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  1. #1

    Retirement, what size boat?

    I am looking to get back into boating after several years on the hard. My retirement will take place in April of next year at the age of 62.

    My intent is to cruise up and down the east coast from New England to the Florida and the Bahamas at trawler speed. During the summer (hurricane season) months I intend to take a dock in an area like Mystic Ct. and cruise Long Island Sound.

    For the most part it will be just my wife and I with occasionally three or four guests.

    I have viewed (on the internet) boats from 36’ to 58’. So far the boat I find most attractive is the 53 Hatteras MY (1970 to 1985) with an open/screened in aft deck seating area.

    As far as operating a motor yacht at trawler speed, I’ve read quite a bit about re-propping and or de-rating the engines. Some say just running up the engines occasionally to clear them out works.

    It seems to me the foreign made “trawler” types have too many quality issues and too much exposed wood.

    The 20 to 30 year old Hatteras’ seem to be a very good value for the dollars spent, started off as high quality boats, good sea keeping qualities, have good livable floor plans, and very little exposed wood. The LRC’s are all beautiful however the price has been driven up too much by it’s popularity, IMHO. These things have lead me to the Hatteras MY.

    What it boils down to is the size may prevent me from taking it every where I want to go because the dock/mooring space is not available or is too expensive (mostly not available). There seem to be very few 48 MY’s available, therefore I may have to settle on a 43 MY. To add to that, it appears that the 43’s and 48’s are about the same price as the 53’s. Also, at hull speed the fuel consumption is pretty close. Again, My concerns are the availability of dock and mooring space, fuel cost and over all livability.

    I would like to get the most for my buck however not at the expense of being restricted in it’s use.

    I would greatly appreciate any information/advice about what has worked for you regarding this subject.

    Thank you,

    Jim Sluss

  2. Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    The 53MY is a LOT bigger boat than the 43. I've been on both and if you can manage the maintenance on the 53 (which will be considerably more) along with the dockage issues, I'd definitely go that way.

    I can't speak to the moorage issues and such in that part of the country though, having never boated there with any sort of frequency - but there are a significant number of forum members who do and can, and I suspect they'll be along shortly
    http://www.denninger.net - Home page with blog links and more
    http://market-ticker.org - The Market Ticker

  3. Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    Hi Jim,

    I am not anywhere near retirement, but I have spent a lot of time on Hatteras yachts over the past several months. Mostly out of necessity as the wife and I are having difficulties and she keeps practicing "catch and release" with me!

    I personally own a 41DC and a 58TC and have been living on each one while going back and forth to FL from TN and visiting several members of this forum who live in FL. I have been on most every Hatteras yacht known to man between 34 and 77 feet, and I have met some very nice and interesting people while protecting what's left of my sanity.

    I am presently trying to figure out what to do next and where to do it, but a Hatteras is definitely what I will be doing it on, one or the other. In my case, the 41 is more than adequate for just me, but you just can't get around the old addage bigger is always better, especially when it comes to a liveaboard. I have always wanted to do a fulltime liveaboard thing, but I never meant to do it by myself. That is why I bought the 58 when I needed more room for the whole famn damily.

    However, as you have pointed out, smaller boats are less expensive to maintain, operate, and find marina space for. They are usually faster and have shallower drafts. To that end, I have placed my 58TC up for sale and may very well move my 41DC to Florida if things don't work out with the wife in TN. Marina space for the 41 is much cheaper and more readily available than for the 58, and there is lots of shallow water on the Gulf side and the islands. I have also considered just listing the 41DC as well and living on whichever does not sell first! Somebody help me!

    Bottom line is, any Hatteras MY over 40' is more than suitable as a liveaboard for one or two people. I suppose it all depends on your personal wants/needs and how good a job you did at retirement planning! Good luck, and congratulations on leaving the real world in your wake!
    1974 58TC "Freebird", 1965 41DC "Nancy Cay", For Sale - Click HERE for info - sosectn@aol.com
    Randy Register - Kingston, Tennessee - aka Freeebird aka Sparky1
    www.forumlychallengedboaters.com

  4. Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    Jim,
    We DID retire and bought the 43' that we now live full time on for the past 6 years. IF I HAD THE MONEY, I would rather the 53' over the 43' in most cases.

    But I can and do dock our by myself a lot and it is easy,( but then again Pascal does the same with his 53'.)

    Ours is plenty big for the two of us but is CROWDED when all the grandkids come to visit. (but am sure the Queen Mary would not be big enough either at times)

    To get into my engine room means pulling up the floor board in the saloon as opposed to the nice engine rooms on the 53. And to check the batteries on mine a a major PITA as I now must pull up two panals on each side to get to them.

    In our case, the "dealbreaker" was we paid $110,000 for this boat with the seller giving me back a check for $39,500 as both 6-71N's needed rebuilding, which only costed me $22,000.

    But the upkeep and dockage is cheaper for me "most of the time"...
    Last edited by Jaxfishgyd; 02-24-2007 at 01:54 PM.
    Charlie Freeman
    "No Dial Tone"
    1973 43' DCMY
    Fernandina Beach, Fl
    www.yachtmoves.com

  5. Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    Jim,

    Charlie brings up an interesting point as it pertains to operating a larger boat. I singlehand my 58 with no problem whatsoever and have done so on considerably larger vessels. However, the question I would pose to you is how do you plan to use the boat? This may prove to be the deciding factor in your case.

    If your idea of living aboard centers more on the boat spending most of its time in a marina, go for as big a boat as your budget will allow. It won't use any more fuel or require much more maintenance than a smaller boat as long as it is tied to the dock

    If you plan to do a lot of cruising, consider a smaller boat as the money you save will be needed for higher fuel consumption and maintenance. Quite frankly, I think it is a sin to live on a Hatteras and not take it anywhere. That's what God invented houseboats for!

    Now, don't you go buying a houseboat, or we'll all blackball you from this forum and make as large a wake as possible when we pass you in the ICW!
    Last edited by Freebird; 02-24-2007 at 02:12 PM.
    1974 58TC "Freebird", 1965 41DC "Nancy Cay", For Sale - Click HERE for info - sosectn@aol.com
    Randy Register - Kingston, Tennessee - aka Freeebird aka Sparky1
    www.forumlychallengedboaters.com

  6. Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    Fuel consumption in displacement mode (9kts) is not materially different between a 43 and 58.

    What IS more expensive is dockage and maintenance.
    http://www.denninger.net - Home page with blog links and more
    http://market-ticker.org - The Market Ticker

  7. #7

    Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    The 48 LRCs are priced similar to the 53 MYs. They are selling for about $250K +- $25 depending on condition. They are two stateroom (3 had 3 staterooms), but have a pilot house bunk (1 adult or 2 munchkins) and you can have a saloon pull out.

    The 58 LRC is much bigger than the 53 or the 58 MY for that matter. Wider heavier and highly valued selling around $550 +- $100k depending on condition.

    The baby of the LRC fleet is the 42. Two large staterooms and showers, saloon and large flybridge, but no pilot house. Skooch is an 1980 Mark II and they are selling for about $200 +- $25K.

    The ride is better than a 53 in a seaway, slower roll, softer ride. Two 4-53s burn 5 gallons per hour at 8 knots. When you get to Fl and the marinas ask if you need fuel you can tell them, "No I just got fuel in NY, don't need any yet"

    You might want to join the Hatteras LRC Club is you become interested in the LRCs. THe club web site is hatteraslrc.com. THere will be at least 4 48s and 4 58s and thirty owners represented at the Rendezvous in March, St Pete. See web site for details.

    David
    Skooch

  8. #8

    Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    53' because of the engine room!
    1986 52 Convertible
    Island Son

  9. #9

    Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    I'm biased, having just bought a 48MY last year. So far we have found it a very liveable boat. Had six total aboard for a week, including an active 5 year old grand child and we all fit well. Cruising is comfortable at 8 knots, 5.5-6.3 gph. About 1600 miles under the keel so far. The only thing we would really like is a better guest SR layout, but they might never leave if that were the case.

    Bob

  10. #10

    Re: Retirement, what size boat?

    I suppose we're all a bit biased toward our own boats - we love the 53MY as a superb compromise that offers, in our minds, ALMOST the best of everything. I suppose that's the reason Hatt made them for 20 years.

    It has sufficient living space that you can actually have several people living on board and hardly ever see each other if you prefer to do that. It's a breeze for two people to handle. It maneuvers easily and from the lower helm sightlines while docking maneuvering are excellent (as long as you open the curtains/blinds)! For that matter, the lower helm is superb to operate from in every respect.

    When we were looking, we thought initially we wanted the ED version but we found for our purposes we didn't care for the isolated pilot house though many people feel the opposite.

    What's not to like? The rear deck, which is SUPERB for dining/general gathering, whatever, is NOT water sport friendly because you have to go down the ladder to the swim platform. The Admiral and I Scuba dive and moving the gear up/down the ladder, though workable, is decidedly awkward. Same is true of loading/unloading stuff on the dink.

    The boat's sides are quite high so if you don't have boarding steps or a tide-ride ladder, it can be a bit tough to board from the side. Sometime in their history, the engine room vents were changed from louvered to a large opening that is VERY conveniant to use as a step for boarding. But that still requires some agility- it's a large first step up. In our marina in NY we don't have steps at our slip and the finger is too narrow for our tide-ride ladder to be used. We have had a few cases were some people could not board the boat if we were bow-in. Stern-in it's no problem to board using the swim platform/ladder. Note that this problem is largely related to the dock/finger. If you have steps mounted, it's a non-issue. But as you travel you will find various docks and various facilities. Consider that you do have to get OFF the boat before you can mount the tide-ride ladder. And for docking, you (or whoever) WOn't be regularly hoping off the side of boat onto the dock. To do so will eventually guarantee some sort of injury due to the height.

    You may have heard that 53's are wet boats. If you haven't heard it, you have now: 53s are wet boats!! If you are heading into the wind and there are any seas at all, you will take plenty of spray on the windshield. Note that this has nothing to do with seaworthiness! But some people find it annoying because they just cleaned the boat and now all that saltwater is all over everything! But we have had our boat out when we shouldn't have and it weathers anything FAR better than we can. We were out in LI sound last year with 40+k winds with heavy confused seas. I'll tell you right now, I was a bit concerned. No, that's not true. I was SCARED. But after a while I realized that the boat was doing just fine.

    When we got home, there was a crowd in the marina trying to help us dock (wind on the beam, 40+ knots - it was a challenge) The next day, standing around with beers, at least 15 people walked to our slip where we were cleaning and said something like "This [our 53] is the only boat in the marina that could have been out there yesterday." We didn't see a single other boat in the sound that day. No, we shouldn't have been out there at all but it was a "get-home-itus" thing where better judgement should have prevailed. Anyway, wet or not, 53's are fine, seaworthy boats that will save your @ss when you're too stupid to do it yourself.

    In my mind, the BEST boat overall for us might be a 58YF since it has a cockpit and I BELIEVE, though I'm not sure, that it has the exact same interior layout as the 53MY. If it doesn't have the same interior layout, then I wouldn't be interested.

    The walk in engine rooms are, by themselves, worth the price of admission. When we first began thinking about moving up from our 36ft Mainship, my only requirement was stand-up eng rooms. As everyone knows, if something is hard to get to, it's hard to maintain. Everything is accessable - the split eng room is an outstanding design that provides both service and usuable room in the boat. This is because the service on the inboard side of the engs is from the passageway through large, easily-removed panels. Jack Hargrave REALLY had his smart design hat on when he came up with the split eng room design. For a boat in this size range, it is an elegant solution to maximizing living space AND engine access space.

    As others have said, I'd suggest that for retirement purposes, the bigger the better as long as you weigh the docking/slip space issues as well. In my mind, the 1510 series Hatts are mighty hard to beat. At the price, I'd say they are impossible to beat.

    But that's just me - pround owner of the 1980 Hatteras 53 MY, Brigadoon!
    Last edited by MikeP; 02-24-2007 at 11:19 PM. Reason: added info

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