Would you buy this boat?

your 100% right!

I can buy sushi grade tuna all day in nyc for under $20 a pound.

The same fish caught on my boat probably cost a few hundred dollars a pound when you factor in all the costs

Actually guys, that is probably in the upper 70th percentile of the current charter fleet, rebuilt engines included. I've crawled around in a LOT worse engine rooms, many on behalf of potential buyers looking to buy just that sort of boat with the intentions of "fixing it up" into a sportfishing "yacht" for a lot less than commissioning a newbuild. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to convince them it would cost more! (well, it sounds like some of you might ) By my last count NC is down to three full-time builders who do only plank on frame and a couple more who occasionally still do NYCAP and the lumber is still fairly easy to come by but nearly no one is building charter boats anymore. Oh, and just because it's in charter service doesn't mean it has had to pass any more rigorous inspections by a regulatory agency, there are no current requirements relating to the boat's construction as far as the Coast Guard is concerned unless it's classed as an inspected vessel carrying more than 6 for hire (which this one isn't). As long as it has the required safety equipment (life jackets, extinguishers, etc) and the head doesn't discharge overboard when they look, it's just like any other recreational craft on the water.

I got carried away and thought this boat fell in the "inspected" side of business. It is scary, but legal! More regulation is not always the right answer, education and raising awareness are better in my opinion, even if the effect is less efficient and slow to take place. Regulations just make it tougher on those that are spending and doing it right, translating to more costs on the end user and less work opportunities for the operator.

I don't know if an association of some sort can help set a standard that is accepted by professionals operating in this business line, but this might be a better route and more digestible by everyone, operators and consumers. Just a thought.

I understand where you are coming from and where you are going with this, like you I wish it is doable, but in a way it is not. Coast Guard sets the minimum requirement only, and now I'm talking about boating in general, then it is up to each individual to be prudent and serious about sea going, in all its level, I can easily argue that I would go offshore with an experienced captain in an open top kayak that has a hole in its bottom (don't chew on me with this guys! ) while I won't go aboard some "docked" boats with some people, then you can argue back that it is about the business operators not the leisure operators, but all on all, safety at sea is a combined effort and initiative that regulation can't tackle all it aspects. I can't even see a coast guard inspection adding too much of a difference, look at commercial trawlers that are inspected and what not, yet most of us might consider just not safe to operate or be on, because they are at just the bare minimum of the requirements and the operator didn't go that extra mile with safety or preparation. We need a mind set rather than set rules!

Just my take.

You have touched a nerve here! I know we are bit off subject but the bottom line is relative IMHO, I am totally with stopping commercial net trawlers and scrapping them and banning that crime against marine life they call commercial trawling! Add to that few long liners and pot casters. People think coming across fish in the Epipelagic zone that is supposed to be in Mesopelagic zone is interesting, it is a disaster, it means those species are low on food in their zone and the balance of the system is endangered, yet trawlers are currently operating and dragging those sub zones. Tragedy I say. Take the Mediterranean for instance, it has no fish no more, you gotta go so far out to sea to make a living, which means bigger boats and all the works, prices go up, quality goes down, over fishing continues until it is over, soon to be so.

If not for the disaster of the HMS Titanic, SOLAS would not exist, this is us, we need a major catastrophe to take on change, on all levels, regulation and awareness. UK banned fishing for Mackerel over ten years to conserve the species, now it is not a popular fish, and only few appreciate it, Cod is over fished and getting scarce yet it is more popular than that Bieber kid! The problem is half regulation and two-thirds ignorance if you can swallow that kind of math!

If you want to impose new regulations, you have to start with manufacturing codes, training and certification (I think this is a weak spot nowadays), then inspection and licensing, then operational standards, and the list will go on and on, along the way, only few will be happy, and many will suffer the backlash effect.

I think an association of some sort like the bar association of lawyers is a good start for boats like the one we have here, that association can, as a new body, take on some regulation one way or the other.

Cheers.

I spent 20 odd years running charter boats before following most of the "older guys" and switching to building boats instead and while I have climbed in far scarier engine rooms I wouldn't personally be afraid to go to sea on any of them. While these guys do operate on a shoestring budget and occasionally use PVC ball valves on washdown through hulls, they themselves are also sailing onboard and certainly don't want to end up bobbing around in a life jacket. They may not be strictly to ABYC code all the time but they also slug it out in some really nasty conditions more often than most recreational boaters and as a group probably have a better safety record than any other group on the water. The "old guard" didn't think anything about diving in a flooded engine room to splice together broken bilge pump wires (12V only tingles but when it gets up to the generator windings you can really dance ) or wrapping some duct tape on a leaking hose just to make the day and get paid, "we'll fix that tonight when we get in (and paid!)" was always the mantra. They usually also have a fleet of their counterparts close by for spare parts or assistance so it's really not an issue. You hear of FAR more sail boaters getting into trouble transiting our coast than you do charter guys getting in a scrape!

This is the reality and the reason to think that more regulations will only hurt those kinds of guys, not the ones we might want out of the game. Thumbs up from me.

AlfredZ and NEO56, you might be right off the thread topic, but this is a subject that is worthy of it's own thread. We might be all about big yachts and boating in general, however this is all linked to the health of our Oceans and waterways.
With the huge community that YF has become we should say more about this and not leave it all up to the extremists to ram their message down our throats.
There is so much criminal activity happening at sea which is going almost unreported and unnoticed by the general public.
All over the South Pacific trawlers and longliners are decimating fish stocks and paying off corrupt 3rd world governments so they can steal the future fish stocks of these island nations.
It only becomes news when it is too late.

With you heart and soul all the way on that.

Also that business model of mass everything is overcoming humanity and creating large voids in communities all around the world, at the same time tipping those communities off balance. I guess like the Chinese in the Med. and Atlantic waters, your waters are infested with Chinese, Japanese and even trawlers with no real identities coming from around the Argentine.

Being in the hospitality industry, I can say that the ready, pre-cooked, canned, 10X killed, pop'n'eat food mentality combined with some economics has played a great factor in promoting the product of such boats that you don't get to see what they are squishing in a can... Some of these fishes are right down terrifying! Not to mention that most those fishes, when caught, have lived 90+ years!!!!

But where to start? Diamond mesh nets? By-catch management? Quota and allocation? Operating beyond season limits? Vessel identity? Target markets? Target products? If you are not bored I can go on and on!

We do need a separate thread for this subject, but I can see political conflicts in the horizon. Such a thread might be a nightmare on Carl, Lars and Kevin.

This subject got me blud boilin! amma chill and lay back for a while.

Cheers.

Hahahahaha Watch out, you are crossing the legal boundaries a bit!

Missed an extra M in Chef Paul's name, the Creole French magic chef him self. Man I love anything blackened, even a slice of blacked bread is gewd! That is for another thread though.

Whaling, shark fin harvesting, swordfish over fishing among every other kind there is. We need to start this right otherwise it will get messy fast and end abruptly. As much as I'm up for it, I hate to see the discussion die.

Kneeling on both knees awaiting the blissful site of white smoke to go at ranting about the abuse of real fish and the joke of fake fish, farmed fish is as harmful as over fishing, spreading viruses and parasites, farmed salmon alone produces enough lice to wipe other fish and, most important to me, oysters.

After living outside the bubble of the USA for over a decade and seeing what works for other people in other places I'm not so quick to talk down about boats or other items which don't fit our first world view of "acceptable". Bill you've also seen many boats which are "worse" than this one yet the guy driving it lives to a ripe old age and has plenty of grandkids. I think this boat with little modification could be a perfect charter boat in many locations around the USA and globe. It sips fuel and is big enough to take on some rough seas. I think this group here underestimates the Carolina crowd.