Sportfishing boats for cruising?

I think some Riviera and Maritimo bridge boats have stairs... and although no longer really produced, there are (were) convertibles with stairs from Silverton and Luhrs. Sea Ray had sedan bridge models with stairs. Ditto Carver. There's a Sabre at our yard just now with a semi-circular staircase to the bridge, can't tell if it was an add-on or rework or original. (Not sure whether it's a 48 or a 54...)

Some of these may or may not meet mission requirements...

-Chris

Can't remember the exact models/years, but I'm pretty sure to have seen also some Bertram SFs with proper stairs.
Probably a bit larger though, 60+ feet as I recall...

I will be using my Viking to cruise in the off season, fish in season. For cruising, I need the speed my boat offers. I am still working hard, so can't take as much time as I would like to get somewhere. My schedule won't allow it. As my wife and I get older, retire, we will probably look more at something like the Maritmo/Riviera, enclosed SF, or possibly a motor yacht. I LOVE sportfishers, but as mentioned, it can be a little claustrophobic below, plus I can see looking for an enclosed pilothouse below. Where I keep my boat in the winter I have a neighbor with a a 56' flybridge SF. He took off the outriggers, put a dinghy on the bow, and only cruises. He is probably in his early 70's and they love it.

We have considered buying a Maritimo in the past. Like the enclosed bridge plus the safe side decks. Surprised more builders have not copied the side deck design.

Like that setup with stairs and bench seat,..Perfect! My gal does not like most flybridge ladders.

Mikelson 50's and 57's are sportfish boats with good cruising features. Most have stairs to the flybridge. Lots of interior volume for their length and more windows than most sportfish boats, including portholes and overhead hatches in the staterooms. Shallow draft. Good engine access. Good ride in rough seas.

They run well at displacement speeds or at 12 knots or at 20 knots.

I own a Mikelson 43, so I admit to some prejudice here.

I like a boat that will cruise at 15 knots or more if conditions allow. I don't look at speed as a way to outrun bad weather, but rather a way to take advantage of good weather. If it's rough, we run to Cape Lookout from Beaufort at 12 knots. If it's calm, we run at 20 knots.

This beauty just passed by ….

There is one of these near me.
I spoke to the Captain last summer and he gave me a tour.
I think the one I was on is shorter than the one pictured.
According to the Captain, she's kind of a pig.
Not very fast.
All the ones I have seen are jet drives
She is narrow inside as well, I was surprised how little room was on the interior.
They are pretty tho.

Hey everyone, we just went through this over the past year and a half.

I've owned mostly fishing boats. Center consoles(cobia), dual consoles(Grady), cabin expresses (pursuit) and finally made the jump to a Cabo 40 Convertible early last year. When we purchased it, the previous owner said "It's going to be the best boat you own for 12-18months, then you'll move up." And they were right

I love the look of a SF. The cockpit area is the best, in my opinion, for hanging out at the dock, even at the home dock tinkering/washing and having a drink. However, I fished maybe 3 times on it. And it was perfect for that. But after about 10 months my wife and I were discussing whether or not we were sacrificing comfort amenities for fishing amenities that we never used. The V-birth in the Cabo was small, and we don't like the traditional bunk setup, which was the second stateroom. Throw in 2 young daughters, and 3 labs, that interior was starting to get pretty tight. I absolutely loved the couch and kitchen setup in the salon. Again, was perfect for hanging at the dock. But we needed more room. So we began our 4-6 month search for the next boat. Max we could put behind our house was 51-52 without changing dock structure.

Looked at a couple SFs again, but none had the room we wanted. The one HUGE thing we learned from having the Cabo was that we absolutely LOVED the Flybridge. It's incredible how much real estate it adds, plus being up high and cruisng is awesome.

We found a 510 Searay Flybridge that checked all of our boxes. I should mention I never in my wildest dreams thought I would own a Sea Ray. It has a "somewhat similar" layout to the SFs for me. Cockpit is way smaller, however the bridge has a ton of space for us. 3 bedrooms, with full beam aft master. And the cabin/galley/salon is enough room for us.

For us, can a SF be used a cruiser? Absolutely. But we found more creature comforts in the traditional cruisers/MYs.

Junobeach, did the wife and kids find the trip to the bow on the Cabo a challenge? I like the Searay late model 59 & 65. You have ips or shafts on yours?

Funny you mention that, absolutely yes. That was a BIG gripe from my wife about the Cabo. She hated "scaling" the sides with our 5 year old grabbing on to her leg. We did have the bow rail, but that didn't help much along the sides. However, my 5 year old and 10 year old did find a better way to get to the front. They would slide down from the flybridge onto the bow

So not to get into "that war" but we looked at at least 20 boats, only 2 of them had shafts. I knew nothing about Pods going into this experiment other than "avoid at all costs." Well, I personally don't see it that way anymore. The pods have come a long way since they were introduced, and contrary to what most people think, you can still find parts and really good mechanics to work on them. They just require more regular maintenance than shafts. And if you keep up with them, you're golden.

With that being said, I do prefer shafts, and the Searay we just bought (2 weeks ago!) has cummins QSM11 v-drives.

Those are GREAT models. This whole process was a fun personal growth experiment. Never would have thought about Searays, as I always loved Vikings/Hatteras and other similar SF. But, I am happy to say I am a Motoryacht guy now and not slogging away in 3-5ft lookin for fish anymore

Also, not to completely hijack this thread, but we did take our Cabo to the Abacos last year for a week. 6 of us total on the boat. The ride was great, those Cabos are fast. Never felt uncomfortable. But, back to the lack of creature comforts, we all stayed in hotels, and one of the guests stayed on the boat, wouldn't have been enough room/space for all of us to be on. But we did have 14 people on it just island hopping, and that worked out perfectly for it.

So back to my main conclusion, SFs can definitely be cruisers, that's what we did 95% of the time, back and forth to dinners and sandbars. But things like a bit bigger boat/more bedrooms, more seating, hydraulic swim platform for tender access all made me comfortable retiring from fishing

We're excited to go back and stay a little longer, on the boat this time

But, just to keep apples to apples, any 40' boat is going to be small as far as accomodations go. In the 40' size the Cabo was twice the seaboat compared to any 40' Flybridge MY. Going up to 50' in a SF, a Post has 3 staterooms and 2 of them have a full or queen and the third has bunks, similar to many Flybridge MY's.......so really when you compare size to size, the SF have similar accomodations but a lot better ride and range generally.......the cockpit area does tend to be a nicer area dockside on the FB MY's, however on the SF one could easily carry bicycles, surf boards, paddle boards, mopeds, seabobs, or whatever back there.

I’m a little late to this discussion, but I have thought about this quite a bit and looking to our next step up it comes up again.

There are some strong plusses with a sportfish for cruising such as many are well built and have larger engines that allow the boat to be driven fast without stressing the engines. They are generally good sea boats and reliable if weather gets rough unexpectedly. They tend to have large fuel tanks and nice engine rooms.

But in my opinion there are several serious drawbacks to using a sportfish for cruising. Lack of front windows, which if taken care of wont leak, makes the salon claustrophobic. Lack of port holes – my boat has 9 port holes and none have ever leaked (same type and installation as used by Nordhavn, so they can be installed in an ocean worthy boat). Most sportfishes lack outside steps to the flybridge, a requirement to comfortably go up to the flybridge while underway in even moderate seas. The flybridges on a motor yacht are generally much better laid out for entertaining and long cruises with several people on the flybridge. Having an indoor lower helm is a requirement for us. A nice larger built in swim platform is needed and good storage and launch/retrieval for a dinghy is almost always better on a motor yacht. I prefer somewhat smaller twin engines - lower maintenance and operation costs - I dont need to go 30 knots, but going 20 knots can be nice. We go slow often to save fuel and go easy on the equipment but it is nice to go fast when needed. Bow rail and side walks are generally better on a motor yacht and the cockpit is a more efficient use of space and not oversized as in a sportfish.

So the challenge and only solution for us for extended cruising is to find a well-built, seaworthy motor yacht with good access to engines and systems. It needs to be reliable and not have too many complicated systems focused on comfort or style.

Instead of a "510 Fly", in previous years Sea Ray probably would have called that a 510 "Sedan Bridge" -- since their "motor yachts" usually meant a basketball-shoe-shaped-thing with an aft cabin. (Similar to "motor yachts" by Cruisers, etc.)

When we were shopping this last time, we liked (on paper) the interior layout of your boat, although I didn't much care for the forward-mounted helm on the bridge, and no hardtop. And at the time, though, the few posted for sale were too new for our budget and sellers were adding the Covid tax (+$100K) to their asking prices.

Anyway, I think your point stands: a sportfish or convertible -- or many of the bridge boats that aren't "sportfish" but semi-similar in layout -- can work well for cruising. We could accommodate 8 without even resorting to sleeping on the enclosed flybridge. Windows and portlights all around, etc.

-Chris

Anyone ever run a 70 ocean with 1800 16v detroits, I want to go motoryacht but a 30 knot cruise sounds nice

I am getting ready to possibly move up from my 55 Sea Ray Sedan (with intergal steps to the bridge as a lot of Sea Ray bridge boats). My concern beside what I buy is finding slip availability for let's say a 70 Hatteras MY. I have several times been told (if you were 50 or less we could take you) but generally been able to find slipage. If I move up that much am I just asking for slip issues when cruising?

depends on where you are. For instance Permanent slips in south Florida can be harder to find for a 65+ boat. Transient is probably a little less of a problem.

It depends where you are cruising. South Florida will take more planning, other places not so much, or more phone calls and might not be able to get into your first choice. 55' is definately a lot easier to find a slip for than 70' generally.

And with the much bigger space a flush deck 70 provides, incl bigger tender, you will likely find yourself spending more time anchored.