What would you buy?

[Astropin]

I'm formulating a retirement plan (still roughly 7 years away, give or take a few years). My first big boat is part of that plan. I've been boating since I was 10 and driving boats since I was 12...so 41 years. But, all of those have been small open bow boats on inland lakes.

Ideally, I would like to get something in the 40ft range and diesel-powered.

ICW use of mostly shorter trips. Lots of day trips with some longer trips sprinkled in. Most likely will be living in the Carolina's or possibly Florida.

Budget - 200k (Including funds left over for several years worth of maintenance and initial upgrades). I figure after several years I will have learned enough to do more and more maintenance on my own and have the boat upgraded to where I like it...or maybe I get lucky and buy one just the way I want it. And yes...I realize I'll still need an annual budget for maintenance regardless of how much I learn to do myself.

I'm the type of guy who will want fairy recent electronics installed.

[sailorboy1]

There are sooooooooooooooooooooooooo many boats to choose how could anyone answer such a question?

[Sailmonkey]

Don’t buy a boat for the electronics!!

[Tin Tin]

To me ideal boat would be around 45ft+, semi displacement, cruise at around 7-8 knots but can do 15 - 20 if required. Bow thruster. A master bedroom with island bed, and ensuite, two heads. Fly bridge. Decent swim platform and dinghy davits, not a crane. Decent galley with storage. All the rest such as fridge aircon electronics, solar, generator etc can be bought or upgraded later. Altenativley a non planing power cat of same length but pricey.

[flyingfin]

Sportfish as they always have a great re-sale value

[ranger58sb]

Astro, that so open-ended it's like asking what you should eat for dinner tonite.

Much depends on your tastes, your requirements, your preferences... and 'short or long-ish ICW day trips' doesn't really give the audience much of a clue...

Motor yacht? Convertible or sportfish? Express boat? Trawler? Downeast?

Single-handing? (Configuration matters.)

Crew? How many? How many sleep-overs? Of what sort? (spouses, friends, kids, grandkids, etc.) IOW, how many cabins/berths?

Look through yachtworld.com, and throw some darts are configurations you might like. Then tell us those, along with the various "why?" that apply to each... and folks might have a better clue about how to kibitz.

Electronics are mostly window-dressing. If what comes on the boat isn't perfect (and it'll be obsolete if it was installed last week), just replace it all.

-Chris

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Don’t buy a boat for the electronics!!

Absolutely. With a $200k budget new electronics would be a small part of the cost. Buy the boat and if it has reasonably up to date, working electronics then consider that a small bonus.

Otherwise as Sailorboy1 noted, there are so many boats. The question is just far, far too open ended to answer.

The only thing I could add at this point, if you intend spending any time on the ICW bear in mind the limitations on bridges clearance of 65' (and often it's less due to high water situations) and draft over 6' can be limiting.

[valhalla360]

With mostly shorter trips, I would want a boat with a cruise speed (not top speed) of 20-25. Yeah, you will use more fuel but if you get a 8kt cruise speed boat, your weekend trips much beyond 50-60miles becomes problematic, so your short trips wind up limited to just a few locations that gets old fairly quick. By bumping up the speed, you can go significantly further...100miles is easy and 200miles in a long day are well within reason.

With retirement on the horizon, give honest thought to your health...make sure it's easy to move around without a lot of climbing.

[Astropin]

Seems some are getting it, and most are not.

I asked "what would you buy" (with the given parameters).

I would never, ever buy a boat for the electronics (lol), just to clear that up. I'll be way more focused on the engines and overall condition of the boat itself.

My health. I'm 53 now. No underlying conditions. I workout 5 days a week...mostly strength training and lots of long walks. Plan to be active for as long as possible.

[Astropin]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

There are sooooooooooooooooooooooooo many boats to choose how could anyone answer such a question?

I thought I gave some decent parameters? roughly 40ft, diesel, mostly short IWC trips, 200k budget keeping some in reserve for upgrades and a few years maintenance.

[Astropin]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

With mostly shorter trips, I would want a boat with a cruise speed (not top speed) of 20-25. Yeah, you will use more fuel but if you get a 8kt cruise speed boat, your weekend trips much beyond 50-60miles becomes problematic, so your short trips wind up limited to just a few locations that gets old fairly quick. By bumping up the speed, you can go significantly further...100miles is easy and 200miles in a long day are well within reason.

This sounds more in line with what I'm thinking. More of a cruiser than trawler.

It will mostly be the wife and I. We have two grown (in college) children...who I hope to get on board as often is possible...but you know how that goes.

overnight trips? yes. multi-week trips...probably not...but maybe?

[sail sfbay]

Astropin............a $200,000 budget can buy plenty of boat, sail or power and have agree that having electronics is a plus, especially autopilot since it is really expensive to install, as long as the rest of the boat's features, comfort, quality and accessories check all your boxes.

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by Astropin

I thought I gave some decent parameters? roughly 40ft, diesel, mostly short IWC trips, 200k budget keeping some in reserve for upgrades and a few years maintenance.

You would think so, but then again the answers tend to put a spotlight on the question.

Unfortunately, the nature of the question is more like "What type of person should I marry?". It's unanswerable. Yes, you've posed the question as "What type of person would <you> marry", but the objective is the same. You're asking us our opinion in order to form your own.

1) Are you single handed, a couple, or a family? A 40+ foot powerboat will be a handful to single hand. It's doable and there are plenty of examples of folks who do it. I single-hand a 40 foot trawler on occasion, but a decent wind blowing me off of a side-tie dock is a challenge.

2) Cruise at 7-8 kts, with ability to go 15 - 20. That is a weird and unrealistic range. You won't find a semi-displacement boat that will cruise at 20 kts. Certainly not in the 40 foot range. semi-displacement boats will cruise around 12-14kts. That takes all trawlers (including semi-displacement trawlers) off of the table.

What you'd be looking for a is a planing boat that you can occasionally run at displacement speeds.

3) If electronics are important to you, then buy a boat with outdated electronics. You'll most likely be replacing electronics on most used boats anyway.

[Lost Horizons]

Originally Posted by Astropin

I thought I gave some decent parameters? roughly 40ft, diesel, mostly short IWC trips, 200k budget keeping some in reserve for upgrades and a few years maintenance.

Sea Ray 460 circa 2003-2005.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Astropin

Seems some are getting it, and most are not.

I asked "what would you buy" (with the given parameters).

I would never, ever buy a boat for the electronics (lol), just to clear that up. I'll be way more focused on the engines and overall condition of the boat itself.

My health. I'm 53 now. No underlying conditions. I workout 5 days a week...mostly strength training and lots of long walks. Plan to be active for as long as possible.

Do you mean a power boat or sail? For ICW and local I'd probably go power with diesel.... if you can meet the budget.
The nice thing about a non Sea Ray type of powerboat is the cabin, with light, and pleasant to relax in, as opposed to a cave...
I looked at some once, but they are expensive if dual diesels!

There are some 28-34 footers that are nice. Cabo Express, Cabo Sportster
PDQ Power cat? https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/200...maker-3614150/

Mainship 34 ,maybe.
or:
https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/198...ender-3663513/