I just looked at several on Yachtworld. Nice layout (for our purposes), but:
- Looks like the engines are accessed by lifting the salon floor, with practically no space above them once you'r down there. That's what we have now, and I really want more engine room than that. I'll be doing every bit of work I'm capable of, and I want some room in which to operate.
- At 30,000 lbs for a 48' boat, it seems a little light for a "blue water" boat - doesn't it? Might it not get tossed about pretty badly in the 4' - 5' seas that, despite all efforts to avoid, I'm sure we'll find ourselves in from time to time?
- No offense to Kevin or anyone else intended, but as long as I've been around boats, I've always heard Bayliners described as "entry level" and "production boats", with fit and finish, construction methods, and materials that just aren't up to, say, a Hatteras or Defever. Is that reputation unfair? I really have no idea - I've never owned one.
Brian, while i would not hesitate to take my Bayliner into the Caribbean, it would not be my first choice if that were my only operating area.
As far as engine room access be very careful about that. If you cannot stand up pretty straight in your engine room, it can be much more comfortable to remove the floor panels, allowing unlimited ability to work on the engines. I was recently on a friends boat and while his engine room seemed nice and tall, when you actually got inside you were still stooping more than you'd think, and his floors were not removable, making it actually less fun than my engine room.
As far as fit and finish goes, it is not on par with say a Grand Banks, but is pretty much the same as other production boats I've seen, from a visual perspective.
From a mechanical and materials perspective The Bayliner 4788 lacks nothing, and even has some advantages over some other boats. The main advantage is engineering and longevity of the production run in terms of numbers built and to some extent time.
There are allot of boats on the market that while the base design was done by a famous name Naval Architect, the actual construction, and many of the decisions regarding materials were in the hands of the ship yard over seas that interpreted the design, and actually built a boat.
Bayliner with the 4788 assembled a team of Naval Architects and other engineering professionals who not only designed the boat, they mocked every piece up, and optimized the design. They then oversaw production, making a constant series of improvements during the production run.
The result of this is why you see very few long term problems with the large Motoryachts, especially as you near the end of the production cycle.
As far as materials, well it's the same stuff you'll find with any other boat. My boat has Cummins engines, and hurth transmissions, PSS shaft seals, 2" shafts, and Nibrial props. The generators were westerbeke, the sea strainers and other hardware is Perko, all standard stuff.
