Tollycraft 57 & Egg Harbor 60 & Hatt 58YF

I owned a Tolly 57 for a number of years.

Plus:
1. Lots of living space for size
2. GREAT flybridge
3. Cockpit reasonable for fishing
4. Good range at low speed for long legs
Minus:
1. No walk arounds make dock work and mooring more difficult
2. Boat tended to take a lot of green water over the bow in a head sea
3. Exterior stair to flybridge gets very wet and sends water up when seas off starboard.
4. If powered by MTU's - stock boats could burn an engine because warning systems inadequate- need replacement "steam" sensors and gauges or alarms. Also the later boats had electronic dash switches that were unreliable. I spent a lot of money rewiring these and replacing with regular switches.
5. Some parts difficult to find and support non existent because company does not exist.

We loved ours and travelled all over the United States and Mexico with it. However I later purchased a Westbay and felt the boat was a better sea boat and that the flybridge access from inside the pilot house and the walk arounds were far preferable.

Kafue -

Ahh...the 57's.

Built like a battleship.

However, they do not come out of the hole onto plane.

They just continue to dig a hole in the water.

I don't remember MTU's. At that point of time it was all Cats.

Interior space is fantastic.

Good workmanship, poor hullform/engineering.

How do I know?

Was there the day the IRS put the final padlocks on the doors.

jsi

Purchase and annual budget?

For an experienced and mechanically inclined owner operator starting with a boat in "good" condition or better, 5% is a workable figure. My typical client doesn't usually meet all of those criteria, so I give them a figure of 10% which will also add crew cost into the equation if needed.

The sport fish market isn't really my typical client, so my exposure to them is limited over the years. I had a 65 42' IIRC Egg for a while around the late 80s, and it was built very well. I checked out another guy on a new 37'er I think, but it was just a couple of days of boat handling and seamanship, never did any work on the boat. All in all though, it seemed to be built to handle offshore conditions. I watch for moisture on every composite boat cored or not. None of the boat building resins are impermeable to water and fiberglass is hygroscopic, so there is a potential that you can have moisture issues without coring.

Yeah, if you run and take care of your boat yourself and can handle 5%, you ought to be ok. The caveat there though is to make sure you are starting with a "good" or better condition boat. That's one of the problems that's building in the market right now. There's a lot of boats that have been on the market for a couple of years now, that the owners are spending minimum money on, and that includes just taking the boat out and running it. Lack of use is the worst thing on any machine. Machines take abuse better than they take neglect. There's a lot of stuff out there for sale that is going to take a pretty good whack of funds and work to get it back in full sea worthy commission. Not in and of itself a problem to buy a boat in need of a refit so long as it's priced correctly. Problem is a lot of owners are unrealistic with their prices (typically upside down in financing) which is why their boats aren't selling.

Every now and then I see someone post the word yacht and the word investment into the same sentence without a "not" in the middle....

I know 2 people that own th Hat 58 and love them, I have been on them and think they are great boats. Well built and details are excellent, I've been on one Egg and like it. i don't know anything about the Tollycraft. Based on the 2 58s and following the 1510 club posts, you may want to read them, I'd recommend a Hatteras.

Don't worry about asking prices. Many deals are currently being made at half of asking prices, and serious sellers are adjusting to the new economy. Figure out what the boat is worth and what you are willing to pay and make an offer based on that rather than asking price.