Hatteras retrofit cost and ideas

Absolutely. I Captain a 1984 56 Hatteras and have had my hands all over the boat in various stages of refits and modifications. We started out with almost flawless original paintwork but have completely redone the interior, electronics, galley, and a bunch of custom additions. I can help you however you need, the refits are NOT cheap but it sounds like you would rather enjoy the boat rather than think about resale up front. That already makes you a good candidate!

I wouldn't call the older Hatteras safer. The newer ones are a far superior hull design when it comes to ride. The old ones in a beam sea would rock and roll quite a bit. But to do a complete refit on an older Hatteras, I'd guess you could easily hit $400-500k. Engines, gears, electronic engine displays and controls, and gen will run you $200-250k easily by the time you're done. Painting the entire exterior is another $75k, and on and on and on. You'd be doing yourself a favor by getting a 2003-2005 63' MY with C 18's.

Might very much depend on what "engines" (and so forth) actually means for a given candidate. Good tune-up versus major overhaul versus complete replacement (including gears) can probably cover a broad range of $$$, and similar concept could hold true for other factors you mention.

I've read recently that post '87 models don't have 32V systems, so you might ruminate on whether that'd make things easier.

I think I'd want to start with the best candidate I could find, without regard to the eventual cost of electronics. Electronics cost is going to be whatever it's going to be, no matter what your starting point... but a good candidate might mean significantly less time/effort/$$$ in refit costs.

-Chris

Mine is an early 1970 53 MYS and I have just started a full refit. While a little smaller than the boats you mentioned it doesn't make much of a difference.

By full refit I don't mean just a fresh coat of paint, new appliances and engine rebuild but a complete redesign of the interior, complete rewire of AC, DC and shore power, repower, etc.

The only way It makes any sense is that I am doing all the work myself including cabinetry. The only thing that will done in the yard will be thru hull and seacock, engine removal and install, shafts, etc... There is no way you can do a full refit on such a boat paying $90 an hour yard labor or indeed you will end up spending $300

One problem I see with these older boats is that the layout is completly outdated. While ground breaking in the late 60s when Jack Hargrave came up with the original thre is no doubt design was good enough to last into th late 80s in various versions and sizes. That said, we are now half a century later and things have changed. Galley down, small staterooms and heads simply don't appeal to people. On the plus side, even the smaller 53 has a lot more usable space than any modern design. Bigger flybridge, bigger aft deck, safe side decks, large now area, etc...

In my case, the boat was really tired in need of engine rebuild and a lot more work. The value for a tired 53 is pretty much nothing but I felt that spending north of $100k on engine rebuild, and fixes was like the proverbial lipstick on a pig, I'd still be stuck with a galley down, a head where I can't move around without banging my elbows and master SR whre a vaccum cleaner is too wide to fit around the bed.

So...

I build a new galley up and aft right by the aft deck where it many builders now locate the galleys on 50/60 footers. We spend a lot of time on the aft deck when anchored so having the galley right there is no brainer, with an opening and bar. Sure it reduces the size of the saloon but it s still plenty big.

By removing the galley and dinette from down below, I can redesign the lower layout. Old galley will become a stateroom, and the old dinette area is big enough to build a new comfortable head. Since I don't need four staterooms, another big upgrade is to merge the exisitng master with the guest stateroom creating a much larger master stateroom. This also allows me to combine the two small heads and part of the hallway to create a huge master head. I have just started tearing down the old heads...

At the bow, the old fashionned 60s vintage over under bunk will be removed along with the ridiculously small head to accommodate a centerline full size bed. One compromise is that both forward staterroom will share the new larger forward head. Well worth having a bigger forward stateroom.

Along the way I am doing a full rewire... I have already build a new main panel with new shore power feeds. I have already replaced 90% of the AC wiring and about to start running DC wiring. I am not keeping a foot of the original wiring as back then it was all un tinned and there are way too many splices and hidden stuff lurking.

After considering options I have decided not to rebuild the old Detroits as it simply makes no sense. Instead I am going with factory recon Cummins which not new, are pretty close to being new and come with a two year warranty. The cost differnce with a no warranty rebuild of the Detroits is minimal even factoring the new ZF gears. The four cycle cummins will be quieter, cleaner and more fuel efficient and while resale is not a concern the market for DD powered boats is shrinking...

I ll also be doing a lot of other smaller upgrades including steps to the flybridge instead of a ladder, extended swim platform, and much more. I can also include fixes for things that drive me nuts on so many boats.

Is it worth it? Yes... A new 50 footer is pretty much $1M and change so that's out. I don't care for the average chlorox bottle design of most used boats build in past 10/15 years or for the lighter build of most brands...

In the end, after spending about $150k (excluding my labor) I am going to end up with a modern fully refitted and repowered 50 footer build on a strong hull

8.3 Originally I was going to use the smaller B series and keep running the boat as a trawler liek I do with the natural Detroits but overall it makes more sense to get the extra power and get to planning speed

If you're thinking about refitting an older Hatt you'd probably start good by changing the DC system fro 32v to 24v, and bringing on newer / more energy efficient air conditioning. The 1980's vintage 56MY is a great boat for live aboard and relaxed cruising, but make sure it's stablized. Very spacious boat, and a comfortable layout. The 400k-500k would leave you with a basically new boat, and to me these boats are worth the investment (but only if you plan on owning long term). Don't think I'd swap out the motors. Those old Detroits are made to run forever (with rebuilds), and are pretty straight forward to work on. Give a call to Bennett Bros. in Wilmington, N.C. and speak with Dale Jones. He's the guy I'd want on that project. He has genuine love for these old girls, and was involved with building many of them. I'll PM you his info.

A key word of that though it "Pascal." He has extensive knowledge and experience. Note he said $150k excluding his labor. I'd love to hear an estimate of how many hours labor he thinks he will expend. If it's labor of love, labor you enjoy, and labor you're skilled in that's fine. But I'd venture a guess that $150k parts would escalate into $500k plus if he was paying someone to do this job.

If there isn't a thread here about this rebuild, I hope you'll start one. Or a blog with an occasional link posted here. This rebuild sounds like it'll be awesome to watch...

A picture or two would be good too.

Yes, if you need a bilge blower on a Hatteras (jabsco), you now need to buy a 24 volt bilge blower, then buy the 32 volt electric motor seperately, take off the 24 volt blower motor and install the 32 volt. That's one example I've run into. The other is the only bilge pump you can buy (rule) in 32 volts is a 2000 gph. Same with battery chargers, only Sentry makes one as far as I know and it doesn't have a charging profile for gel batteries.

Yes, but if you're repowering with modern electronic engines, you pretty much have to go to 24 volts. The way things are, I'd switch over a 32 volt bulb. The problem with 32 volts is you simply cannot change to a lot of new style things and have to keep milking old stuff like light fixtures and stuff like that. It's just like LED lightbulbs....they've gotten so cheap on the DC ones, it doesn't pay to spend 50-60% on a halogen G4 and have to change 2 lightbulbs everytime you get on a 70' boat because they've burned out.....easier to change 1 stateroom at a time, use the halogens you've pulled out for spares elsewhere....and on and on.