550 Sedan Bridge is now ours

That is a very nice boat you purchased. Nice lines and plenty of room..........she should make a good long distance Cruiser.

I imagine if your boat wasn't shrink wrapped it is going to have some serious diesel soot on it when it arrives. I guess it couldn't be helped under the circumstances but it will make cleanup a bit more challenging.

Enjoy the boat. :thumbsup:

Dave
 
Excellent thread. Very nice boat. You have quite the setup with great slip access, etc.

Good luck!

Doug
 
Congrats on the purchase! I'm in Portland and if I can assist with a cold beverage while you are here I have plenty on board at Hayden Island. As many have said before me....you have a serious 2 footitis disease which I hope is soon cured.

I had my boat hauled from Wisconsin 4 years ago and it wasn't too bad when it arrived. Most truckers recommended not shrink wrapping it as it usually only lasts 100-200 miles when not done by the factory people!

Enjoy the cruise to the Tri-cities!

Stuart

PM me if you want to take me up on the bevie!
 
Stuart, you bet I'll take you up on your offer for a cool one. I wish I could come down to Portland every weekend until the boat is done but we have two grand children coming in the next two weeks from different moms. One is a few days overdue now, and the other is due in early June. That is really going to screw up plans for a couple of weekends.

Hayden Island is where this boat came from. The owner lived in a condo on North Tomahawk Island Drive and kept the boat down in front of his condo. Long story about how I came to own this particular boat and why I happened to be boat shopping at that particular time.

Maybe I'll share that one over a cold beverage.

I'm sure the boat will be dirty when it arrives but cleaning it (at least the first time) will definitely be a labor of love. The boat yard will pressure wash it before they start to do any work so they can inspect it carefully, but that doesn't get it REALLY clean.
 
Any news of the delivery of your 550 , is it home (or in the yard)?
 
Gofirstclass said:
I have been working on the purchase of a 550 Sedan Bridge in Michigan since February. We looked at a 500 Sedan Bridge at the Seattle Boat show in January and liked what we saw. A Yachtworld search turned up a 550 in MI that looked nice, was well equipped and had the CAT 3406's rather than the Detroit's.

I had the boat surveyed (Hull and Equipment by one company, engines and genset by another company) and both came up pretty clean. I went to MI in April to sea trial the boat and the boat performed well.

I ran it at WOT for 10 minutes to make sure it was propped correctly and it hit the recommended WOT rpm's (2150) and speed (30kts) with no elevated exhaust temps.

Here's the boat........

IMG_3726.jpg

The salon.........
IMG_3742.jpg

Looking forward to the galley...
IMG_3793.jpg


IMG_5618.jpg



The selling broker is taking my 330 on trade so once we came to terms on the numbers I arranged for transport of both boats. That was a cluster f*** because transport quotes ranged from $20K to $52K.

I went back to MI last week to observe the haul out and removal of the bridge for transport. I'm having the boat trucked to Portland, OR to a yard to have some work done before I bring it home. They are putting in a bow thruster, swim platform extensiion, inverter, genset water separator, KVH Satellite System and a few other goodies.

I've heard the horror stories about dealers shipping a boat across the country cutting wires to remove the flybridge. I didn't want that to happen so I had a tech from the boat yard in OR fly back to MI for 3 days to supervise the removal of the bridge. That went smoothly with all the wires tagged as to what they connected to, and everything under the flybridge console photographed to make reassembly easier.
Click to expand...

Probably a stupid question - looking at the pictures (nice boat BTW) it appears that you have a davit crane on the swim step of the boat, but I don't see a space to lift the dinghy onto. How does this work?
 
Not a stupid question at all. What IS stupid is that the former owner would put a davit there. At the back end of the swim platform there are two spots that look like they are a receiver for some kind of davit. In the last picture, they're outboard of the two stainless plates. The stupid thing about that setup is that you can't walk around the davit easily.

That davit is the first thing I'm getting rid of. The boat yard is going to buy it from me and essentiallly trade it for some of the work they will be doing. Part of that work is to install an entirely new swim platform with a 3' extension. They will replace the entire platform, put a new 4 step swim ladder on the port corner of the new platform, and mount my SeaWise davit system on the platform.

The SeaWise davit will be mounted near the aft portion of the platform and not interfere with being able to walk around it.

By way of an update, the 550 got to Portland, OR yesterday and the flybridge is to leave MI today. It should arrive in Portland next Wednesday. I'm going to be able to put a good wax job on the bridge before they mount it on the boat. There's no way I'm going to get my big butt up there after it's mounted.
IMG_4703.jpg
 
Look! You even have one of those remote CB speakers there!

Breaker, Breaker... this is Beechcomber... do you copy breaker?

Doug
 
Gofirstclass said:
The SeaWise davit will be mounted near the aft portion of the platform and not interfere with being able to walk around it.
Click to expand...

Isn't a SeaWise davit one of the systems that pulls the dinghy up at a 90 degree angle and rotates the engine so it can stay in place on the dinghy? Don't those setups cause stress on the inflatable over time? Surprised there is no place the dinghy can live in a horizontal position on a vessel of your size.

Either way, thanks for the explanation. I couldn't figure out how the existing set up worked and it was driving me crazy...
 
You're right about the Sea Wise that it pulls the dinghy up to 90° and the motor stays vertical. It's a great system and it's easy to use. This will be the third boat I've used this same system on. I guess that means I'm a SeaWise fan!

There really isn't any stress on the dinghy because of the way it attaches. The dinghy itself attaches to the boat at two points and they're rock solid. The part of the davit system that the cable pulls on is a heavy duty stainless piece that attaches across the top of the transom of the dinghy and pivots at the port end.

When the dinghy is down (in the water) there are two stainless "thumb screws" (only much larger) that hold that piece in place. When you're ready to raise the dinghy you unscrew those two thumb screws and crank up the cable. As the cable tightens, the piece that rotates up from the transom and pulls the dinghy up. That is the piece that the motor is mounted to so as it comes up the motor stays vertical.

SeaWise won't let you copy/paste their pics from their website, but here is a link to the website. Watch their video and it shows how it works much better than I could explain it. http://www.davitsystem.com/

I thought about having a rigid extension put on the flybridge so I'd have a place to store the dinghy but the $35K cost to do that turned me off. I'm having an extended bimini made that will match the existing bimini sun shade that's over the flybridge....same shape, same material etc. It will also have a complete window enclosure with Strataglass windows and screens for summer use.
 
Thanks Slice. We do too. I'm an old fart and more in love with the traditional lines of some of the older boats than I am with the sweeps and swoops of the newer "Euro" designs.

The davit system is top notch. We have the manual system but they also make a hydraulic system. I'm way too much of a cheapskate to lay out the big bucks for the hydraulic one even though it would be nice to have. Cranking up the dinghy only takes a minute or so and because the motor comes up with it there's no lifting involved. I do like that!
 
Congrats on the purchase. Beautiful boat and I hope she serves you well!

Paul
 
Update--the 550 is now in Portland. It's been unloaded off the transport trailer and is sitting on blocks. The bridge is enroute from MI to Portland and should arrive either late Friday nite or Saturday morning.

On Wednesday my 330 was lifted off my trailer and loaded on the transporter's trailer.

P60110151.jpg


P60110161.jpg
 
BTW, the two expectant mothers in the family (daughter and DIL) have both delivered their new babies. Ladies, thanks for having them at times when you didn't mess with my Portland trip plans!
 
Congratulations Gramps
 
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