Hatteras 90, 100, versus Westport 112 advice needed

Charter, charter, charter. There is also nothing wrong with buying a used yacht, you can save a lot of depreciation and wait time.

You'll get most here probably saying to buy used since they depreciate so much initially. We prefer new. All a matter of personal preference. Do you buy new or used cars?

At the risk of making a generalization, new boat bugs on production oriented builds tend to be minimal compared to custom builds. The engineering and machinery on Westport's line is fairly constant throughout the range. They've built a good number of each of their models and no doubt they have the boat building art down to a science. It is mostly soft goods that change on these builds.

Very reasonable assumption however each new build gets the latest in electronics and gear, which is where some issues can stem from. The boats and molds don't change and the construction techniques remain fairly constant, other than incorporating the latest in resins or materials. After sale service and warranty is an important consideration. I think you'd find the service with Westport to be exceptional.

Westport is known as an Ace Hardware builder? I've never heard this before, but if you're comparing custom builds that cost twice as much, then yes... some hardware may be more robust. Production boat building by its very nature is streamlining efficiency to deliver the best value for dollar... for both customer and company.

Any manufacturer building in quantity will face quality control issues. My point was, when you repeatedly build the same product but continue to refine the manufacturing process, components and systems, chances are you're building a better product.

As an owner, Westport delivers a problem free turnkey boat and do it on time. Now, we've also purchased smaller in-stock production boats in the 44-63' range and surveyed them in advance and had no issues. We've ordered a 65' production boat and resolved all issues within 24 hours.

However, we know semi-custom builders whose owners typically spend a year getting them fully sorted and some builders whose quality varies so that they never get sorted.

We have looked very closely at a couple of semi-custom builders in Europe who consistently use the same equipment as Westport does and found their reputation at delivery and in terms of trouble free to be slightly poorer than Westport but still excellent. We've looked at other similar builders however and heard horror stories.

Then a major US production builder who normally delivers turnkey boats, started a new series in the 59-65' range a few years ago and the litany of issues purchasers encountered, even those loving their boats, scared us far away.

While certain methods of building do afford the potential of better delivery, that doesn't mean all builders are the same. That would be my take, to know the builder very well on a new boat. Westport consistently does a good job. Research whoever you're considering carefully.

This is an excellent place to do so. Before we purchased a Westport, we chartered but we also talked in private to several captains here who had extensive experience running them. If you want to talk Hatteras, there's one captain here, and probably more, who runs new ones constantly and a couple of them so much you would have thought he owned them.

Charter a 100' Hatteras and a 112' Westport and see if you even enjoy the boating lifestyle and what aspects of it you enjoy. I see half of the people buy a yacht, we travel to unique destinations, then they spend 3/4 of their time sitting on the aft deck or marina bar drinking and bs'ing with each other, and they could be at their home marina and not even know the difference. An interim yacht is a good idea as it gives you time to enjoy yachting, but also to figure out exactly what equipment and layout you want on the yacht you ordered....Start picking out destinations and go.

Westport just took a couple of nice 112's in on trade I think.