Boats for transiting the Gulf?

Welcome to YF!

You might want to consider Defever, Grand Banks, Navigator, Ocean Alexander, and Offshore. I think you can find them in your size and price range.

If you were talking about live-aboard or "just the Gulf," you might be ok in a Carver or Silverton. Once you add in Caribbean, then you're talking range (fuel capacity and consumption) as well as sturdiness for handling more intense sea conditions. Also, when you talk about live-aboard, are you going to be at anchor or at a dock? That raises a whole nuther set of issues.

Take the Caribbean out of your present thoughts. You haven't even made it to Clearwater yet, much less the Keys and then the Bahamas come next and the entire East Coast. You have years before thinking Caribbean and that is likely in your next boat.

Now, the other thing to consider is time. How much time do you have in a year to boat? How long can your trips be? This is where you face the break of speed vs. slow. Some of the boats labeled as Trawlers are great for retired but not so much for active couples who still have jobs and limited time. Many are happy going 7 knots, but you may like slow sometimes and need 20 knots other times. Also, living aboard you need creature comforts a weekend boater might not. I think quickly of things like washer and dryer. You will see some 45' boats that feel like 35' and some that feel like 55' and you need the larger. The express boat no longer works. Sundancers likely don't fit the bill.

BK: olderboater raises some good points, but I would like to elaborate.

IMHO, if you are living full time on your boat at a dock, you will have plenty of time to take courses, get hands on training, or do whatever you need to do for getting the knowledge and experience for cruising. Starting with the Gulf and working your way to the Keys should not "take years," although point obviously noted that you are not anywhere near prepared at this point for going very far from the dock, or at least no further than your Sea Ray experience has taken you.

Another point on which I would like to clarify is that all of the manufactures I mentioned have semi-displacement models. So talking about 7 knots is not relevant to the discussion unless you consider the few displacement models in the manufacturer's line-up (Defever and GB each have a full displacement model or two, but the majority of the models are semi-displacement). Nor would I buy a particular manufacturer or model because it's capable of attaining 20 knots. For those times when you want to get to shore before nightfall or to "outrun" a storm, the 12-17 knot speeds that these manufacturers offer should suffice for most circumstances.

That's where personal preference comes in. I wouldn't own any boat not capable of cruising at 20 knots. At the moment I'm sitting on one that cruises in the 45 knot range. Now, as it applies to the OP. Destin to Clearwater is a one day run in a 20+ knot boat. It is not at 15 knots. If one is working full time, then those things start to be important. And, if one just has a day to boat, then only 2 hours to Panama City. I don't know how much time to boat he and his wife have, but if it's limited as I suspect, then reducing the time taken to run from one place to the next is important.

I didn't imply anything about the boats you mentioned as I understand some are semi-displacement and some will run closer to 20 knots than others. I was following another poster's trawler comment which to many means slower.

Mainly speed is an issue that the OP has to look at for himself and determine the importance as it will change the focus of his boat search.

OP; Have you priced out a 40ft dock vs 50ft lately? Electric meter, potable water and the necessary pumpout and the cost of fuel on yat your dock. Then there'e's the insurance.

I was told years ago when I was looking at the 55 DeFever in Anacortes, if I didn't have the dock space, I shouldn't be buying it. Anchoring out was the only other choice and that wasn't a solution.

Docks that size are in much shorter supply in the Anacortes area than Destin area although as a liveaboard he needs to be sure he's found dockage in advance of buying a boat.

There is a nice 48’ Hatteras MY 1981 on the market , I think on the south East.
Nice boat .
44’ Viking MY 1989? I believe here in south Jersey that looks nice .
Both nice boats you could run like a trawler or feed them fuel $$ and run 18 knots or so…
They are in your price range. And have room to live aboard.

Now that the OP has clarified and my assumptions were good, then, as Cleanslate indicates, boats like Hatteras and Princess and Viking MY's and even Sunseeker and Sea Ray Sedan models come into play. So do boats like OA and GB.

Does air draft come into play? Not generally in your area. Only if you were doing the Great Loop or if you had a canal home in some areas.

And, yes, in 3 to 4 weeks you could cruise to the Keys and enjoy them and then back with several stops on the way if the boat had adequate speed. Now, where the speed really comes in handy is weekends and long weekends. You can go 50 nm in two hours or three and so only spend 5 hours of your long weekend getting to and from. Or for the keys you can cross to Clearwater in a day. Then go slowly down the coast or leap to the Keys and then slowly back up. But the entire trip is reasonable for a three week vacation.

By the time you get ready to upgrade and go to the Caribbean, you'll be far more knowledgeable about your likes and dislikes.

Let me give you a dream four week vacation though. You cruise across to Fort Myers, then the Okeechobee, come out on the other side and cross to the Bahamas. With adequate speed you can easily have three of the four weeks in the Bahamas.

Nice cruises to your west as well. So much area you can explore over the next few years.

Condition plays in more than age. Review maintenance history. You'll get a survey done. I've seen 25 year old Hatteras boats more livable and ready than other 5 year old boats. You and your wife look and you'll instantly think, "I could live on that" or "No way in h...".

Because it's equivalent of trying to tow your 20' searay with a smart car. It's not built for the job. Some older Searays would be my choice......a lot better than Carver and Silverton, more seaworthy and can find one that's maintained in your price range......the 48' Sedan bridge was a good boat.....also perhaps a Tiara...... Hatteras and Viking MY's would be good too.