Advice Request on New Yacht

It is cheaper in fuel for my boat by half, but account for dockage, lay days for weather, engine hours, and all the stuff you break, the dockwise is probably cheaper. We are heading down island in two months on the dockwise.


Also, consider hiring somone to advise you about boats. I know a few crew who were paid a salary just to help a new owner buy a boat. A passionate crew member really keeps up to date with boats and generally has the inside track about certain boats. Go to Waxy's on a friday and you can learn alot!!!

I think you can't go wrong with Shadow and AMG's advice. Having spent the last 30 years working on boats - ships, tugboats, ferries and presently yachts - bigger is definately not better. With something in the 80' range, you can afford the best built and equipped yacht available (to fit your tastes). You can operate the boat with a 2 person full time crew, with a much larger pool of qualified people (The licensing requirements are not as restrictive). If you don't buy new - do not get anything more than a few years old. The fellow that bought my last yacht owners old boat (a 120' Feadship) got an estimate of $1 million to bring it up to snuff. Well at last count he was over $4 million and not done ! I would also recommend buying a yacht design with a proven track record and good resale value - That way when you're ready to move up, you're not stuck with a white elephant. Lot's of luck and have fun !

Tom,

By proven design do you mean a semi-production yacht such as Westport? Or do you mean a yacht design that is conservative in nature?

I would definately go with a custom or semi -production builder with a good reputation. Find a style/type you like and find out which ones are on the market the shortest amount of time or have a backlog of orders for new ones. There's usually a good reason !

I forgot to mention - no matter what you decide on - new or used - get a good surveyor. In the long run it will be a cheap investment. (We just left Gibraltar heading for Florida with refueling stops in the Canaries and Puerto Rico - so I'm not sure how long our internet service will last.)

Too bad you can't make the FTL show, but the Miami show is next Feb. and also has yachts. This is a yacht I would look at very closely if I'm ever able to afford it;

www.advancedyachts.com/proutpower.html

It is available in three different interior layouts with upper and lower helms.

64' LOA
14' beam
34" draft
1200hp diesels
Waterjet drives
64,000lbs all-up weight.

The Prout website is still in construction so if this yacht tickles your fancy call the Broker. The Prout is built in England.

Good luck on your purchase(your luck has been pretty good indeed so far ).

Hey new lotto winner---GOOD FOR YOU!

He won the lottery 5 year ago. With a new fetish of a boat hobby, he very well could be busto by now!

You're entirely correct! If you really MUST have 5,000 nm range, you're looking at semi-custom construction. My personal favorites are Northern Marine and Nordhavn, followed closely by Marlow, Fleming and Outer Reef.
For that kind of range, you MIGHT have to settle for single engine propulsion, but perhaps not. Worst case scenario, you might have to have a fuel bladder out on deck somewhere, and use that up ASAP to maintain ballast, but I still think that Northern Marine, Nordhavn or Outer Reef, in that order, will be able and willing to work with you. JMPO. Opinions on this forum will vary, and that's entirely OK; you need exposure to a variety of opinions.

Pls keep us posted on what you decide.

Northern Marine is no longer producing boats. However there are a few nice ones on the Market "Endurance" is a 2003 76' Northern Marine and a nice yacht.

Hasty..

Don't be to hasty to own something. It will be a lot cheaper in the long run to charter for a year or even two so you can really understand what is involved in owning a big hole in the water before you spend a lot of money on a purchase and then learn over a few months or year that you really want something different.

Since it was five years since the conversation started I hardly think you could call him hasty at this point! As mentioned above though, it wouldn't be surprising if he were broke with just 25 million as a starting point and a penchant for fancy yachts.

Ooops! I was going to add comment but I just noticed this thread is 5 years old now - stupid, stupid me. I wonder how he's going!

Hi,

As the OP was last here (Last Activity: 09-28-2005 09:07 PM) I think that he got what he wanted or indeed got diddled out of his winnings as suggested earlier.

confusion

I note with interest that Northern Marine still maintains an active web site and to all appearances seems to still be in business on one level or another, and seems to still be actively courting new accounts.

I thought I read somewhere on YachtForums that Northern Marine had re-incorporated under another name, but that's not apparent by looking at their web site, so I really don't know what's going on.

Is Bud Lemieux still finishing off the work he already has in-house?

Is Bud Lemieux actively seeking new orders?

As you can see, I'm confused........

All input appreciated.