Scott and I toured a 1996 Hatteras 52′ Yacht this week that is for sale by Denison Yachting. This yacht is a fantastic liveaboard and it comes with a liveaboard slip. It is moored in the Loggerhead Marina in Hollywood, FL which is about 40 minutes south of us.
Since this yacht is 26 years old, I was expecting it to be run down and stinky. To my surprise, this yacht is in fantastic condition and has no smell at all! Wow, that has to be a first for us. It was nice to tour a Hatteras and see how it should look like. Remember last summer, when we flew to Fort Lauderdale and toured a Hatteras? I still can’t believe that yacht was for sale!
Normally in my blog, I write about our latest YouTube episode. This time, I decided to keep it short and have you watch the tour on YouTube. Pictures just don’t do it justice. What I loved about this yacht, is that the owner made it very homey. It has couches that you would find in your home, he created an office space and the salon even has a fireplace. That’s exactly what we’re looking for.
You are probably wondering if we are interested in it for ourselves? It’s almost in our budget and comes with a liveaboard slip, so why are we not jumping at the bit you ask? Well, tune in to our channel in the coming weeks, as we will talk about boating in Florida. Insurance, financing and the costs of slips are much different than Seattle and that’s because we are in Hurricane territory. We won’t be buying a boat until at least next Spring after we do our research and figure out what we can afford. Plus our lease isn’t up until April and our plan is not to have a condo and a boat.
If you are interested in this yacht, contact Paul Denton at Denison Yachting. You can find his information and the listing here.
As always, thank you for following our journey. Please be sure to subscribe to our channel and follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Tune in next week, as we head to the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD.
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 Ray550 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.
A few weeks ago, Scott and I got the chance to tour an awesome Viking Sport Cruiser, located on Lake Union. It was blistering hot and the broker was so kind to show us around in the 100 degree heat. It’s priced right at our budget at $199k, so we were anxious to see it in person.
What’s interesting about this sport cruiser, is it was originally built in England as a Princess 46 yacht . It was then imported into the US and branded as a Viking yacht through a join venture. Viking Yachts has been building yachts since 1964 and since then has delivered over 4000 yachts ranging in size from 37′ to 92′. Founded by two brothers Bob and Bill Healy when they took over a struggling boat builder, Peter-Viking Builders in New Jersey. Viking is now recognized as a world class yacht builder.
Wow, it has A/C!
Most of us here in the Northwest don’t need A/C on our boats, as it doesn’t get too hot nor humid. On the day of our tour, Seattle hit record temps and it was so nice to be inside an A/C cooled boat for the afternoon. The boat was originally from Napa and came up here a few months ago.
It has a really large swim platform with plenty of room between the dinghy and the transom. The cockpit offered plenty of space for a table and chairs. I will say, it was a bit tricky getting to the walk arounds and they were also a bit tight.
The cockpit had plenty of storage under the seats and the lazarette was huge!
The salon is very comfortable and offers so many live aboard amenities, including plenty of storage, a bar area, two refrigerators and an icemaker!
Check out this galley!
If you have been following us for long, you know one of my top priorities for a liveaboard is a big galley with lots of counter space and this one did not disappoint. It also has tons of storage space including an in-ground pantry.
The helm is right across from the galley and I was disappointed to see that there is no dining settee.
Heading down to the staterooms
The hallway is easy to pass through and offers closet space for storage.
The stateroom on the starboard side, offers two twin beds.
The stateroom on the port side, offered two bunk beds, with lots of storage. We were surprised to see, that there was some kind of water damage. The owner is fixing that and replacing the cushions for the bottom bunk.
The forward stateroom was comfortable and again, with plenty of storage. It’s not quite a full walk around bed, so that’s a deal breaker for me.
The heads on this Viking cruiser were interesting. In the master head, the toilet is part of the shower, but has seat cover. In the day head, you can see the toilet is outside, but still with the seat cover
Engine access and the fly bridge
The engine room access is in the salon. It was pretty roomy, but we thought it would have been a bit bigger considering this is a 46′ boat. Be sure to watch the video for the full tour of the engine room. This Viking cruiser has two CAT 3126 engines with less than 500 hours, she has a max speed of approximately 30 knots and will cruise economically in the low 20s! Wow, you can get to your destination fast – just watch out for logs.
When we got up to the fly bridge, we were disappointed that the fly bridge is not fully enclosed. Another deal breaker for us. On top of that, the bimimi is just like our old one – it has tiny pinholes in it, so it needs to be replaced.
It does have plenty of seating and the owner is having new cushions made for the fly bridge. Scott and I love the entertainment space this boat offers.
Oddly enough, this yacht has a very small dinghy for this size of a yacht. The 9′ dinghy didn’t have seats and the motor was only a 4hp! That’s slower than our first dinghy.
Our overall impression
Scott and actually loved the set up and feel of this Viking Cruiser; and it is in our price point. So what’s the deal? Well, this boat needs work and we’re not up for a fixer upper. All of the window seals are shot. Some people say they just need to be removed and resealed; others have told us the windows need to be replaced.
Beside the windows, all of the carpet needs to be replaced. So with all of this work, plus the bimini and water damage repairs, it just too much work. The owner is willing to work on the price, if the next owner is willing to do some or most of the work.
If you love to work on boats, this would be an awesome project! It’s a gorgeous yacht and would make for a great liveaboard. This yacht is listed with Chuck Hoveyyachts on Lake Union and Martha was so gracious and helpful. In fact, she gave us another tour on a 51′ Navigator – stay tuned for that episode.
As always, thank you for following our journey! Next up, we go kayaking and canoeing all in the same day. Please follow us on our social channels @BoatingJourney. Until next time!
Scott and I had so much fun in Kingston last summer, that we decided to head back there again this past weekend. They host free concerts on the lawn during the summer and their Farmer’s Market runs from 10a-2p on Saturdays. The weather forecast was hot and sunny, which was perfect for an outdoor activity. Our good friend Randy was joining us – cast and all. Just two days before our trip, he had to have emergency surgery after breaking a few fingers. What a trooper! Then a few days before our trip, we found out that friends of ours on each of their boats, were also coming to Kingston!
Friday night was gorgeous and so we stayed the night at Elliott Bay Marina. There’s nothing better than grilling up dinner on deck and watching the sunset. Plus, it was the century’s longest lunar eclipse Friday night, so the setting was breathtaking. The photos really do not do it justice.
Heading to Kingston
Kingston is just west across Puget Sound about a 30 minute boat trip from Seattle (if you are traveling 24mph).
I called the Port of Kingston around 11am to see if we could check-in, but the previous boat had not yet left. Check-out is at 12pm, so we planned on leaving our marina around 12pm.
Just outside of our marina, was a huge cargo looking type ship. Turns out it was the USNS Bob Hope; the lead ship of her class of vehicle cargo ships for Army vehicle prepositioning. It is a naval ship of the United States named after Bob Hope, the entertainer. I’m not sure why it was anchored out there, perhaps it was here for the SeaFair celebrations.
The trip to Kingston was smooth and fast. The only issue we ran into (literally) was all of the algae. It was in full bloom everywhere, especially across the sound. We kept a vigil eye out for logs hiding in the algae. Here’s a photo of the algae at our marina at the “Yacht Dock”….yuck!
Farmer’s Market & Lunch “Downtown”
The Port of Kingston crew were very friendly and it was easy to get in. Our friends, Ben & Maria arrived just shortly after us (they were just in Poulsbo with us). The three of us headed up to the Farmer’s Market, which was located on the main lawn where the concert is. This was more of a craft fair market, rather than a farmer’s market. Don’t expect to walk away with a bunch of fresh vegetables – jewelry, yes!
One booth we ran into and were excited to talk to was Beacon Small Batch. They are working on their distillery license, but in the meantime, she is hand making awesome mixers! We bought the bloody mary mix. Be sure to check them out!
The three of us, walked around town (which is all of 3 blocks) and grabbed some lunch. While the service and food wasn’t very good, the view was great! As were the bloody mary’s!
Poor Randy always looked like he had a question!
Hanging out on the dock
For the rest of the afternoon we all hung out on the boat and we baby sat our friend’s dog Buddy. It was such a relaxing afternoon!
I noticed across the rocks from us, this beautiful sea bird. He stood there and watched us for over an hour.
The concert started at 6pm and we headed up to grab our spot on the lawn. Everyone brought a picnic and beverages. The funniest thing we saw was a dancing cockatoo during the concert.
Even with broken fingers, Randy had a great time!
The temperature was perfect Saturday night and we all soaked up the beautiful sunset.
The best part of the night, was watching our friends Ben and Maria fish for squid. Be sure to watch our YouTube video for the full episode. Basically, you do need under lights like Ben has on his SeaRay. This attracts the squid, but be careful because they do shoot out ink. All that black you see is ink!
Heading back home
The trip back home was uneventful and very pleasant. Being only 30 minutes away, it was almost too quick. But Scott and I had some boat chores and needed to get home.
Lots of things are happening right now with us and our boat – so be sure to stay tuned. We should have an update later this week. (ooooh, the excitement right?!)Â Thanks again for following us and feel free to share with your friends and family.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Cheers, Scott and Ally
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