I just got back from helping a TF member deliver his new (to him) boat from Baltimore to the N Shore of Long Island. It was a relatively easy trip and we made it in two days of hard 10 hour runs.
The boat was fully surveyed- both hull and engine before purchase. The boat was repowered from gassers to diesels less than ten years ago and I must say that the twin Cummins 370s and NL genset installation was first class. We had full instrumentation for those engines at the helm including EGT, boost pressure and Flowscans. The new owner will get good service from those engines and the PO dropped somewhere near $100K on the repower job but sold the boat for the price of gassers. Such is the case for big money put into an old boat.
The boat, a 1987 Searay 410 aft cabin MY may turn out not to be the best for this new large cruiser owner. The side decks are at least 5' above the water line so it takes a stair case on dock to board from that location or clamber up a hanging ladder. You can also board from the swim platform and then climb up a ladder to the aft sun deck which is about 6' above the waterline. Not going to be easy to manage a dinghy or general boarding with that layout.
But it does have a nice layout inside. With no helm below the space provides a big salon, a galley and dinette below, an aft queen berth and two forward single berths. Here is the listing: https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1987/sea-ray-41-aft-cabin-3504632/?refSource=enhanced%20listing
My first afternoon before departure was spent going over the boat. No real surprises and everything seemed to work so we prepared for a morning departure.
The boat handled beautifully at low speed getting out of the dock and fairway with just a little engine power: P and S, fore and aft. One thing I discovered is the wierd throttle/shift configuration. Both shifts are on the port side and both throttles are on the starboard side. Never seen that before but if you kept in mind what you were doing it worked fine. It might actually be easier to operate than the more typical configuration.
Throttling up to cruising speed of 15 kts at 2,450 rpm was a breeze and then I tried wot for a minute and noted as did the surveyor that the boat is over propped by 150 and would only reach 2,850. The Flowscans showed 27 gph at the cruising speed but a later fill to fill measurement indicated more like 24 gph. That is about 230 hp per engine. Tried slowing down which would be better for an over propped engine, but the plane wasn't as clean and I decided to keep running at 15 kts and 2,450 rpm.
The first major glitch occurred later that afternoon about half way between Cape May and Atlantic City. The helm started catching as you turned it which is a sure sign of low hydraulic oil. Discussed with the owner about getting a fill kit at Atlantic City but he suggested checking the helm cabinet and low and behold two full bottles of Seastar hydraulic fluid and a fill kit. So I hooked it up and gave the helm an intravenous injection underway which solved the problem.
Another problem which plagued us the entire trip were spurious alarm beeps. We never could get to the bottom of this and it was a bit annoying, but oil pressure and engine temps were good if a little on the high side and we kept going.
We pulled into Farley Marina at Atlantic City and hooked up to 50A shore power. We only got power on one of the two 110 legs. Tried a different outlet and it was the same. The dock hand was going to call his electrician but I was pretty sure it was the boat side and not the dock side so I wiggled the connector and sparks jumped inside. Hmmm!
So I disassembled the connector and found the contacts so corroded I couldn't get continuity from some pins to the wire connector terminals. This was an integrated power cord that pushed out and in with a flick of a switch so it wasn't easy to replace. So we gave up and started the genset for A/C, lights, and hot water. Twice one of the three A/C units tripped the breaker and lugged down the genset when the compressor tried to start. So we turned the offending unit off and got by fine with just fore and aft A/Cs.
The next day was pretty uneventful from a boat perspective, but going around Manhatten up the East River through Hell's Gate was an eye opener. I had done this route 4-5 times before, the last one being 3-4 years ago and what I remembered is after clearing the Battery and the Staten Island ferry docks things settle down. Not so with all of the commuter boats running around churning up the river. This was a Sunday afternoon and I swear I passed a dozen such boats. The river didn't settle down until just before Hell's Gate.
I had mistakenly thought that there were speed restrictions on the East River but those commuter boats didn't know it. So once past the worst of it I throttled up to 15 kts. We ran Hell's Gate with a 3 kt current against us, but at 15 kts it was no sweat.
We arrived at a little mooring basin just to the east of Port Jefferson on LI about 4:30, grabbed a mooring and celebrated a great trip.
One real lesson here: when it is a 30+ year old boat, surveys can't catch it all. The new owner will have his hands full dealing with all of these and other issues we found over our two days. Some may be easy to fix like the power cord and some may be vexing like the spurious alarms and the A/C tripping the breaker.
David
The boat was fully surveyed- both hull and engine before purchase. The boat was repowered from gassers to diesels less than ten years ago and I must say that the twin Cummins 370s and NL genset installation was first class. We had full instrumentation for those engines at the helm including EGT, boost pressure and Flowscans. The new owner will get good service from those engines and the PO dropped somewhere near $100K on the repower job but sold the boat for the price of gassers. Such is the case for big money put into an old boat.
The boat, a 1987 Searay 410 aft cabin MY may turn out not to be the best for this new large cruiser owner. The side decks are at least 5' above the water line so it takes a stair case on dock to board from that location or clamber up a hanging ladder. You can also board from the swim platform and then climb up a ladder to the aft sun deck which is about 6' above the waterline. Not going to be easy to manage a dinghy or general boarding with that layout.
But it does have a nice layout inside. With no helm below the space provides a big salon, a galley and dinette below, an aft queen berth and two forward single berths. Here is the listing: https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1987/sea-ray-41-aft-cabin-3504632/?refSource=enhanced%20listing
My first afternoon before departure was spent going over the boat. No real surprises and everything seemed to work so we prepared for a morning departure.
The boat handled beautifully at low speed getting out of the dock and fairway with just a little engine power: P and S, fore and aft. One thing I discovered is the wierd throttle/shift configuration. Both shifts are on the port side and both throttles are on the starboard side. Never seen that before but if you kept in mind what you were doing it worked fine. It might actually be easier to operate than the more typical configuration.
Throttling up to cruising speed of 15 kts at 2,450 rpm was a breeze and then I tried wot for a minute and noted as did the surveyor that the boat is over propped by 150 and would only reach 2,850. The Flowscans showed 27 gph at the cruising speed but a later fill to fill measurement indicated more like 24 gph. That is about 230 hp per engine. Tried slowing down which would be better for an over propped engine, but the plane wasn't as clean and I decided to keep running at 15 kts and 2,450 rpm.
The first major glitch occurred later that afternoon about half way between Cape May and Atlantic City. The helm started catching as you turned it which is a sure sign of low hydraulic oil. Discussed with the owner about getting a fill kit at Atlantic City but he suggested checking the helm cabinet and low and behold two full bottles of Seastar hydraulic fluid and a fill kit. So I hooked it up and gave the helm an intravenous injection underway which solved the problem.
Another problem which plagued us the entire trip were spurious alarm beeps. We never could get to the bottom of this and it was a bit annoying, but oil pressure and engine temps were good if a little on the high side and we kept going.
We pulled into Farley Marina at Atlantic City and hooked up to 50A shore power. We only got power on one of the two 110 legs. Tried a different outlet and it was the same. The dock hand was going to call his electrician but I was pretty sure it was the boat side and not the dock side so I wiggled the connector and sparks jumped inside. Hmmm!
So I disassembled the connector and found the contacts so corroded I couldn't get continuity from some pins to the wire connector terminals. This was an integrated power cord that pushed out and in with a flick of a switch so it wasn't easy to replace. So we gave up and started the genset for A/C, lights, and hot water. Twice one of the three A/C units tripped the breaker and lugged down the genset when the compressor tried to start. So we turned the offending unit off and got by fine with just fore and aft A/Cs.
The next day was pretty uneventful from a boat perspective, but going around Manhatten up the East River through Hell's Gate was an eye opener. I had done this route 4-5 times before, the last one being 3-4 years ago and what I remembered is after clearing the Battery and the Staten Island ferry docks things settle down. Not so with all of the commuter boats running around churning up the river. This was a Sunday afternoon and I swear I passed a dozen such boats. The river didn't settle down until just before Hell's Gate.
I had mistakenly thought that there were speed restrictions on the East River but those commuter boats didn't know it. So once past the worst of it I throttled up to 15 kts. We ran Hell's Gate with a 3 kt current against us, but at 15 kts it was no sweat.
We arrived at a little mooring basin just to the east of Port Jefferson on LI about 4:30, grabbed a mooring and celebrated a great trip.
One real lesson here: when it is a 30+ year old boat, surveys can't catch it all. The new owner will have his hands full dealing with all of these and other issues we found over our two days. Some may be easy to fix like the power cord and some may be vexing like the spurious alarms and the A/C tripping the breaker.
David
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