I am thinking about buying a Hatteras 61 Motor Yacht as a liveaboard. I'm making travel plans to go see one in Florida. Cruising would be Florida to Chesapeake and the Bahamas. I would appreciate hearing from any of you who have experience with one of these boats. What do you think of the boat, how difficult is it for a couple to handle, anything to look for structually or mechanically, etc.
Well built, good systems using quality materials. Only thing to watch for are soft decks due to water intrusion at fittings, not a huge deal to repair and not a deal killer. The layout make them very easy to handle since from the pilot house you are only a few steps from your spring lines. Easy to single hand if needed and because of weight and hull shape they are not sensitive to wind when docking As with every older boat, maintenance level and upgrades are important things to lookout. Watch out for things like creative wiring, and questionable upgrades like paint over the nice original veneers to hide water damage
Have to disagree with Pascal about the 61 specifically. No walk around side decks, poor to no visibility to the rear. We were looking for a boat for exactly what the OP is, and looked very seriously at a very nice 61. We found the ergonomics to be very difficult for the two of us. We ended up buying a 56. Basically a bloated 53 withe same 18'2" beam the 61 has which has the walk around decks, which for us are almost indispensable. Besides the ergonomic of lie handling, the awning provides all the benefits of, well, an awning. On rainy days or after a day playing in the water, not tromping through the salon with wet feet and on through the galley to get to the helm. Nice aft deck which for us and others with this style boat becomes the most used "room" on the boat. Great 360 degree visibility from the helm. Two people (us) of very moderate seamanship skills have put 10,000 miles on one up and down the east coast. There are other reason we like the boat, which are personal, but the ergonomics were the #1 issue. So me, I'd vote for the 53, 54, 56 or 58 motoryachts as excellent full time cruisers / liveaboards (which describes us). For much more info and opinions, do a web search on Hatteras Owners Forum. I think one of the great phrases when looking for boats for this purpose is "don't buy the biggest boat you can afford, buy the smallest boat YOU can be comfortable on." That means different things to different people.
