45-50' sedan bridge

Check out the 45 Silverton. Plenty of people will roll their eyes but this boat has a lot going for it... Sportfish style and speed, quality power options, 3 staterooms, nicely appointed, large bridge with stairway access. Worth your consideration. Could be had close to your budget. 48 would be even better but you'd need to bump the budget to over $300k.

Sunseeker. Possibly Maritimo or Riviera or even an Azimut. I think you really need to figure out if you want a SF or FB MY. Consider your usage very carefully and with 2 young kids what you will be doing with the boat.

With young kids , and people in general.
You want your boat to have a safe railed or life line walk around deck.

All the sport fish that I see do not have any railings whatsoever or even have a bow rail and it is not safe for docking and retrieving lines especially when the deck is wet , someone’s going to fall overboard.

I had a 42 foot Matthews convertible sedan kind of like a sport fish with an aft cockpit and that had a walkable deck with rails all around it and was safe for my three young boys .
My current Ocean Yacht has safety rails all around also by the way .

You really should get a boat with railings/life lines all around IMO.

The Matthews had a lower and upper helm stations !
And lots of heavy old windows with unobstructed visibility all around !
I could go on and on about the simple quality and design of that boat.

Why did we and builders ever get away from this ?!

Cleanslate

I think you are talking about the battlewagons that actually fish - I would stay a mile away from them. If you've ever tournament fished you'll know why. Most cruising SF all still have their rail including Post and Silverton. My children started their cruising at 1 & 3 yo in a 33 egg harbor 36 years ago. They did just fine. Common sense rules that are enforced and life jackets make all the difference

The Silverton 45/48 will get it done for your needs.

My dock/cruising mate has a "06 45, takes it to Fla in the winter. He and his wife use it like we do, as a weekend cruising cottage, and they luv the boat. We spend a lot of evenings on their A/C'd bridge with adult beverages....

For OP...

No clue about current prices, but I see a lot of these...

IIRC, the 45C has three staterooms, and the master is an island queen berth in the bow. I don't remember details about the other two staterooms. The 48C/50C has three staterooms, the master is a walk-around queen to port, and there's also still an island queen berth in the bow (and I don't remember what the third is).

I've not seen one without bow rails...

-Chris

If it helps to know, the more recent Silverton convertibles are on hulls drawn by the Blount people... and at least one model they made in the distant past was by Cherubini. Dunno much about it, but that kind of suggests they didn't skimp on design...

-Chris

Check out Maritimo. They're a good compromise between SF and FBMY.

Agreed except he can't touch one for his $250k budget.

Curious what you landed on?
We enjoyed a Silverton 42c we bought new in 2002 up until 2 months ago when she was struck by lightning, and now deemed a total due to extensive damage.
We are fair weather cruisers with the occasional bent rod, and while she is a Silverton, the hull was actually very good. We ran her NY to Florida for the past 3 years - The stairs to the bridge are a spoiler for other SF with a ladders.
While we really like the 48/50 we are looking for alternatives and find ourselves looking at 52 Ocean or 51 Rivieras - not many on the market.

Maritimo's generally have a staircase and are a nice design for cruising. Take a look at them.