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Ocean 43SS

Discussion in 'Ocean Yacht' started by Tashmoo, Jan 19, 2017.

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  1. Tashmoo

    Tashmoo New Member

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    Oct 24, 2016
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    Cape Cod
    Thought I'd add my new (to us) 43 to the forum. My wife and I were coming off a Tiara 35 Open and wanted to move to a convertible. We cruise, drink and fish, in that order. Mostly we wanted the improved visibility and living space above the waterline. We built a profile: 42-45 feet, 25 knots cruise speed, fish and cruise, 2 staterooms / 2 heads, no 2-cycle power, good aesthetic lines, a high(er) end build pedigree and a budget of around $250k. My 2-cycle power aversion mostly eliminated the top tier boats in production years that fit my budget: Viking, Tiara, Bertram, Hatteras. Ultimately we culled our search down to 3 choices: Ocean 43SS, production 2000-2005, Riviera 43C, production 1997-2003 and Tiara 43C, production 1990-2002 (with Cat 3196 in later years). I decided to stay away from Post, as much as I respect the build quality, but that's another story. We bought our Ocean after an extensive search and a lot of disappointment along the way. We crawled through far too many boats that were poorly maintained, overfished, run hard and put away wet.

    We got lucky finding this boat when we did. Upper Connecticut River, fresh water, only 300 hours on the mains and well maintained by a very knowledgeable original owner. She doesn't really need anything, but we're doing some upgrades this winter: Awlgrip the non-skid in cockpit, platform and gunwales, new EZ2CY, new cockpit bolsters, properly rewire the factory mess in the battery box, halogen conversion to LED everywhere, underwater lights and maybe add a 12v fresh water pump. And have to figure out something with a tender. The tapered beam at the transom limits choices here. Wish I had the hydraulic davit like Trinimax's, but cant justify that cost.

    Two things I'd change about this boat: More aft deadrise would dramatically improve down-sea handling and a bigger bed in the master to fit my fat ass.

    Counting the days to Spring here in the Northeast.

    Cheers.

    IMG_2691.jpg IMG_2729.jpg IMG_2741.jpg IMG_2813.jpg

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jan 19, 2017
  2. praetorian47

    praetorian47 Senior Member

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    Location:
    Bayport, Midland, Ontario
    I can't comment on the aft deadrise, I haven't been out in bad weather yet but unfortunately, I'm sure you're right. As to the bed size, I regretfully agree. My wife likes the dogs to sleep with us. we have a little pug and a larger Chesapeake Bay Retriever. I think the bed is a bit too cozy for just the two of us, I'm preparing for arguments over kicking the dogs out this summer!
  3. praetorian47

    praetorian47 Senior Member

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    Location:
    Bayport, Midland, Ontario
    PS. Stunning boat!
  4. Prospective

    Prospective Senior Member

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    Location:
    New England
    Great looking 43'. Yours looks much cleaner and newer than mine. I'm heading in to my 3rd season with mine. It is a 2000 that I bought out of NC and it was one of the "ridden hard and put away wet" boats. But I got it really cheap. I use my boat the same way you do and everything you wrote about your likes and dislikes is spot on. I could have written your post myself. I moved up from a Tiara 36' Open for the same reasons and my search included the exact same models. Staying away from Detroits was definitely a determining factor for me as well. I had a comprehensive engine survey including bore scoping and the engines were in great shape. But I've had trouble with both AC systems which has been expensive to resolve. I also had a leak in the holding tank. For reference it turns out there is a clean out plate in the top of the tank that is totally inaccessible under the master SR berth and is barely visible. Mine blew out at some point when the tank was overfilled. Prior owners solution was to never use it and just discharge overboard. The reason he didn't fix it is access required actually cutting out the master SR berth, ripping out the carpet and cutting a hole in the floor to access the tank. Once I did that it was about a 10 minute fix to replace the clean out plate. Then it was hours of work to put everything back. But I did replace the carpet with a teak and holly sole. Had I not done it myself it would have been crazy expensive. Good thing is I now have a removable access panel the entire width of the holding tank that can be removed should I ever need to gain access to or replace the holding tank. But beware there is NO WAY to replace many of the head hoses where they enter the tank unless you remove the tank since it is buried between stringers.

    Things in particular that stood out about your post include the wiring mess in the battery box. Moving all that junk off the battery terminals and up to proper buss bars with fuses and on/off switches on the bulkhead is my current winter project. I am also frustrated by the tender situation. At least you have a swim platform. I'm forced to pull mine over the transom into the cockpit. I've looked seriously at installing a davit crane including pricing out various models. Hardware alone will run about $8000. I'm also worried about that weight on the front making the down sea handling even worse (which I agree is not very good to begin with). I've also begun to migrate my halogen lights over to LED and am planning to install a 12v water pump in parallel with the AC pump. Mine came with a 3/4 enclosure which is being replaced this winter with a full enclosure. I'm going Poly Carb front and sides and Strata for the rear panels. I'm also having a cockpit awing made. Last thing is ordering a new mattress for the Master SR. I put underwater light on mine. I used SeaBlaze X's and would recommend. I have two which is fine for me but 4 would probably be ideal.

    I also put a new anchor on the boat, a 25kg Rocna Vulcan which hooks up well and sits nicely in the bow roller. I anchored in Tashmoo last summer on it. Hopefully I'll see you out there. If you see EPIC out there feel free to stop by for a beer.
  5. praetorian47

    praetorian47 Senior Member

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    Location:
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    My boat has a Steelhead Marine SM1500, fully hydraulic crane. I had one on my last boat so I'm used to it. The PO changed to this crane because he got tired of manually swinging the crane around on his heavy dinghy. We use dinghies extensively up here to visit islands, etc. so they're larger than I see in other areas. Mine is a 13' with a 70 and a jack plate. I can tell you that this crane was way higher than $8000. The crane itself was over $25k Canadian.

    I looked at the Vulcan anchor. I couldn't fit my old Rocna and a new one didn't fit well either. I almost bought an Ultra anchor until i saw the price! I called Spade Anchor before New Years and they had a good deal and offered free shipping (you should have seen the tiny Fedex lady delivering it). Their price was competitive with what I can get a Rocna or Vulcan for in Canada, which was a bit surprising since the Rocna's are made here so I have no duties. Spade was always very expensive which is why I discounted them years ago. I think they're trying to become competitive now and I applaud that. I haven't used it yet but in some completely unscientific testing between the Rocna, Vulcan, Ultra and Spade in snow and ice, the Spade does appear to match or best the others. The rollbar on the Rocna works really well, I can't deny that. If it had fit on the new boat, I wouldn't have even looked at another anchor. The Spade does seem to go tip down quicker than anybody on ice. How relevant that is, I'm not sure. I doubt anybody is anchoring on ice :)
    Neal Chick likes this.
  6. Prospective

    Prospective Senior Member

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    Location:
    New England
    $8-10k would be for an entry level model about 800lbs capacity with manual boom. A 1500lbs steelhead is an excellent davit but way to heavy for a 43' Ocean.
  7. Trinimax

    Trinimax Senior Member

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    Location:
    Trinidad and Tobago Yacht club
    Hi Tashmoo, welcome to the club, its great to be part of a forum with 3 ocean 43 owners, btw what power have you got in her. your serach criteria was also fairly similar to mine, and the ocean 43 fit the bill. With regards to some of your concerns and planned upgrades. the previous owner of my 43 made the master bed larger, he cut into the forward bedside table a bit and was able to fit a wider mattress. the job did not look too difficult. I could take some pictures next time I am by the boat if you want. With regards to the tender, its ironic that both you and prospective want a davit. I was looking for a boat without a tender davit since I had a light hard bottom inflatable from the old boat that I was planning to only put on the bow when needed the dingy was about 8 ft and weighed only about 60 pounds and was easily lifted onto the bow with 2 people. The previous owner also changed all the lights in the boat to lumitec Leds which I am more than happy with so far. with regards to the following sea ride, I could say that its a significant improvement from my old 38 ocean, so it sounds like you guys got spoiled by your tiaras ;)
    looking forward to seeing pictures from your adventures !
  8. Tashmoo

    Tashmoo New Member

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    Trinimax - I'd love to see pics of the bed. Thanks
  9. Tashmoo

    Tashmoo New Member

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    Hope to see you in our travels
  10. Trinimax

    Trinimax Senior Member

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    Hi Tashmoo. here are some pics of the enlarged master bed. You lose most of the forward bed side table, but you still have enough space to pass to get into the forward head. will try to get some more pics of the actual extended bed structure when I make it to the boat later this week

    Attached Files:

  11. Tashmoo

    Tashmoo New Member

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    nice on the bed. Looks to add maybe 10". Does the mattress stay square all the way to the foot or does it taper to allow room to pass into the head? And is the pedestal widened along with all the drawer assembly under the mattress, or maybe just a ply underlayment to support the extra width? Any close(er) up pics would be great. Looks like a reasonably simple job to cut down the side table vanity
  12. Prospective

    Prospective Senior Member

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    Interesting. My wife and I are not all that big so no need for us to widen the berth. I too am curious of how they did that. Wondering if they actually moved the forward set of drawers beneath the berth "out" and then enlarged the plywood for the mattress or did they just enlarge the plywood, which would leave a pretty big "overhang" to access the drawers? Either way be prepared. As I've mentioned, removing the berth is a task. The plywood over the drawer assemblies was fastened down with heavy screws and 5200. Then the screw holes were putty'd over and painted leaving them impossible to find. At the head it was also tabbed in with fiberglass so I flush cut it and scabbed in new plywood. The only way I could find to remove the plywood was to rip it horizontally in 4" strips that I could then use a prybar to tear off. It was an absolute bear since I really needed to save the undercabinets. Removing the lower cabinets was a bit easier to get off as they were just screwed down. Here's a picture of the aftermath. I installed a teak and holly floor and most importantly an access hatch over the holding tank which you can see. IMAG0366.jpg
  13. Trinimax

    Trinimax Senior Member

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    Hi tashmoo. let me get you some more pictures today. I did not have a chance to make it to the boat over the weekend
  14. Tashmoo

    Tashmoo New Member

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    Trinimax - thanks. I'm definitely interested in duplicating the work to widen the berth.

    Prospective the T&H sole looks great. Nice work. I've seen some of your woodworking prowess elsewhere too. I'm hoping that the job of simply widening the berth may be as easy as increasing the overhang with ply and rebuilding the forward side table. Simple stuff. Ideally I'd like to rebuild the under bed drawers to maintain accessibility, but it sounds like removing the berth is a major project. 5200??? Jeesh. Why the hell would Ocean Yachts want to make that joint permanent with no other access to the holding tank? LOVE this boat, but the things I'm uncovering in the build process as I get more intimately familiar leave me scratching my head
  15. Prospective

    Prospective Senior Member

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    Tashmoo thanks for the kind words. You hit the nail on the head. Good boat but some real head scratches in the design/build. Why anyone would 5200 down the berth AND putty over the screw holes is beyond me.

    To widen the berth I would use a circular saw set to half inch depth and rip the plywood base into strips that can be pryed up. You will also have to remove the end panel at the foot of the bed. Once that's all off you'll be able to unscrew the base cabinet and move it as one piece. You can cut the night stand to accommodate a new larger plywood base and also install a new end panel. A project but not too bad.

    Right now I'm working on a new DC distribution panel to replace the rats nest of wiring in the battery compartment. I will mount it all to the aft bulkhead of the engine room. I'll post some pics in case anyone is interested. Should be a big improvement.
    Neal Chick likes this.
  16. Trinimax

    Trinimax Senior Member

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    Hi Tashmoo. here is the widened base from a few angles. from the looks of it, the previous owner put a new larger piece of ply on top of the existing base. the drawers below are still reachable. However the base is solid and there is no access to below the bed. Hope this helps and good luck with your project.

    With regards to your comments about some head scratchers from Ocean. I most certainly agree. there are some items where a little bit more time and effort would have gone a long way. However, i will say this, Ocean sure has come a long way since my 1989 38 ft. Have seen quite a few good improvements with reagards to the systems, construction and ride

    Prospective. I am looking forward to seeing how your DC panel project comes, because i agree that the 12 volt battery system is a real cluster f#$%

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    Last edited: Feb 5, 2017
  17. Prospective

    Prospective Senior Member

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    Interesting in the pictures looks like they didn't move the berth drawers or even replace the plywood base (no wonder given how hard it is). They just slapped another piece of plywood over the top. No question this would be a much easier way to go. You also preserve the lower part of the side table cabinet. Only issue is contending with the increased overhang to access the drawers. You can also see the squeeze out of the 5200 between the original plywood base and the drawer base.
  18. Prospective

    Prospective Senior Member

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    20170207_080106.jpg 20170207_080231.jpg Here's a couple pic's of the DC distribution panel I built this winter to clean up the mess in the battery compartment. I wanted to do as much as I could in the warmth and comfort of my basement. I've already removed the giant windlass breaker, overhead light, and engine room outlet to clear space on the bulkhead between the Racor filters. Phase two will be to take it to the boat and mount it to the bulkhead and move all of the wires up to the panel and off the batteries. I'll do that while the boat is still on the hard. Phase 3 will be replacing the crappy Sentry battery charger with a Victron Inverter/Charger and also installing a battery monitoring system. But phase 3 will wait until the boat is back in the water in her slip.
  19. praetorian47

    praetorian47 Senior Member

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    That's a really nice job on the dc panel. I'm still figuring mine out. The previous owner fixed quite a bit, so it's not what I hear the original mess was but still a bit hard to follow.

    I found the windlass breaker but still looking for the thruster wiring.
  20. Trinimax

    Trinimax Senior Member

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    Thats quite a nice panel there prospective. looking forward to seeing it insatalled. You have definitely inspired me to clean up my mess of battery wiring
    Neal Chick likes this.