As most of you know, Scott and I are looking for a liveaboard boat, and in this week’s blog, we take a tour of a 1995 Sea Ray 550 Sedan Bridge. Sea Ray has a long history of producing beautiful yachts going back to the 1980’s. Then in 2018, Sea Ray announced that they were no longer going to produce any boat over 35′.
The Sea Ray Sundancer has been an iconic brand among cruisers. With roomy interiors and fast motors, they quickly became the perfect vessel for families and for entertaining. This 1995 Sea Ray has all of the original features, so it was fun to go back in time and check it out.
Classic design of the 550 Sedan Bridge
Though this motor yacht is 25 years old, it still has a classic design. The exterior is sleek and is in great shape.
The cockpit has plenty of seating and comes with seat covers that look practically brand new. Enter the salon through the large sliding glass door (a feature we love). On our Bayliner 4087, we had to go down a set of stairs to get into the salon and we like this setup much better.
1995 Upgrades
The first thing you will notice when you enter the salon on this 550 Sedan Bridge, is the dining room table. This is actually a plexi-glass table and chairs, which was an upgrade option in the day.
We love the comfy couch and all of the extra room you have to entertain in the salon. The bar stools are original and fit perfectly!
The galley has all of the original equipment, including a built-in coffee maker, icemaker, microwave, liquor cabinet and stovetop. Considering when this was built, the backsplash is still very up to date!
If you love old movies, you’re in luck! This yacht also comes with a VHS & DVD player. Just like our Bayliner, this yacht offers a lower helm, which we never used.
Living Quarters
All of the sleeping berths are down in the forward section of the yacht. The master stateroom is in the V berth, which offers a queen size bed. Plus it comes with a fun quirky rug!
It had plenty of storage for clothes, plus a make-up vanity. I suppose you could use it as a desk, but you would be staring at yourself all of the time!
The master head was nice and roomy, with a separate shower and a vacuflush toilet.
But wait! There’s more!
There are also two more staterooms off of the hallway. One has bunkbeds and the other has a day bed with a vanity. Again, you could use that as an office possibly. The bunkbed stateroom, is where the washer/dry combo is located. Both staterooms share a fairly large head, which has a separate shower (a big plus for us!)
Plus the day bed stateroom also came with a built-in tv.
The Fly Bridge & Engine Room on the 550 Sedan Bridge
One thing that does give me pause on this boat is the stairs up to the bridge. A deal breaker for me, is any sort of ladder. But once you get up there, it’s awesome! There’s lots of seating for entertaining, plus built-in cup holders and a mini fridge.
The helm has B & G with Raymarine electronics and has great visibility for docking and cruising.
The engine room was pretty roomy with access from the cockpit. This Sea Ray comes with twin Caterpillar 3406 diesel engines that have less than 1500 hours. Diesel engines typically are good up to 5000 hours, so this boat has a long life left in it.
So did we make an offer?
This 1995 Sea Ray 550 Sedan Bridge is a great boat, but for us to consider it as a liveaboard, we would need to give it a cosmetic facelift. Unfortunately, we’re not looking for a fixer upper, as we want something that is turnkey. But it does have everything we are looking for (except a walk around bed too).
If you are looking for a great cruising boat for the PNW, this is a fantastic yacht and it’s ready! This boat was actually in the Tri-Cities and the owner cruised it down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, up around Neah Bay and to Lake Union! That’s pretty impressive!
If you would like to check this boat out, please visit Union Marine at Lake Union in Seattle!
As always, thank you for following our journey! Please be sure to subscribe to our blog and YouTube channel (link at the end of this blog). You can follow us on social media @BoatingJourney.
Next week, we’ll take you on a tour of a 2005 Sea Ray 550 Sedan Bridge. This will be a fun comparison of the 1995! Stay tuned! You can view the boat (until it’s sold) here: www.unionmarine.com . Check out our YouTube episode below.
