log, I think.

As far as ride-along time, you might contact HOF members in your area and see if anyone is willing to offer you time crewing on their boat.

Good luck! "Chance favors the prepared", as Pasteur said, and you are preparing.

Riding along with someone is an option, but I would think your best bet would be to find someone to ride along with you on your boat. That could be an experienced friend, or you could hire a Captain for whatever time it takes you to be comfortable.

Getting an OUPV is, IMO, pointless unless you plan to charter. There are easier/cheaper ways to learn the basics, but in the end, there is simply no substitute for wheel time.

The best way to learn and retain knowledge is to fix stuff as it breaks. It's the hard way. But I am while not a mechanic or AC tech pretty good now at assessing, fixing, or putting a bandaid on something to limp through a trip or get home. Now while that sounds like not the best thing being on this forum is a good asset. Besides reading back through old threads to educate yourself post up a thread when you get into a bind. Include pictures of your dilemma. Many here are very experienced and jump in to help out.

Also Take Feeebirds advice and get on a friends boat or hire a captain. Not sure where you are located but I learned this summer that in Fort Myers there is a school that takes you out on either one of their boats or yours to cruise a few days and learn the ropes.

There is a ton of experience behind the advice you’ve already been given above. There’s no replacement for time behind the wheel, especially at first with a trusted and experienced Hatteras owner/Captain. This is amplified if you aren’t fully confident in your boat’s systems. Pick the right model Hatt for your needs then find the one in best shape and get after it!! Good luck!

The number one skill needed on a boat, especially an older one, is troubleshooting. You need to be able to break down the problem and hit it step by step. Whether electrical, air con, etc. you need to have the mind set to troubleshoot the problem. Some people have a hard time getting in the mindset

I doubt a car engine class will be useful. A diesel course, yes probably

I also can to boating from an aviation background which I think is a big plus. Navigation, weather, dealing with emergency etc. really helps.

You mention OUPV content which I understand to be learning the content but not necessarily getting the license. I agree with Randy that getting the actual license is pretty pointless. Study the course and material and learn. The license involves a lot of red tape and costs.

Rising along or crewing may help you learn a few things but the best way to learn is to jump in.

This is a pretty good introductory video about marine diesel maintenance.

It is broad, but there are certain areas that they break down by engine type and a lot of examples with Detroits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDRvzOodax8&t=2349s

Freeboard provides good advice on both points.

By the way, unless you have experience operating a yacht of this size, you probably won't be able to get insurance on the boat until a captain signs off on your skills. Something to think about.

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Originally Posted by Freeebird

Riding along with someone is an option, but I would think your best bet would be to find someone to ride along with you on your boat. That could be an experienced friend, or you could hire a Captain for whatever time it takes you to be comfortable.

Getting an OUPV is, IMO, pointless unless you plan to charter. There are easier/cheaper ways to learn the basics, but in the end, there is simply no substitute for wheel time.

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Buy this book and read it cover to cover. You will know more than 95% of the internet expurts.

The best way to learn about your boat systems is to live in it. You will be able to notice if a particular system is about to fail ( like de AC is not cooling enough). If you encouter a problem you are not familiar with it, sit down an ponder the problem, unless you have a major water intake ! Do not feel you have to take apart the system inmediately. Sit down a make a plan. When we had to use the boat for our beach house for 3 years, the boat was in better shape than before, all the systems got used regularly , in comparison when the boat was iddle. The saying IF YOU DON NOT USE IT YOU LOOSE IT really applies to a boat. Good luck and enjoy

I / we went through a similar almost "panic" situation in our case of "what do we need to do to get ready". Our long term goal is to try to live aboard. We purchased our 53 last fall and it was already on blocks in winter storage. It was a 5 hour drive away and we tried to tell ourselves we would go and work on it 4 or 5 times over the winter. Never happened LOL. What I did do is over stress about it. Half of the "things" I thought we needed turned out to actually already be on the boat. I was even looking for a Marquip set of stairs, and good thing I didn't buy any as there was already a set on board.

What I did learn was how much stuff goes wrong and fast. I have spent the summer watching different things break, getting half done fixing them then something more important pops up. i.e.. plugged toilet, then water lines exploded, then one engine kept loosing prime. So far I have fixed the motor and that is it. Outside railings that needed to be redone are half sanded. Gages work some of the time. Had a bent prop that I did get swapped out. Other things became lower priority and will have to wait until winter. I would say don't stress too much, like I did, and go with the flow.
I think as others have said you learn as you go and there is a whole lot to learn!
The great thing is this forum! The people are great and no where else is there so much help for a particular brand of boat like this.

This summer we are living aboard full time as a test to see how we like it and see how it goes.

I don't think you can completely prepare. From what I can tell from living onboard full time for this summer is that "maybe" in 3 or 4 years (when I hope to retire) I might have things 30% sorted out LOL. Having a good set of tools on board and electrical testers, etc. will be important as well as spare filters etc.

Good luck and feel free to reach out would be happy to talk any time. :)

We live on Benedetto full time from Mayish to Octoberish in Wisconsin. Coolest thing I've ever done and my wife seems to enjoy it as well, other than the spiders. I'm a major tinkerer so the boat keeps me in good practice! Like Bob said, don't stress it's supposed to be an enjoyable time. Take each task one at a time, too many at once without a win (fininshing) can be defeating. As a friend said about boating, "if it ain't fun then why do it?". I scoured the Sam's forum for hours reading threads that really didn't apply at the time but has definitly come in handy as I care for this old girl. Other than that I would recommend looking at as many boats as possible for the education. Once you decide, buy the smallest boat you can comfortably live on and not the largest you can afford. We did the latter, I would buy this boat all over again but a 53 would have been the perfect boat for us with a little less to care for. No Benedetto is not for sale. Other then that good luck and enjoy your journey. Oh and remember the one thing that always works on a boat...the owner. Also there is something breaking right now on almost every boat out there. Its our job to find it before it becomes a problem.
Good Luck!!

Wink! Wink!!

https://www.facebook.com/creditcardcaptain

Along the lines of good on hand resources as internet is not always available while you are underway or anchored out. Four books that stay onboard and have been invaluable over the years are:

- The Chapman Piloting & Seamanship (noted above in previous post)
- Nigel Calder's Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual
- Nigel Calder's Marine Diesel Engines
- Peter Compton's Troubleshooting Marine Diesels

A good investment yielding high returns...

Too funny, but correct. "There is something breaking right now". Yes - only too true. I feel like every time I cross three things off my list, I add two (or three) back. If you have the aptitude to repair things, you'll be fine. If not, you may get overwhelmed when trying to control all the things that will come up.

The simpler the boat, the less this will be an issue. One generator is 1/2 the issues of two, two heads instead of four or five, will have you changing less motors, pumps, hoses, etc. While redundancy is great, it also means more service, repairs and cost.

Not sure I would necessarily agree with buy the smallest boat you can live on because, in my opinion (and we are talking boats) size really doesn't directly matter. While bigger boats may have extra systems, that is not always the case. More systems will correlate to the amount of problems you will have.

The boat you select rather than it's size will be more directly related to the repairs. For instance, our LRC has duplicate systems everywhere and lots of other expensive systems like bow thruster, watermaker, stabilizers, etc. These are all extra costs to maintain and they all will need repairs and/or servicing from time to time. Many Hatteras yachts do not have these additional systems.

Spend all your spare time on this forum. You will learn more useful information than anywhere else. Great people here and a wealth of knowledge.

Good luck with you search.

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Originally Posted by Sadey

We live on Benedetto full time from Mayish to Octoberish in Wisconsin. Coolest thing I've ever done and my wife seems to enjoy it as well, other than the spiders. I'm a major tinkerer so the boat keeps me in good practice! Like Bob said, don't stress it's supposed to be an enjoyable time. Take each task one at a time, too many at once without a win (fininshing) can be defeating. As a friend said about boating, "if it ain't fun then why do it?". I scoured the Sam's forum for hours reading threads that really didn't apply at the time but has definitly come in handy as I care for this old girl. Other than that I would recommend looking at as many boats as possible for the education. Once you decide, buy the smallest boat you can comfortably live on and not the largest you can afford. We did the latter, I would buy this boat all over again but a 53 would have been the perfect boat for us with a little less to care for. No Benedetto is not for sale. Other then that good luck and enjoy your journey. Oh and remember the one thing that always works on a boat...the owner. Also there is something breaking right now on almost every boat out there. Its our job to find it before it becomes a problem.
Good Luck!!

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Originally Posted by Bob Quinn

I / we went through a similar almost "panic" situation in our case of "what do we need to do to get ready". Our long term goal is to try to live aboard. We purchased our 53 last fall and it was already on blocks in winter storage. It was a 5 hour drive away and we tried to tell ourselves we would go and work on it 4 or 5 times over the winter. Never happened LOL. What I did do is over stress about it. Half of the "things" I thought we needed turned out to actually already be on the boat. I was even looking for a Marquip set of stairs, and good thing I didn't buy any as there was already a set on board.

What I did learn was how much stuff goes wrong and fast. I have spent the summer watching different things break, getting half done fixing them then something more important pops up. i.e.. plugged toilet, then water lines exploded, then one engine kept loosing prime. So far I have fixed the motor and that is it. Outside railings that needed to be redone are half sanded. Gages work some of the time. Had a bent prop that I did get swapped out. Other things became lower priority and will have to wait until winter. I would say don't stress too much, like I did, and go with the flow.
I think as others have said you learn as you go and there is a whole lot to learn!
The great thing is this forum! The people are great and no where else is there so much help for a particular brand of boat like this.

This summer we are living aboard full time as a test to see how we like it and see how it goes.

I don't think you can completely prepare. From what I can tell from living onboard full time for this summer is that "maybe" in 3 or 4 years (when I hope to retire) I might have things 30% sorted out LOL. Having a good set of tools on board and electrical testers, etc. will be important as well as spare filters etc.

Good luck and feel free to reach out would be happy to talk any time. :)

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The pace of your gaining knowledge will increase, and it does get easier. Been there. I still get stumped and have headaches, but the first year is the hardest.

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Originally Posted by jim rosenthal

The pace of your gaining knowledge will increase, and it does get easier. Been there. I still get stumped and have headaches, but the first year is the hardest.

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Good to know the first year is the hardest. I came to the conclusion, rather - hope! - that this first stretch is revealing all the issues and once resolved things will get better. So thanks for that bit of information :) You kind of verified what I was thinking. I think it's like learning anything new, once you get into the flow of things it gets easier..... or so I am trying to convince myself. I try to be delusionally optimistic, or is it optimistically delusional?

So OP what do you think of all this?

There is really no difference in maintenance costs and effort between a 53, 60 and even 70 except for whatever you pay for by the foot like dockage, diver, wash - polish and haul outs. Yes the engines on the 70 will be a bit higher and cost a little more to maintain but not that much more. Extra systems like two generators cost a little more to maintain but the redundancy is very nice

In addition to living spaces, critical to live aboard, what you get on the bigger boat is more space to work on systems. That makes a huge difference; easier to do your own maintenance and cheaper when you pay someone to do it.

I ve been living on my 53 for almost 20 years now and that’s pretty much as small as I think a live aboard should be.

Indeed for some reason the first year always seem to be the most difficult. Maybe it s because boats often sit for months before getting sold or maybe it s because before selling owners don’t maintain them as well as should.

I have $8K in my budget for a captain. I hope this will get me about 80 hours of initial hands-on training spread over the first 2-3 weeks. Does this seem like a realistic amount? I do realize that the location of the boat we choose might add on the cost of airline tickets to that $8K, just trying to make sure that I have thought it through and planned correctly.

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Originally Posted by zigzag930

Freeboard provides good advice on both points.

By the way, unless you have experience operating a yacht of this size, you probably won't be able to get insurance on the boat until a captain signs off on your skills. Something to think about.

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I ordered the 69th edition, thanks for the pointer.

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Originally Posted by rsmith

Buy this book and read it cover to cover. You will know more than 95% of the internet expurts.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by nmcafee

I have $8K in my budget for a captain. I hope this will get me about 80 hours of initial hands-on training spread over the first 2-3 weeks. Does this seem like a realistic amount? I do realize that the location of the boat we choose might add on the cost of airline tickets to that $8K, just trying to make sure that I have thought it through and planned correctly.

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I support getting some training, however I did get insurance without any problem through State Farm. Almost no questions asked.