new to the Yacht world please be gentle.

You have to be very aware of who / how the Hino diesels are going to be serviced, as well as which transmission they have. If it is an obsolete gearbox, service / maintenance can become your own personal nightmare. Servicing the Hino's are a journey unto themselves, unless you are very lucky to have a local outfit that has a good reputation. Otherwise, you will be on the search for the various "freelancers" who have experience with the Hino's.

The 16/12 mph speed band on these boats is slow going, which is no big deal if that matches up with your idea of boating. Fuel consumption should be pretty good, saving you some $$ over a gas powered boat. But if you want that "get up and go" feel, you would need something else.

The value of these 1980's Bayliner's is typically not much more than half of the reduced value on the link to the boat in King County, as the components used during those years will need attention / replacement.

I totally agree with the hands on captain instruction since that is what we did and we probably had much more previous experience than the OP. However, I don't know how easy that will be where he is located. Do any of you have suggestions for finding one there? I would suggest some of the brokers and marinas may know of some, but otherwise I wouldn't think there are very many around.

Trouble is that's a $60K investment on a boat worth _____?

The joys of ownership.

To say the least, he's not living on the south pole! Marinas, marine supply stores, fuel docks, yacht clubs, tour boat and charter operators, walking the docks for retired commercial captains or service men, will sure yield good results, a small classified in a popular local will also do.

As a quicker and much simple approach, searching through the classifieds here on YF, some captains can relocate for a while. Then post a wanted on the captains forum. Same can be done on the many sites on-line serving crews, captains and boat owners.

Maybe I am not so familiar with his area but I don't see it a problem, especially that in a previous post you mentioned how popular are his grounds, which make them active for with business opportunities.

Maybe he should later start a thread on "How to choose the right captain for me?"! This should be a nice discussion I think.

Cheers,

I'm sure someone will change your thread title to something better fitting the subject. I would suggest you rent a houseboat for a few days. They are fine on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. They have their pluses and minuses like anything. But easy to find out how you feel about them. Maybe Kentucky Lake would be a good place to try one.

I will add that for your budget you're talking a very old houseboat and they generally do not hold up as well as cruisers. The problem is a lot of wood, especially plywood beneath flooring and behind walls. I'd also go for a smaller one with your lack of experience. As to handling, a cruiser like you were discussing earlier is easy compared to a houseboat.

You might find the houseboat forum of Houseboat Magazine to be more helpful as you consider this option and look.

I'm not only changing the thread title, but removing it. Ken, this is the 2nd thread you've started with bizarre titles. I don't know if you're trying to draw attention to yourself, but if Google has already indexed this thread, it's a wasted link.

Please take the advice of others and find a suitable forum for your questions. This thread is being merged with your previous thread titled "new to yachting, please be gentle".