I made this same post over at Sam's Hatteras forum looking for input from owners. I thought I'd repeat it here since we have quite a few professional Captains who have spent time with the various models: _________________________________________________________________ I'm fishing for opinions, insight, and strong recommendations here. The Admiral and I are embarking on a long journey that will hopefully end with us being the owners of a Hatteras in the 65' - 74' range. Despite the fact that we have a lot to learn, I don't consider us to be fools. We are doing a lot of research, will do a charter or two, and plan on looking at a lot of boats. This is not a "snap decision" and I expect this process to take the better part of a year. Based on our desires and finances (including long-term maintenance and annual support) we are primarily looking at boats in the 70' range... and most of the inventory that is within our purchase price range falls between the late 1980's and early 1990's. With that in mind, I am looking for layout and model opinions comparing the ~1988 "CX" CMY (68') to the ~1990 "DP" CMY (70'). The first and biggest thing that jumps out at me is the ER.. with the CX having the split ER and the DP having the full beam. Maintenance access on the CX concerns me. But I am sure that there are many, many other differences that I should consider the personal opinions of seasoned owners that I should take into account. Looking for input.... Thanks!
The master stateroom on the 70' has it's own staircase through the salon which is different than the 68' which has a very long hallway past all of the other staterooms and between the engine rooms. The non-split engine room does a better job at keeping engine room smells in the engine room. The boat does run nice and is a little more stable at cruise. Engine room access is a little easier, but nothing is too difficult to get to on the split engine room design. They're both good boats, just depends what appeals to you.
Thanks for the reply Capt J. This is the type of information and experience that I am looking for. If I'm not mistaken, the basic layout of the 68' CMY (late 80's) is roughly the same as the 63 MY of the same vintage. We'll certainly be walking-through quite a few boats, but any heads-up on stuff to look out for is appreciated.
