Your thoughts on the 540 CPMY

I am just a darker Mahagony/Cherry guy when it comes to interiors. We have passed on looking at countless otherwise perfect boats just on interior joinery color. I get all worked up looking at the 540 CMY especially the ones with the down helm. I would trade up in a heartbeat if one comes along on the west coast someday. Not holding my breath on that though.
 
Carpediem44DB said:
I am just a darker Mahagony/Cherry guy when it comes to interiors. We have passed on looking at countless otherwise perfect boats just on interior joinery color. I get all worked up looking at the 540 CMY especially the ones with the down helm. I would trade up in a heartbeat if one comes along on the west coast someday. Not holding my breath on that though.
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I reached out to the broker on the 540 CPMY listed in New York and requested more pictures. He claims that Sea Ray only built 17 of these during the entire production run. He downloaded 73 more pictures on to the MM site. This boat has the mahogany/cherry interior and the pilothouse helm. Just what you are looking for. :)
Link: https://www.marinemax.com/boats-for...motor-yacht/2001/marinemax-huntington/8379297
 
Carpediem44DB said:
Only thing wrong with it is the Zip Code and Covid price!!!!
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SeaNile said:
Price needs a reality check.
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I agree. There was a 540 in Florida listed for 300K in 2021 that sat for a while. The Vancouver BC boat was listed for 350K earlier this year and sold. Now the Michigan 540 is at 375K. 499K is crazy money with the current market going down.
I actually like the large dining area instead of the lower helm if I could find one. I sent another note to the NY broker asking for the HIN# and Sea Ray internal number. I would like to see if Sea Ray only produced 17 in the run.
 
The broker on the NY boat gave me some more information. I do not believe he was correct claiming there were only 17 540s made in the production run. From the wonderful insight shared by Frank Webster, the internal Sea Ray identifier number of this boat "540CMY619" indicates this was the 19th 540 built in 2001. The 540 was also built in 2002 and maybe a few in 03 from what I can tell. I would guess there were at least 40 built, but that is just a guess at this point.

From the HIN number (SERY0865C101) the letter “Y” means that this boat was built at the Sykes Creek plant which was mainly for the PD&E boats (Product Development and Engineering) according to Frank. Most of the large yachts that Sea Ray produced were made at the Palm Coast or Merritt Island plants. The quality of boats coming out of Sykes Creek was known to be better than the larger plants and a lot of the PD&E boats were used for testing by Sea Ray mangers. The NY 540 was built in March of 2001 and sold for $1,429,838 which included a 12' Boston Whaler. The broker sent me the original delivery sheet with all of the information if anyone is interested.
SeaRay540CPMY2.jpg
 
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Shoyrtt said:
The broker on the NY boat gave me some more information. I do not believe he was correct claiming there were only 17 540s made in the production run. From the wonderful insight shared by Frank Webster, the internal Sea Ray identifier number of this boat "540CMY619" indicates this was the 19th 540 built in 2001. The 540 was also built in 2002 and maybe a few in 03 from what I can tell. I would guess there were at least 40 built, but that is just a guess at this point.

From the HIN number (SERY0865C101) the letter “Y” means that this boat was built at the Sykes Creek plant which was mainly for the PD&E boats (Product Development and Engineering) according to Frank. Most of the large yachts that Sea Ray produced were made at the Palm Coast or Merritt Island plants. The quality of boats coming out of Sykes Creek was known to be better than the larger plants and a lot of the PD&E boats were used for testing by Sea Ray mangers. The NY 540 was built in March of 2001 and sold for $1,429,838 which included a 12' Boston Whaler. The broker sent me the original delivery sheet with all of the information if anyone is interested.
View attachment 130417
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PD&E were co-located with the Merritt Island and Sikes Creek facilities but in separate buildings. There were quite a few buildings SR was working in and the org's moved around building to building depending upon who was running the joint. PD&E pretty much did all of the design and engineering for the yachts regardless of the build locations (Merritt Island, Palm Coast, Sikes Creek). In the later days PD&E wings were clipped and much of the engineering and design moved to Brunswick Corp for "cost controls" in which the brand quality started to fall.
As an Edit - Sikes Creek facility built all of the large boats back in the day as that facility had the crane and door height to accommodate; none of the other facilities had the height. The bridge Roof on the Sedan Bridge boats built in Palm Coast was installed outside of the facility due to height restrictions. This all from a highly respected source and a multitude of visits over the years.
 
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ttmott said:
PD&E were co-located with the Merritt Island and Sikes Creek facilities but in separate buildings. There were quite a few buildings SR was working in and the org's moved around building to building depending upon who was running the joint. PD&E pretty much did all of the design and engineering for the yachts regardless of the build locations (Merritt Island, Palm Coast, Sikes Creek). In the later days PD&E wings were clipped and much of the engineering and design moved to Brunswick Corp for "cost controls" in which the brand quality started to fall.
As an Edit - Sikes Creek facility built all of the large boats back in the day as that facility had the crane and door height to accommodate; none of the other facilities had the height. The bridge Roof on the Sedan Bridge boats built in Palm Coast was installed outside of the facility due to height restrictions. This all from a highly respected source and a multitude of visits over the years.
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Thank you for clearing those details up. I did find that Sea Ray listed the 540 as an available yacht for sale in 2001, 02 and 03 from the brochures for those years. Hopefully a few more of these come up for sale so I can get a better estimate on the number that were built.

The 01 Michigan boat has an earlier HIN number than the NY boat but I’m still looking to see if that broker will give me the internal Sea Ray number.
 
I think the NY boat is located in our home port, Greenport. If that’s the boat it rarely left the slip but was always spotless.
 
Here is the USCG information on the Michigan 540.
SeaRay540CPMY3.jpg
 
It is interesting that it is only listed at 50.40 and not 54' in length with a 15.4 beam. I thought it was larger than that.
 
Shoyrtt said:
It is interesting that it is only listed at 50.40 and not 54' in length with a 15.4 beam. I thought it was larger than that.
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If you look it up, the CG lists hull length which is generally waterline length provided by the manufacturer. However this varies by manufacturer.

I have always thought that the 540 CPMY is built on the same hull as the 510 Sundancer, and from those specs it appears to be true.
 
The documented length comes in handy when filling our slip lease agreements especially if you deal with an office assistant that is clueless and doesn't actually measure the boat!
 
Carpediem44DB said:
The documented length comes in handy when filling our slip lease agreements especially if you deal with an office assistant that is clueless and doesn't actually measure the boat!
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How about this for a coincidence. You can search on Yacht Journal based on the stats of a boat to find HIN and official numbers. I did a search of Sea Rays in the US with a "50.4" hull length. The gross and net tons should tell the difference between a DA/DB and the CPMY. Check out "Carpe Diem III" from Marco Island, Florida. :)
searay540CPMY5.jpg
 
Shoyrtt said:
How about this for a coincidence. You can search on Yacht Journal based on the stats of a boat to find HIN and official numbers. I did a search of Sea Rays in the US with a "50.4" hull length. The gross and net tons should tell the difference between a DA/DB and the CPMY. Check out "Carpe Diem III" from Marco Island, Florida. :)
View attachment 130727
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Years ago when I updated the documentation on our Rinker 350, I used a service and the agent asked the boat name. I told him Carpe Diem and he responded “of course it is” said that it was the most common boat name! It was the name the PO used and we just stuck with it.
 
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