thinking about a Hatteras 42 convertible

[adornato]

Not exactly a trawler but close.

After downsizing from my Krogen 42, to a True North38, then upsizing to a Sabre 42 and downsizing to a Mainship 30, I am thinking about a project deal that just came on our market after the passing of its owner: a "71 Hatteras 42 convertible with twin GM 6-71's. Plan to share the boat with my adult kids who think they want a family boat.

boat looks great in the pics. i have her in contract at 45K but not yet surveyed

Hatteras Convertible

any comments about the deal? or recommendations about what i should carefully look at on survey?

 

[Comodave]

Check all the usual suspects in the survey, stringers, soft decks, etc. One thing I would make sure of is that the boat can be plugged into a dock with RCD or GFI devices on the dock. More and more docks are upgrading to the new NEC and older boats may be wired so they will trip the devices and you could be left having to fix it. If you are good with marine electrical it isn’t a huge problem but if you pay someone to fix it it could get expensive quickly. Let the seller fix it if need be. Overall nice looking boat, looks pretty clean. One thing I would check is the hardtop on the flybridge. It has 4 legs but doesn’t appear to have much if any side to side support for the legs. I would give it a big shake and see how much it moves if it does at all. Good luck and keep us posted as to how it goes.

 

[Ken E.]

I have a '71 45 Hatt convertible, had it for 18 years. My wife and I like it enough to have thrown alot of money at it....repower, paint, genset, interior, electronics, heads, galley...and much more. I'm confident that almost none the money will be recovered at evenual resale, but I have a solid boat that takes us up and down to Alaska most years.

A couple things to consider on your boat. Your 671's will be fine for displacement speeds but I doubt they will plane it. Get a mechanical survey by a knowledgeable 2-cycle Detroit mechanic, which are not easy to find, at least in the PNW. The foredeck is cored with balsa and its a big area. Check for soft spots, especially around the windlass. My salon windows leaked and stained the interior wood badly - you'll be able to see that easily. On the copper plumbing, mine must have been installed before the deck went on because several of the flare fitting junctions are unreachable for service if you have a leak. I replaced mine with Pex when I redid the galley and heads.

Summary comment: this is an old boat from a quality builder. If in good shape, it will give you great service. Just don't pay too much for it...you likely won't get back any premium you pay because of its age. $45k sounds fair if it checks out mechanically and if the hull survey is good.

 

[rslifkin]

If they're turbo 6-71s I'd expect it would plane. Probably not fast depending on what they're rated at, but IIRC many of the turbo 6-71s were 300+ hp (and I'd be surprised if it can't plane with that).

 

[garbler]

Those early 42 Hatts are solid glass ( don’t think they balsa cored topsides til early 80’s ) and quite heavy. I’ve inspected maybe ten or twelve and only found one with localized water migration in the foredeck and as I recall it was around the windlass and a short bolted stem platform that was added by the owner. Never seen damaged stringers, bad integral glass fuel tanks which spooked many years ago. These old hulls will live and perform through many owners and re-powers. You can’t kill ‘em. I had one thrown on the beach in Mattapoisett, Ma and another on the Vineyard over a bulkhead after Hurricane Bob years ago. Hull and deck seemed quite happy on their sides and not a farthing worth structural damage except rudders, wheels and gelcoat.

These hulls are built incredibly tough and very thick by today’s standards, ie, weight. Most of the convertible sportfish models I looked at were powered by Detroit 8V71 TA’s and would get up on plane pretty quick but dig a big hole doing so. 671T’s were common in their Twin cabin Motor Yachts and with 80mm injectors had a decent turn of speed and good range. Don’t think I ever saw a natural aspirated 671’s in a Hatteras but who knows they did use Cummins naturals in many models.

Rick

 

[garbler]

I have a '71 45 Hatt convertible, had it for 18 years. My wife and I like it enough to have thrown alot of money at it....repower, paint, genset, interior, electronics, heads, galley...and much more. I'm confident that almost none the money will be recovered at evenual resale, but I have a solid boat that takes us up and down to Alaska most years.

A couple things to consider on your boat. Your 671's will be fine for displacement speeds but I doubt they will plane it. Get a mechanical survey by a knowledgeable 2-cycle Detroit mechanic, which are not easy to find, at least in the PNW. The foredeck is cored with balsa and its a big area. Check for soft spots, especially around the windlass. My salon windows leaked and stained the interior wood badly - you'll be able to see that easily. On the copper plumbing, mine must have been installed before the deck went on because several of the flare fitting junctions are unreachable for service if you have a leak. I replaced mine with Pex when I redid the galley and heads.

Summary comment: this is an old boat from a quality builder. If in good shape, it will give you great service. Just don't pay too much for it...you likely won't get back any premium you pay because of its age. $45k sounds fair if it checks out mechanically and if the hull survey is good.

very good info from a man who’s been there and done that. As you wisely pointed out this is a old hull but in my opinion it is certainly one that’s worth working with if like Ken says the numbers work. These 42’s were just tweaked 41’s as I recall, but like Bertram 31’s they look right and have a growing market for those that like handsome lines and seakindliness. I’d never buy one without good engine oil, coolant and gear oil lab tests and a good Detroit mechanic to check it out in a min two hour sea trial. Yes you probably won’t get all your money back if you do it right but then I’d rather spend the pesos on a proven hull than pay new market price for something of lesser quality. Just me and good luck


Rick

 

[READY]

I have owned a 77 58 EDMY and now a 76 LRC. So I have a bit of bias on Hatteras (good and bad . My 77 did have balsa cored aft deck (the "boat deck" behind the flybridge) so I do expect you might see cored decks. A good surveyor should be able to find any problems as long as he spends some time checking these horizontal areas.

If the 6V71 engines are still running normal (per an independent & reliable mechanic who knows DD) and you plan to cruise at trawler speeds you will likely be able to run them for a long time to come. But if they fail you would be looking at a very significant expense and a tough call whether to rebuild or repower. I would guess a rebuild might be about $10K/engine but others probably have better numbers. Plus when you embark on that project you always have scope creep. I would expect you could easily spend $30-$40K on this rebuild project (Double that for new engines?) and now you have a very solid hull, reliable engines and a nice boat but at about $80-$90K invested. Nothing good or bad about this but just the way I would think about it before I decided to purchase. The numbers seem about right to me and compared to most other 40 foot solid boats I don't think you would find much else in the price range.

Generally the wiring is built like a battleship so unlikely you will have any substantial issues here unless it was flooded at some point.

Hard to tell paint condition from photos but that would be the other big ticket item that is clearly a subjective decision. My 48 LRC needs paint but still looks fine from 30 feet in most areas. I will postpone that expense as long as possible as that is in the range of $100K in our area. The 41 would be less but probably still well north of $50K.

I love the lines on Hatteras boats of the 70s and they still stand out in any marina. From the photos I would plan to remodel the saloon as I don't see how loose furniture would not fly around in any typical cruising area.

They also overbuilt the hulls as mentioned so it should last for another 50 years. I still have 4 working A/Cs in mine and these are 45 years old. At some point I will replace but not until they die. The new units seem to last 5-10 years if you are lucky.

Easy to say when it is not my money but I don't think you will be unhappy as long as you embrace the fact that it is an old boat and you likely will need to replace any of these at any time unless they are fairly new. But once you do it you will have a boat that is as nearly (maybe more) solid and functional as a new one at a very small fraction of the cost. As long as you can do this and comfortably sit on a reserve of cash for things that may or may not need replacing I think you and the family would enjoy it and it would be a great reason to spend time together! Depending upon ages you could even take some classes together.

1) Heads
2) Bilge pumps
3) Fresh Water Pumps
4) Engine Exhaust components (leaks, corrosion, just general wear)
5) Inverter
6) Batteries
7) Refrigerator
8) Sea Water Pumps
9) Macerator