Buying First Motor Yacht - What's your #1 tip?

Our company just finished a sales punch list on a large cockpit Meridian. After tearing the aft state room exiting steps, a closet and more, our tall skinny tech was only able to get his left arm in to replace the port rudder post flax and re-secure all. 3 days labor. He could not lift his Friday night beer with his left arm.
Nobody ever thought a rudder post gland would require service? Oh, The port shower has the extra room for a midget.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

A lot of us are in the service business. I'm getting to old & cripple to do a lot of these kid things now days.
Walk around, Crawl thru the bilges. How can somebody get to this and that device for service.
Looking at these items now can save you lots of headache in the future. It will be the labor that drives any service issue.

Lots of newer models strive to offer mega interior room. They are sacrificing the machinery spaces to do this.

Older designed boats did not do this as bad. That's why old Hats and Berts lead our like to work on list.
We get in, get out and don't Fuss about.


Our 58 Bert MY turned 40 this last spring. There is still nothing made that could replace our needs, Oh Well, the 40 year old oven just gave out.....
It's getting close to 25lb Turkey Time and I'm getting nervous.
From Jax FL, we cruise anywhere we want reliably with her 40 year old motors.

Pascal has found it a better plan to re-power and re-model his faithful 53Hat than mess with another hull. Pascal and now the whole forum, luv his near new (ole) ship.

There is a world of Post owners here that do everything to keep their fine ships up than buy new.

Unless your really turned on by todays leaning wedding cake and Clorox bottle designs, Don't overlook the ole & roomy older designs that for less money, could fill your ticket well.
There is nothing wrong with making an ole solid ship your next big self propelled custom kitchen.

Good luck

I think the high purchase price of new boats makes a good case to get a classic and refit it as you want. Have nice new modern equipment in a solid boat.
Not talking about resale or ROI, just a good base platform with good bones to do as you like. That would fall into my own preference.

The problem is you spend 2-3x what a classic is worth, if you have to redo most systems that you never get back on resale. The other problem is hull design on anything from around 1999 and newer is so much better than these classics. Most of the mid 90’s and earlier “classics” wallow around in a beam and following sea considerably more than something 2000 or newer. Best bet is to find something in the early to late 2000s that was well maintained with modern systems.

I’m delivering a 1984 trawler, 60’ right now. And it has been pretty well maintained and updated throughout its life. Taking her From FL to NY, BUT everyday is a new foul smell inside the boat because of the split engines rooms and bilges that go all of the way fore and aft. One day it reeks of holding tank, the next diesel, the next Detroit diesel. The galley made toilets are crap, one day you have to prime one.......another one doesn’t hold water in the bowl, etc. a modern bayliner would probably be more comfortable in a sea. And on and on and on. It’s like where do you start or stop with updating , battery and charging systems are overly complicated, as is the fuel system, as are many other things. And quite honestly hull design has come a long long way.

It would not be a project for return on investment. If ROI is the main concern, time to get out of boating.

Looking at the purchase prices today versus the cost of a used boat with good bones, there is enough band width to get a tailored version just the way you like it if you are the type of owner who likes a project and likes to get involved with system choices , finishes and creating a new look your way. Basically a gut job and a wide open canvas, replace all systems, don't hold back.. There have been a few remarkable projects in our local boat yards and the Owner satisfaction is equal or greater than a new buy for a production boat.

With new systems, engines, and electronics, you don't have to deal with out dated equipment but get to choose your brand preferences. A modern propulsion system goes a long way towards changing the dynamics of a classic or used boat, and there are opportunities to modify the layout in a better fashion. But your certainly have to be a project guy, and some people do love the process, be it new construction or refit.

I do not think there would be one classic Hatteras Motor Yacht owner who would agree that a modern day Bayliner would be more comfortable in a seaway, ever.

Over my career I have run several hundred classic hatteras motoryachts as well as many many other brands from that era. The only sea state a classic hatteras motoryacht excelled at was a head sea. In a beam sea or stern sea they are a sloppy uncomfortable mess. Newer hull designs are far better in a beam sea and stern sea.

That being said even if you totally redo a classic from top to bottom you still can’t get past the nuisances from that era. Mainly bilges that pass through the entire boat and wet bilges and especially with split engine rooms. You ALWAYS have foul smells throughout the entire boat. All of the fabrics always end up absorbing and giving off a smell. If it’s not holding tank, it’s musty bilge water, if it’s not that it’s fuel, oil, or exhaust smell. Comparing that to a 2000s era 63/64’ hatteras my the engine room is aft of the living spaces and sealed bulkhead, no engine room smells, dry forward bilges, no mold issues in the living compartments and on and on. Let’s face it, you can only do so much to mitigate that and technology and building processes have advanced considerably. So has sound proofing and things of that nature.

Wow! Ole Dingus sure did get the pot stirred up! Lol

That being said I love to stir it up too...
Both Pac Man Blue and Capt J , who I have the utmost respect for, have valid points.

If I had an unlimited budget, I would do both and have my boat built from the ground up completely brand new with a hull and design of my choosing. Etc...

But that is totally not the case with myself and others. Custom or New.
I have to side with Pac-Man-Blue on this.
A new boat is extremely expensive and they depreciate so quick just like a car, it's hard to justify spending that kind of money and take such a hit down the road.
I Purchased my ocean yacht four years ago for under$30k. It was purchased new in 1981 for $370k .
I took a chance , it was what I could afford and It got me boating again , with a twin screw diesel boat , diesel generator and working air-conditioners along with two state rooms and two heads and showers it was perfect.
It's sat out for almost 3 years on the hard before we put it in the water and sea trialed it , along with my Surveyor/Survey before I handed over the cash.
I ran it from the lower Chesapeake up to Philadelphia with very little problems.

Since then I've put in another $30k into it over time, doing the work myself, repeat ! doing the work myself, replacing existing old stuff with new like stuff and not trying to gut the boat or redesign it. Which in my opinion can lead to the point of no return and a boat that becomes useless when you tear them apart.
I've had the boat four years to this day and everything's been just fine, and I'm still boating with her. We run the boat quite often on weekend trips.

I'm proud to be a low budget boater! But would much rather be a high budget one, for sure!

I now have dry ER bilges (split ERs).

Bilges dont run all the way thru and can’t because of the centerline fuel tanks. Forward bilge is sealed from ER and ER bilges don’t communicate with stern area.

The typical oily and smelly bilges around the ERs are because of Detroit.

Smile when you say that. It takes a long time to stop oil leaks on a Detroit. I know where every new drop of oil is coming from. As soon as I retire,, again,, I will be on top of them.
My Detroit's are challenging, We luv each other, but there is no stink coming from my machinery spaces.
Nor any of my bilges.
Our hull is not high tech nor stabilized. It is heavy by today's standards and needs horsepower to move (fuel and money). I question the better ride of newer boats, We leave most boats at the dock waiting for weather windows (Bahamas trips). Usually on our way back when they are leaving or still waiting.
AND, I like the salt cicles on my rails, makes for the best Margaritas.

They do on your boat, they just don’t drain into the center bilges unless running with a really high angle and they then drain into the aft center bilge via lumber holes near the stern. Or if really bow heavy they will run all of the way forward and into the center bilge under the generator room. Or, if one of those pumps fail and the level gets up 8” or so they will drain to those 2 center bilges. Otherwise the pump on each side just forward of the engine usually gets most of the water from the engine rooms. The first boat I ran was a 1979 58’ Yachtfish. But needless to say the engine room bilges outside of the center stringer run fore and aft under the galley or dinette, and under the port stateroom or starboard master head.

I v never had the issue and in any case closing bilges is pretty easy. High water alarm should warn you of high water before it can migrate fwd or aft.

Problem is indeed that standard were different back in the 70s but a thorough refit will address these small issues.

I ve replaved all the wiring on my boat. Back in 1970 Hatteras used non tinned wires... the boat had twin shore inlets in stbd and port side. The wires were connected using a piece of sliced copper tubing crimped and then wrapped in electrical tape! Glad i requires the boat but in all fairness it worked for almost half a century.

Bottom line the refit of an old boat can’t be just cosmetics and new engines. It has to include everything

Are we thru responding to the OP's original question. Just interested so I

Captn Ralph, I'll have two with rail salt , fresh Florida lime juice on the rocks please. And use bilge water to make my coffee.

I have a Princess 110v 3 burner range with oven.
It does seems slow to boil water and one burner seems to get the hottest.
I have cooked extensively onboard without issues.
I like to use a stove top coffee percolator on the boat and it works fine.
I keep an electric fry pan onboard and the boat has a small microwave.
We have cooked everything aboard from grilled cheese sandwich to full blown holiday meal. (small turkey due to oven size)

If I were re-doing the galley I would like to go with a glass cooktop (for ease of cleaning) and some kind of convection microwave combo.
Oh yea, and a really good toaster.

And a built in cappuccino milk frother some how hooked into a steam pipe from the engine room....