Hampton 630 motoryacht

New Hampton 630 owner would like to connect with other Hampton owners to share knowledge and experiences. I've learned a lot in 8 months but im hoping the sharing of info peculiar to the Hampton would facilitate the learning process.

She does seem to have quite an unfriendly sea manner. Stabilizers seem to be worthless.
I'm coming from a 44' sailing catamaran that was infinetly more comfortable on crossings.

How fast do you typically cruise and what size fins do you have ?
I'm a blow boater by nature but moved to the dark side as my ex-friends say. So 8 or 9 kts seems like I'm getting on down the road quite nicely. But therein may lie my poor stabilizer performance. My boat has 6 sq ft fins.

I like to run one engine @ 1250 or so and shot for 8 knots. According to Wesmar, the system with the 6' fins is meant to run at at least 16 kts and they suggest I trade out 6' for 9' fins to get better control at slower speeds. But this is about a $15k upgrade that I'm not sure will be the fix.
Also, underway I've noticed the actuator arms are jerky. Wesmar says thats not normal and could be a hydraulic accumulator tank might help facilitate the hyd pump keeping up.

Having only made crossings from Florida to Isla Mujeres, MX and the trip I'm on now from Isla to Guatemala, I've only seen quarter following and beam seas. But those seas were pretty benign with maybe 5 footers tops on the following seas from Florida.
I think too, I'm used to a 24' wide sailing cat that was really a very stable and comfortable passage boat blue water boat.

I love my 630 too - the quality is outstanding and we love the livability, as we live on the boat full time.
Why do I need to run above 8 kts if I'm not in a hurry to get somewhere and quickly get back? This boat functions quite well as a semi displacement hull trawler and I kind of like getting 1 mpg. I think it was designed to run at hull speed as well as planning speeds. But nice to know that I can get up and go at 20+ knots if I have the need to. And why do I need to utilize 1700+ horsepower to trawl at 8 kts. To run two engines would be overkill dont you think?? Diesels would rather run at 1250 rpm as opposed to 1000 or less if I ran both. My catamaran did quite nicely on one engine on crossings and at the end of 5 years circumnavigating the Caribbean, my little Yanmars had 1200 hrs each instead of 2400 hrs each. Fuel was a little better running on one engine as well.
So as to why I bought a Hampton 630 for my full time cruising boat - I must ask you, why not ??
This is a great boat!

Pascal - we went thru a trouble shooting with Wesmar and they seem to think the system is functioning properly and other than too slow of a speed thru the water for a 6' fin, they suggest the hydraulics could be not keeping up and hence the suggestion to install a accumulator tank - makes sense but not sold on the idea either.
This is a 10 yr old system so the old gyro system and no adjustment for speed.
If your aim is to arrive at your destination after sunrise so as not to enter an anchorage in the dark then 8kts is not too slow. To make 10kts and arrive at your anchorage at 5am in the dark, then I would contend that 10 kts is too fast.
We took speed and GPH reading and we got a higher mpg with the single engine so that would pretty much negate the argument of rudder drag.
I do believe that both engines have hydraulic pumps so the issue of supply to the Wesmar Stabilizers is a moot point.
And BTW, we do run with both engine some of the time and no difference in stabilizer performance.
When we were looking at these boats, I would mention that I wanted to look at available space for solar panels on the roof. Most brokers looked at me and asked why in the hell would I want to put solar panels on a boat like this. For the same reason I put solar panels on my catamaran. I guess I just don't fit the mold of a power boater. I do have 1280 watts of solar on my 630 and it was indeed, some of the best money I've spent on my boat so far.

d_meister - As mentioned above, we have had ample experience running the boat on both engines and did not find any difference in performance of the Wesmars. However, we have not operated the boat with both engines at 80% or even close to it. You may indeed have a point that the pumps are not delivering enough flow to satisfy the hydraulic requirement of the stabilizers. But- my experience with PTO pumps on diesel engines it that typically, pumps reach max output at 25% rated rpm or less, but cant say without reservation that additional rpm might not increase hydraulic flow.

No, we do not try to stop the dormant prop from windmilling. The transmissions are ZF which are fine with freewheeling according to the manufacturer. There is likewise a crossover cooling line that lubricates the freewheeling shaft seal. And keep in mind, we are doing all this at relatively low rpm and speed.

With all due respect - I'm betting you dont have solar panels on your boat either.

I am listening with open mind at all the advice I'm getting here and appreciate it all.

Spoken like a true stink potter. You should talk to people out here cruising - we swear by solar. But if your typically a dock boat then it probably wouldnt work for you. We are living on this boat probably 10+ months out of the year.

No offence, but you have an awful lot to learn. Also you should take the time to read what been said previously in this thread.