42' 1995 above

The Europa GB’s are sedans, not much different than the convertible he already has.

Resist the temptation to add enclosures and vertical windage, it will kill the utility of the boat in close quarters and docking.

The hardest transition from Convertible to Pilothouse is to make your lower helm the primary helm, run it from there 80% of the time. Resist the temptation to enclose the Upper Helm, keep a soft Bimini only, reduce windage aloft.

Cat 3208 rated at 375hp have a large following and are durable at that power rating. If you are slowing down in your boating use, you are probably not going to be putting to much hours on this setup every year.

Any reason why you are leaning towards the 42 vs the 46 GB?

I know Rybovich did a few custom ones quite awhile ago, but here is the name of a current company:

https://www.lutz-aufzuege.de/en/ship-elevators/

Not sure how small scale they go.

Durable yes, but age has taken it's toll on these motors. Plus parts are getting harder to come by for the 3208's, plus cleaning all of the heat exchangers and coolers every 2 years is a must with them, adding expense. Plus injector pumps and fuel nozzles. And you still have old castings, smoky/stinky engines, noise and vibration, and hard to find parts. For the price difference (20% +/-) between one with 3208's and one that's 10 years newer with Cummins......I'd take the newer and cummins for the extra 20% every day.

Another boat to consider is the 50' Grand Banks Europa made in the late 2000's with Zues PODS. With the skyhook feature, you could stop the boat just outside of the marina and pre place all of the lines, fenders etc, while the skyhook keeps the boat stationary in virtually any wind or current. The 50' Zues also has a joystick on the aft deck, so with the added maneuverability and aft deck location, it would be easy for you to get the spring line and stern lines, while your wife only needs to worry about the bow lines, not running up and down the side deck. The pods are 30-40% more fuel efficient than shafts and the boat will cruise 20 knots if you want to, but just as easy going 8-10 knots and conserving fuel if you want.

I had a customer that had a chair lift installed on a 36' luhrs. It was done 8-10 years ago, and I haven't talked to them in 3-4 years as they sold the boat, but I believe they spent either $12-16k on it. It didn't appear too overly heavy either. I could find out who did the work if you want, but it was done in Fort Lauderdale area.

Take a look at a 49' Grand Banks. Much more engine room. I had one for 4 years. Travelled about 20,000 miles.These are great boats, not that hard to maintain. These are not real offshore boats.Great at 4 to 5 feet. After that best to stay in port. The boat will not fall apart, but not fun. Grand Banks makes a first class product. We were hit on the port side by a steel commercial fishing boat going 14 knots, in the fog!!!!. We were going 4 knots, sounding our fog horn. He was charged with the accident by both the Coast Guard and NJ police. Anyway put a really big hole in the boat. Any other boat would have gone to the bottom. Limped into shore. Glass was so thick.

Beau.

I was on a Saber 45 express at the Miami show about 2 yrs ago.
That is a real nice boat.
Personally, I cant embrace the pods, yet.
The pods aside, its a beauty with a ton of interior space, in part, because of the pods.

I've run a lot of older GB's. The side decks are great for handling lines. The lower helm is difficult to see out of and most are set up as secondary stations with minimal nav equipment so most people enclose the flybridge. On the classics, moving up to the flybridge is awkward with leaving the helm, going aft to port, out the door, up on the cabin trunk and then back forward. Seating on the flybridge needs to be updated as most are church pew type seats. The Europas have a nicer set of stairs to the flybridge that makes it easier to ascend and descend.

I vote yes on the cummins/zues package, because that is what I run on my 50' Californian Veneti and I am not a seasoned boat driver. Fact is, I use the gears and throttles as much as I can. I am getting to 90%. But man, I love the skyhook and the 10% of time that I can say, screw it, I am going to the joystick.

Another thought or two about that ladder: Might it be possible to functionally replace it with a circular staircase? If so, would it help? Would the additional cockpit clutter be acceptable?

Household stairlift chairs can go around corners. (As in up a circluar staircase.) Can't imagine existing products like that being inherently OK for a marine environment, but maybe some kind of purpose-built version could be possible?

-Chris

That's actually a pretty good idea.
Eliminates a lot of space taken up by a sitting person. Also doesn't require the unit to go above the bridge floor level.