a yacht you can drive yourself?

Depends on how you run the yacht of course. If it is a family yacht and you do not need silver service and you're not entertaining business and do not charter, then I believe these will be good enough for galley/housekeeping and running the yacht.

To be more precise,

2 crew will mean that you will have a captain who also understands from the mechanical issues and a deckhand who can cook and serve and clean the interiors. Captain will be cleaning the exterior.

If you have 3 crew, again the captain will have a good understanding of mechanical issues and will assist in cleaning the exterior. There should be a chef/stewardess and a deckhand who would be cleaning the exterior and assist for interior and services.

Thank you for clearing that up nilo

I have owned 5 boats so far. I still keep 2 of them.

I started with a 40' second hand planning boat to understand my needs and not to loose too much if my decision for boating was not suiting to the family. Then we moved to a 53' and further on to a 68', also planning boats. Presently I have a 95' boat with a semi displacement hull made of aluminum and also a cold molded wooden 51' lobsterboat style boat.

I have always driven my boats, but for maintenance and service I have employed crew all along the way.

The upside of having permanent crew, aside from the service issue, was that there was less down time with the boats and furthermore I did not face difficulties when time was on to sell them.

Mets,

I just moved up from a Fairline Targa 52 to a Ferretti 681.

Running a larger FB type vessel solo is not a smart move. The docking logistics and maintenance alone should discourage you.

That said, the 52 was a terrific boat with many features and potentially (read: operator skill set) a single hander.

The insurance co's will certainly give you grief and you may end up in Lloyds of London with a huge premium and big deductible.

I hired a FT capt for the 681 and enjoy operating the vessel with a competent hand on board. Besides, at times its nice to sit back and enjoy a cocktail without the task of piloting.

Best o'luck and enjoy the shopping.

Triple Treasures

The Sealine is a UK built boat. Nice styling and a well built boat.

sealine

Yes Sealine do make a pretty good boat. They manage to make very good use of space on all the boats they design.
Their reputation is good in the UK although their quality of workmanship back in their earlier days seemed to get a bit of a beating. In reality they are very good at what they are meant to do, and that is fun on the water. I personally prefer the lines and slightly more over engineer'd Sunseekers but you are also talking a big difference in price.
If you find one and the price is right I would certainly say buy one.

Sealine

Sealine is based in the U.K. and owned by Brunswick (Mercury, Hatteras and many more). No small builder as I have heard.
The marina at the Mariott in Miami used to be Global Yachts a few years back and the main importer. A google search should help shed some new light.

Used to captain a T-47. Very low bow/ wet ride at bridge helm. Otherwise comfortable and fancy. Like the Fairline it has a useless crewquarters that's just a waste of space. DK who sells or services them which could be a big problem

excluding insurance requirement or emergencies, layout is far more critical to single handling operation than size. A pilot house styled boat make it very easy to single hand a boat regardless of size since you are within a few steps of your spring lines. A flybridge boat on the other hand, is a little more difficult to single hand (unless it has a set of control aft) since you have to come down the stairs and then go forward to get to your spring.

I routinely single hand my 53 (and other Hatt. MYs) without any issues, these boats are incredibly easy to handle. Largest boat I've single hand to date is a 70 footer skylounge with controls on the aft deck. no big deal.

that said, there is more to operating a larger boat than just docking her... for instance, systems knowledge is critical.

Sealine is a well made U.K. built boat. It compares with craft like Fairline. The reason you don't see many here is the price of the euro compared to the U.S. $. Check out the market in Europe though.

Mets,
Having read everything posted, yes I would agree it would be best for you to start in that 40-50 range. Sealine make a fine boat and you can order with pod drive system which would be something that would make owner/operator navigation much easier. However,most euro built boats right now are going to have a pricing disadvantage (compared to US built) with the dollar being so weak. May want to look at Tiara with IPS drives. You could also look at new Marquis, but I think youll find the interiors look similar to the Azimut you said you didnt like.

Sealine

Yes Sealine are a Volume UK Boat Builder 23ft to 60ft + actually owned now by Brunswick Corp, they certainly have representation in the US

The last US rep for Sealine that I knew of was Global in Miami. Who represents them now? As for Brunswick....

I recommend you check out the Jefferson Pilothouse series. They're very well laid out, can be docked single-handedly with a helper on the dock, semi-displacement, and are very attractive in my view. I love ours.

http://www.jeffersonyachts.com/pilothouse53.asp

Is it possible? Sure, if you've got the experience and a good remote control unit, or an azipod type drive and a thruster which you can use to hold you to the dock while yoy run around and put the lines out. I frequently reposition boats to 120' by myself if I know someone will be at the dock to take my lines. I'll set them up and flake them over the rail leaving the tail where a dockhand will be able to grab them. The actual running of the boat is a secondary issue though. The bigger issue is one of maintaining the boat. Even with minimal use, a boat that size requires a permanent crew of at least 2 just to keep her maintained, otherwise you spend way more in contractors to fix things than you'll pay in crew to maintain it. There are a lot of O/Os (owner operators) who keep a deck-engineer/stew team onboard to take care of the boat and they drive. Typically though, unless you have a reasonable history with boats and upgraded over the years, the insurance company is going to require a licensed operator on anything over about 65'.

Yes, Henning, but as you constantly remind the readers of many yachting bulletin boards, you are the rare exception, the penultimate yacht captain. There are few others who can single handedly dock their 120 footer while at the same time overhauling a generator and serving the gourmet meal they just finished cooking.

Getting back to docking that 120 footer all by yourself ... sounds like the dream of a whole herd of plaintiff's attorneys. I would love to hear you justify that little stunt. Oh, silly me, it is all but assured that we will.

If you can't have a dock hand throw your lines at one dock, drive over to another dock and take them for you, I don't know what to say but you may rethink running boats, because it happens reasonably frequently and not just by me.

It can certainly be done by laying out the lines for an easy grab. However running any boat over about 40' singlehanded is just foolish. Too much can go wrong. I once had a dockhand grab the wrong line too soon. He put a wrap on a stern line while Iwas still hanging my bow out in the wind. Since he had control of my stern I couldn't break free to keep my bow from blowing over. When I told him to cut me lose he responded "I've got you". My next command was a bit less polite but got my line back on board. That doesn't even account for what can happen away from the dock: heart attack, siezure, accident, injury, breakdown where you need one on the helm while the other is in the engine room. Seen them all.

I don't dispute any of that. I never said it was a great idea, nor did I advise in favor of him doing so. I just said it was possible to do, sometimes the call comes in, "Hey, can you move this boat?" and $250 is $250. Gotta pay the rent somehow, the likelyhood of me having an issue in a 15-20 minute shift between slips or into the travel lift slings is low.