Best liveaboard Hatteras?

[Bob Quinn]

What they all said.. Bret had a pretty good run down on the pro's and con's of each.

We got a 53 with the long term intention to live aboard - hopefully in Florida. (we are in Michigan now so it's just a summer time thing for now.)

Anything smaller seamed like way less space. Somehow when to get to the 53 size things really open up and become what feels like useable.

We lived on our 53 from May25th when we picked it up in Onekama Michigan until about mid October last year and honestly have no complaints about the space issue. We weren't sure how it would go and we were pleasantly surprised how easy it was to live aboard, even with 2 dogs!

Anything bigger I am sure would be better if you can afford it.

My dream boat would have a cockpit, galley up and side decks. Good luck finding one of those, I don't think they exist unless it is one that has been customized.

Overall I think the 53 ends up being the most common as that's the easiest and cheapest to find.

[hat4349]

I'd look at a wide body 58 motor yacht, that 18' beam is a plus when livingaboard.

[VieEnRose]

Money not an object I would go 58 or 65 LRC. Real world scenario the 58 YF checks a lot of boxes for me.

[Glory]

We enjoy our 58YF, the cockpit makes line handling, water acess and dink boarding easier. The layout is the same as a 53MY. Something, I have never seen one, is a 58 cockpit MY galley up. The brochures show it, has some good atritabutes.

[brettportzer]

Here is a question:

My current boat has twins in the master. That is fine, but the next one I would like to have a queen walkaround.

And not a badly done PO type modification with the bed at a 45 or whatever...

Looking through the brochures, it seems like basically all boats before 76-78 range had twins.

The 58YF was one I noticed in particular... Did any of them have walkarounds?

[Glory]

Our 58YF did, athawart ship. 1973 model.

QUOTE=brettportzer;425535]Here is a question:

My current boat has twins in the master. That is fine, but the next one I would like to have a queen walkaround.

And not a badly done PO type modification with the bed at a 45 or whatever...

Looking through the brochures, it seems like basically all boats before 76-78 range had twins.

The 58YF was one I noticed in particular... Did any of them have walkarounds?[/QUOTE]

[Pascal]

My 53 has been modified at some point to a walk around queen athwart ship. When I combined the master with the guest I relocated it on centerline.

Early 53s could not be converted to a centerline queen because of the steering gear that prevented the bed to be pushed back enough to leave space between the foot of the bed and the closet. On later 53, the steering gear was moved down whereas on the early boats like mine it sits on top of the water tank

[Scarlett]

My 74 had the lower steering gear so we took it a Step further and moved the water tank and put a new plastic. One below the head of the bed which allowed the bed to be pushed aft a little over a foot. We also made the bed a California King. This has been a great change

[cww]

The 53 is the hands-down winner in terms of cheap(er) dockage but tons of interior room. It's got more useable living space and storage inside than any modern 60-70' boat I've been on, I'm not exaggerating when I say that. I don't like the ED's (no offense to anyone) because they don't have the enormous aft deck like the normal 53's have, and that's where everybody spends 90% of their time when we're on the boat. The salon on a regular 53 is already pretty large, the 53 ED's salon is enormous, but I don't find the tradeoff of losing the aft deck to be worth it. Same problem with the 58's, YF's, 54's, 61's, and a bunch of other Hatteras models. I would consider a 56' because it's basically just a bloated 53' with the same general layout and large aft deck. So my vote would be 53' or 56', I think they're the cream of the crop.

[johnjen50]

The 58 YF has best of both worlds, the open back deck like the 53, but a cockpit as well. It’s a really great layout!