37 hatt

[Red Hatt]

I'm looking at buying a 37 hatt located in fl. I looked at one in VA. yesterday to see the lay out etc. The broker said the boat was in good cond. but he was wrong. The exterior needed a complete paint job the interor was pretty much orginal and also needed a complete redo including the leaking window frames. I think some of these brokers and owners must be blind. I liked the general layout with its nice size side stateroom, v berth, bridge and salon. The boat had the 390 hp. 671 ti's. The engine room seemed to be very tight. I would like any input the members of this forum could give bad or good like what is a honest cruising speed for the 37 etc. Thanks for help.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

I think all of the brokers lie. If you ask them, every boat that they have for sale is "the best one you'll find on the market". You can never trust them and you'll end up making alot of wasted trips if you do.

Good luck on your search

 

[Passages]

Try This:
http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1954

 

[newinlet]

I have 1978 37 Hatt. 310 J&T 671n Great boat , nice layout for the size,
built very well. Very good sea boat. We cruise New England,Mostly Marshield Ma.to Marthas Vinyard most good weekends during the summer months. Our family of 4 & two dogs. In my opinion you wont find a boat with the room this one has for only being 37 feet. As far as the speed , shes not fast But my 671N engines @ 2K hours just keep humming along, Very healthy 100 Hrs. this season hardly no oil burn, and not that bad on fuel to boot !!. We only cruise her and I enjoy the ride .

 

[SeaEric]

With all due respect to Mr. Cheney's comments above; There are a few good honest yacht brokers out there who will do a good job. There are liars and crooks in every industry. Have you ever known a lawyer who's client wasn't innocent? We've all had bad experiences with salesmen-used car, used boat and otherwise.

The internet now does for a buyer what a broker used to do. That is to find out where a particular year/model boat is for sale. The net result is the ability to go directly to who has the listing, instead of being represented by a broker who makes the inquiry in a buyer's behalf. The listing broker wants to sell the boat, so for him its just a numbers game of getting enough potential buyers on a particular boat and hopefully someone buys it. In this scenario, you may indeed kiss a lot of frogs before you find a princess.

In the "old" days, a buyer would engage a broker that he trusts, or from a recommendation, that would cull out the junk in advance and just present the nice boats for your inspection. This is how I do business. I cannot speak for others in the boating industry other than to say that roughly 10% of active yacht brokers sell 90% of the boats sold. The guys who know what they're doing do a good job for thier customers for the most part and have or should have the knowledge to answer a lot of the kinds of questions that get asked on this forum.

One more point. Bear in mind that MOST owners do not take care of their boats like you guys on here do. The majority discusion here is about boats that are 20, 30 and sometimes 40 years old. The average 20 year old boat, Hatteras or not, on the market for sale, is scary looking. Nice, well maintained older boats are a joy to see, and are a rarity. When you survey them, even the nice looking well maintained boats can have big expensive problems. An older, high quality boat is a worthy project as we all know. But you have to go in to the process with realistic expectations.

Sorry for high jacking the thread. Back to 37 Hatt question->

 

[Genesis]

I'm a whole lot more interested in how she surveys out than how she looks.

Then again, I'm more interested in how she floats and runs - looks are great, but looks without "floats and runs".... well, that don't last long!

 

[jim rosenthal]

I have owned four large boats (see the recent thread on them). Three of them were honestly represented to me by the brokers involved. In two of those cases, I was too naive to understand what I was getting into, but that was not the brokers' fault. One transaction- the 44 Striker purchase- did involve a broker who misrepresented the boat, and probably also rigged the engine survey. That still leaves three out of four that were straightforward.
I agree with Eric (who is a personal friend of decades now) that the Internet and YW etc allow us to shop around. Of course, if we are going to look at the raw material ourselves we should expect some of it to look, well, raw. I can't count the number of times Eric has told me about going to preview a boat for a client only to find that it was not worth showing to the client- that it had been misrepresented just as the above vessel was. Someone who is dishonest is just as likely to try to fool a fellow broker as a prospective customer.
However, there are reputable firms that have stayed in business for years by conscientiously meeting the needs of their customers, buyers and sellers. And I daresay they are selling most of the boats out there that change hands. They also get most of the repeat business, I would bet.
Dismissing all members of a professional group as scalawags is inaccurate and unfair. I have had people tell me with a perfectly serious and straight face that all lawyers are thieves, all physicians are greedy and callous, and all professional soldiers are paid killers. All of those statements say a great deal more about the person who makes them than the target group. There are a good number of folks who have made an honest living selling boats, and are well-regarded by their customers, who have gone back to them time and again. Those brokers have two things in common with us here- they are boaters themselves, and they are boat enthusiasts. We should be balanced, mature and fair, and allow for the usual distribution of human behavior and performance in any and all occupations- including mine, including yours, and everyone elses.

 

[REBrueckner]

Regarding the engines, I'd ask the owner what speed he usually cruises and what RPM that means. And of course find out how many hours they have. If that HP was run at 80% of top RPM they'll stand a better chance of being in good shape that if they were run at 95%. Once DD HP gets at or above a HP per cube, service life declines, so these are ok from that perspective, unless you want to go like the dickens.
Don't underestimate the expense of having others make corrections and upgrades, nor the time it will take it you do it yourself. You can also do much of the work yourself and have a pro do the final work since many of the jobs required are largely unskilled effort. For example, you might run/route and fasten any new wiring and have a pro make the connections at each end.

Good luck...have FUN!!

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Dismissing all members of a professional group as scalawags is inaccurate and unfair.

Okay, I guess I was a little harsh. I have played this game before, though. You look at YW, find what looks and sounds like a great boat, call the broker who confirms that is REALLY nice. Then you make a trip 1500 miles to look at it and it looks like the pictures must have been taken 10 years ago. The thing has had very poor maintenance and you've wasted a trip. Maybe my standards are too high or I don't know how to read between the lines.

I do agree, however, that there are brokers that you can trust and I know just who I would call next time that I'm in the market to either buy or sell. Thanks for putting me in my place

Back to the original thread.......

 

[Scott Mather]

We currently have 1978 37' Hat. with 310 hp. 671-N's cruise at
17 knots/25 GPH. There have been other threads on the 37.
We have updated interior with new laminates in galley and on dash, new carpet etc. and have removed lower station and installed "BREAKFAST" counter with stools that greatly added to livability of this boat.
Ride can be "wet" but very comfortable, you will want to have a full enclosure.

 

[StratPlan61]

One of the things I did repeatedly while searching for my boat was to require photographs of my 'target' boat be overnighted to me which were no more than 7 days old. In addition, I would ask the broker (at the seller's end) to photograph all of the worst elements of the target boat. The corners, the rough edges, the places the varnish was worn off, etc. Show me the worst first - then if reasonable enough I would travel to see the actual boat in person. I would also require photographs of every room, space and storage area. Sometimes this was 60+ pictures - OK by me. If they really wanted to sell the boat they would comply - if they didn't want to do so - OK by me. I saved quite a few trips.

Bear'
1984 61' MY Strategic Plan

 

[Maynard Rupp]

We currently have 1978 37' Hat. with 310 hp. 671-N's cruise at
17 knots/25 GPH. There have been other threads on the 37.
We have updated interior with new laminates in galley and on dash, new carpet etc. and have removed lower station and installed "BREAKFAST" counter with stools that greatly added to livability of this boat.
Ride can be "wet" but very comfortable, you will want to have a full enclosure.

I was laughing at this entry because I am an avid fan of inside helms. This thread proves my point. If you could live without the "BREAKFAST counter", you wouldn't have to worry about the wet ride and you could save all the money you spent for the "full enclosure". You could be cool on ugly hot days and warm on cold ones..Answer..Lower helm.

 

[scottwvyc]

We currently have 1978 37' Hat. with 310 hp. 671-N's cruise at
17 knots/25 GPH. There have been other threads on the 37.
We have updated interior with new laminates in galley and on dash, new carpet etc. and have removed lower station and installed "BREAKFAST" counter with stools that greatly added to livability of this boat.
Ride can be "wet" but very comfortable, you will want to have a full enclosure.

I have the same boat (1980),same engines, no tower, 1/2 fuel and water and clean bottom, my wot is 18 knots (according to the new gps) and comfortable cruise semms to be 13-14 knots @ 2200 rpm. seems like a big difference in speed, What rpm do you cruise @ ? I wonder whether my tachs are off, can anyone suggest the best way to confirm the actual rpm.I can't recall the exact #'s on my props but I confirmed at the last haul out they are the same as the orig spec sheet from Hatteras. Thanks

 

[Passages]

I wonder whether my tachs are off, can anyone suggest the best way to confirm the actual rpm.

The best way to confirm RPM's is with a little device call a photo tachometer. The way it works is you put a piece of reflective tape on the flywheel, start the engine and "shoot" the wheel. You'll get a dead nuts digital read of your RPM's. Compare to the bridge tach for reference. These are not expensive. I bought one on eBay with laser pointer for $45.

 

[Pascal]

Scott (wvyc)

i don't know much about the 37, but 13/14 kts has to be a very ineficient speed.. at that speed, the boat can't be fully on plane...

something isn't right, either with your props, engines, etc...

 

[hatterass]

most of the older boats only run and, were only desinged to run around 13 kn. My 36' is on plane but isn't breaking any records around 12-13kn max is only 15kn. But I will say that in rough seas I will get there sooner and in more comfort then my friends that have newer boats. My boat got new motors in 97. 240 perkins. they should have gone a little bigger. I ploted the curve and I believe that I should have 310hp to achive a cruise of 18kn but, thisis not worth the change over.
Capt. Dave

 

[Nick]

The 13-14kts is just barely on plane. We have a 37 with 671TIs and I can do a slow cruise on plane at about 14-15kts. The bow is somewhat high, even with the tabs fully extended down.

Our slow cuise is about 16-17 kts and the 37 feels comfortable at about 19kts, 2050RPM light ,no current and average load of fuel (150 gal) water and misc stuff.

Nick

 

[hcalmar]

Red Hat

I just finished, successfully, a search for a 37C. There are 11 for sale now and there were 12 all last year (love the one in Italy). I purchased the one in MA. I have info on most of the others on the East Coast including the one in ON. I am happy to talk with you and share what I learned. I posted pictures on this site. Best of luck.

Hal
Hcalmar@aol.com
860-271-2246 (dl w)

 

[Scott Mather]

Lower Helm: If you tried to run the 37 from the lower helm you would know why we removed it! You can not see over the bow, I would never give up the visability from high up on the bridge, that is why we bought a hatteras with a Bridge in the first place; to use it.

Speed: We run 2250 to 2300 RPM and cruise on GPS is 16 knots in rough and 17 knots in the smooth. Top reading on GPS in calm "shallow" water 21 KNOTS at 2400 rpm on one side and 2450 on the other. Tach's are mechanical so I would guess are fairly accurate. We rebuilt one engine two years ago and the other could use a valve job, which would explain rpm diff.

The 37 runs much better above 15 knots, under 15 is very sluggish.

I would suggest having the props and bottom checked and having motors looked into and looking at excess weight of boat. We did all of the above and were able to make up close to 2 knots at cruise from when we purchased her down in FLA. with a dirty bottom, painted props and a lot of excess weight removed. Had the boat weighed on lift with 1/3 fuel and water and still topped just over 30,000 lbs with the weight reductions.

 

[Avenger]

Here's a rough guide for horsepower to speed ratios for planing hulls with moderate deadrise 12-18 deg. 180 divided by the square root of (displacement divided by total horsepower.) For a warped hull like a Hatteras reduce top speed by 2-3 kts. Sorry about the poor notation but I haven't figured out how to do a sq root symbol on a keyboard.

Now before all the experts jump down my throat let me repeat that this is a rough guide. There are a huge number of variables that it does not cover. The biggest problem with the formula is getting the weight right. Most of us seriously underestimate what our boats weigh. A Hatteras is HEAVY! (That's why they're so good in weather.) Use 1000 lbs. per foot as a baseline.

For example, my 36 has 520 total HP and presently tops out at 19 kts. If I use the formula at 36K lbs it comes out to 21.6 kts, I subtract 2-3 and come up with 18.6 to 19.6 kts. Pretty good for a rough guide.

If I do this for hatterass' boat at 480 total HP we get 20.76 kts, with the fudge factor he should max out around 17.75 to 18.75 kts, so if you're topping out at 15 kts you've probably got other problems (it's those damn variables again!) As Scott stated picking up a couple of knots is not incredibly difficult, so you may want to look into some of those variables.