recommendations for a 70-85 footer

Hatteras 74 75 80. Pacific mariner 85

I second the Hatteras recommendation, Also the newish 72' is a VERY well thought out and nice yacht.

As far as quality, as the others have said, Hatteras is a great choice. Made in the USA, easier to get parts, ect.

I'm on a Sunseeker 90 right now. It's actually quite a nice boat. No big complaints.

If you like the high, modern style and want to get back and forth to Catalina Island looking good, the Sunseeker Predator 74 will get you there fast and looking good!
It's sleek and still has a small flybridge for good visablity while running.

Looks good at anchor too:



I do not work for Sunseeker, I just think it's a cool looking boat.

You said you like the Absolute 70:
I was on her while a Boatshow ,and she looked very nice but comfortable ,too.
Also you can get easy to the motors and all in all she is very good planned.
Don't know if that can help you only saw things , I don't know how she acts
in rough sea and things like that...

New or used?

Take a look at Lazzara. http://www.*****************/

What improvements are you specifically looking for over your current boat? More range, Interior space, deck space, handling characteristics, amenities? To be more clear, what is it about your current boat that you view as inadequate?

This will improve the quality of our recommendations a lot.

I would second Capt. Bill11's recommendation on Lazzara. The LSX78 has the sporting looks as well as being equipped with Volvo IPS drives and joystick controls. You may want to check on your insurance company's requirements for allowing single handled operations based on size though. 78 feet may require a captain or crew present when in operation.

I agree with Lazzara. Take a look at there LMC 76. From everything I've looked at this boat for it's size range prob. has more usable space as any. The IPS pod sys wouldn't hurt either for an owner operator.

I agree that the Lazzara is a nice looking boat. There is a 74' Newport/ New Ocean that I went on that IYC has listed, it is a nice boat and can be bought at a good price. It's a new boat that has been in stock for a while, it has 3 or 4 IPS drives, I cannot remember. However the boat has a beautiful interior and is definately worth looking at. Either way, I wouldn't want to maintain 4 engines and 4 drives.

bmar,

The LMC 76 would also be a good one to look at. As you mentioned, it's pretty spacious for its size. The LMC 76 uses the CMD Zeus pod system which is also a good system IMHO. YF had a pretty good write up in the Reviews section. While there aren't many Lazzaras on the West Coast, the Lazzara customer support seems to be top notch.

met a Captain yesterday who told me he has to rebuild his IPS's on a Lazarra every 3 to 4 months and the warranty period is fast running out. I am also told that the lawsuits are starting to fly between VP, Lazarra and owners.

Maybe an owner or somebody running them can say for sure about the lawsuits but I do know that I have seen his boat with the drives off at least twice in the last year.

There was only one Newport ever built as far as I know so beware.

Sunseeker and or Princess have alot of money behind them so warranty work in the future should not be a probelm plus being mass produced they get alot of the kinks straightened out.

Buy one with regular shafts & props', no "in-efficient" jet drives or surface drives so no transom problems and if buying for ease of joy stick control employ a Captain.

I was running a boat for someone that was a Volvo dealer yesterday. He told me he's been having a big problem with water getting into the drives on a lot of boats (not lazzara), and it's 12k a pop, especially if the zincs are neglected. Also he mentioned the extended warranties from Volvo on the IPS are way pricey.

If this helps.
Have a couple of friends who have smaller Absolutes; 52, 45, 41 and 39 and all have been very happy with the boats. I can also say they are among the best running boats with IPS I have driven so far.
Absolute today nearly use IPS on all of their boats and have been among the first using the propulsion. For models in a range they are the biggest user having like ten boats of eleven with IPS.

Couple weeks ago I was on an '07 Aicon 72; virgin boat with only 40 hours, beds, heads & galley untouched. Dishes & flatware still in their packing, oven and dishwasher still with appliances boxed and packed within. She's out of the water and covered inside a climate controlled warehouse.

All this for under €750.000

Just not the boat for me.

I would take a look at Lazzara (based out of Tampa, FL area), and their LSX 75', in particular. Not sure about the reliability of the quad IPS drives, so maybe some research into that would be wise. Lazarra also has a nice 84' that I was on during the Daytona 500 - M/Y Finish Line. Other than that, I would look at Sunseeker or Pershing - which has a nice 72'. Pershing is owned by the Ferretti group which has some great new product out in that range amongst their 8 brands - each has their own respective flavor. With that said, I would seriously give a look into Ferretti and Riva as well if you like italian designed vessels.

Capt. J - I was aboard that Newport with a broker from IYC a few months back and wasn't impressed. That particular boat has little to no pedigree and has been on the market for a while, which tells me something.

Another brand that might be of interest is San Lorenzo Yachts which are have some newly developed product which I thought looked decent when aboard, but once again, not a whole lot of pedigree or yachts in the water so it may be difficult to gauge the reliability and quality of build.

Some of the captains on YF could probably give you some better insight as to reliability and operational stats.

Ryan

I took a look at it and the build quality appears to be pretty good on the Newport. They did a really nice job on the interior woodwork and such. It has some of the typical Taiwanese nuinces, but for the money was a very good deal. They're built over 25 yachts under the New Ocean or Newport name that have all gone to Australia and the Med, that is the only one here in the US.

As for San Lorenzo, one of the owners I worked fors really good friend, had one on order, hull #2 of I think it was the new 96'. Well when they launched hull #1, it listed to the STBD side over 20 degrees, and their fix was adding 20 TONS of lead ballast to the port side. He cancelled his order and bought a Moonen.