What Do you Think About Ocean Yachts?

hi julio

basically long story short, the Rivieras i heard were not the best boat in a sea. a charter company my brother worked for had 3 boats, one was a 42 Riviera, they derigged her and sold it off after a short time.
there more of a cruiser family boat, designed for running up and down the inside of the islands.

far

The 42' I have not run or been on yet. I have indeed heard great things about it though.

Ocean yachts

Julio, If you like the Ocean Yachts, try to stretch to a 53' Ocean. They were "new generation" and you can probably find one in the mid 90's with MAN's (you want the 820 10 Cyl) at a price you can live with. Or you may find a newer one with 3406 CATs. Either package is good in that boat, and the boat itself is a decent sea boat.

When you sea trial it be sure to point it straight into the chop and after take the seas on the quarter. Those were the weak points I found with the 43. We'd cruise at 29kts (with Yanmars) normally, but straight in had us doing 12kts. Large, quartering seas had me using wheel, gears, throttle and tabs to hold course.

We just signed a deal for a 2002 56' Ocean for use in the Bahamas. From what I understand, it is a perfect boat for the Bahamas and we are pretty excited. Plenty boat for the price.

Congratulations, have fun!

this winter we were docked next to a recent Ocean 60ish with enclosed FB. whenever the boat touched the piling, it made those awful loud creaking sound. not confidence inspiring! I adjusted the guy's line a few times but got tired of it since he obvioulsy didn't care... it didn't take long for stress cracks to appear and the rub rail to get some damage. I can't imagine what would happen to one of these in a storm, this was with 15kts wind!

So the boat repeatedly hitting a piling and developing some stress cracks in the gelcoat is indicative of the boat's quality? I'm not sure about that...seems simply more indicative of the captain's care and skill.

I know of alot that have had bad keel problems and are said to be very thin fiberglass. If the boat hits the piling and makes alot of noise, youd have to wonder

well, in all fairness I believe the "flexible flyer" was really about 80s vintage Oceans and one or two models only.

I agree that the captain and owner should be more careful in adjusting the lines so that the boat woudlnt' rub against the piling, since they had room. that said, sometimes slips are jsut too narrow and considering how few slips are available in Miami for boats over 55 you dont' have a lot of choice. for instance, i only had one inch on each side in the slip we were in for the winter (70' Johnson) so the rub rail was always rubbing agaisnt a piling bu the boat never made the creaking sound that Ocean was making.

My own boat, (1970 Hatteras 53MY) rubs the piling when the wind gets a little strong, again no room, and never creaked, even during hurricane Wilma. Now of course, an old Hatt motoryacht will not do 30 kts!

Ahh I see, thanks for the clarification I have zero experience with Ocean boats and was just questioning stress cracks from banging being used as a quality indicator. The creaking noise certainly does sound less than confidence inspiring, for sure.

I used to manage a 63' Ocean and when the boat was hauled the rubrail area would deflect 6-9" each side where the front sling was. The boat was a 1987, yet we never had any structural issues and it travelled all over North America and Central America. They are called flexible fliers for a reason, yet I personally have never seen any structuraly issues on them and have run more then a few.

I've had a few Oceans, although I agree with the "flexibility" issues when hauled, I've never had one break. It seems that Ocean figured out what the bare minimum was when laminating these things then went a **** hair above that. Incredibly light, not rock solid but strong enough to stay together when run in the right conditions.

Unlike another manufacturer that had a reputation throughout the industry for being built like a steel fortress or battlewagon, and then after decades and decades went totally in the other direction. we all know who that might be........hehehehe......

Funny thing is, Ocean held so much marketshare in the 80's and 90's and you see relatively few on the water made in the 2000's. Somehow somewhere along the line they didn't upgrade fast enough or whichever to keep their marketshare.

my dad has a 1989 38 ocean which i fish and cruise alot in the southern caribbean and so far we have been impressed with how she handles. the boat isnt no tank but it isnt a bayliner either, i agree that there are somethings in the boat that should have been made stronger but she seems to be holding up. I have run and fished alot on a 37 bertram which i would say runs better in a head and following sea than the ocean but the difference is marginal.

I don't know about that.