2012 express cabin cruiser boat photo

You have to see the newest Regal Express cruiser. Go to a dealer or go to a boat show, but see this boat. She has high style with a very good level of functionality. As a weekend cruiser, she has huge windows and portholes to see out from inside the cabin and a huge (for a cruiser of this length) bed in the owner’s stateroom.

She is 28’ 10” by 8’ 6” and fits under most bridges when on a trailer. Thus, no permit is needed to trailer this fully found cruising yacht. She will take a strong pickup truck to tow its empty 7,585 lbs. weight, however. Figure on a “10,000 lbs. plus” towing load with fuel, batteries, water, boat gear, crew supplies, and trailer included as you would typically would be towing her going down the road.

The owner’s cabin area features the largest bed in her class of trailer-able sleepers. No need to convert a vee seating area into a bed at the end of a day or a week on the water. It is set up and positioned within the cabin area such that the bed linens can stay ready all day long.

This Regal 28 Express is a single engine I/0 boat. You select from a 260 horsepower Mercury Marine Bravo III, a 270 horsepower Duo-Prop, and 300 horsepower with either a Duo-prop or Bravo III outdrive. Since Regal Marine Industries exports so many boats internationally, they also offer a diesel engine choice with a Duo-Prop that is popular in Europe.

2012 Express cabin cruiser at rest boat photo

express cabin cruiser underway boat photo

2012 fiberglass express cabin cruiser queen bed boat photo

Classic design Stauter Built wood runabout boat photo

Stauter-Built boats is a classic wood boat that often has used the same design as they have for many years.

classic wood boat photo from stauter built

Most are pure open fishing boats. A few are somewhat decked over and are used as a wooden runabout. All use a antique or modern outboard motor for power. They are light and easy to power as they use a shallow draft, almost flat bottom hull design to get performance from low horsepower outboards.

classic wood runabout boat photo

Take a restored classic wooden boat like I show here. Its powered by an old, antique motor. The photos show the loving attention to keeping an old boat, a good, useful boat that is an antique and classic boat show standout. She is mostly a plywood boat, glued and screwed together to take on most waters.

classic wood fishing boat stauter built

I show another Stauter Built boat from their promotional material. It is 151/2’ long and 51/2’ in its beam. It can take up to a 50 Hp. outboard engine and weights in around 425 lbs. It is a Vee shaped bow to cut through the chop coupled with a fairly flat deadrise across the transom boat design. Not a deep vee offshore racer.

She is intended for the waters around Dauphin Island in the Gulf of Mexico, which is roughly 40 miles south of Mobile, AL.

This new wood fishing boat is called the V-bottom Cedar Point Special by Stauter-Built. She maybe a classic in design, but it is too new in its date of manufacture to be an antique boat.

classic wood boat photo of a open fishing runabout outboard

wood boat photo of stauter built runabout fishing model

Wood power boat photo classic mahogany runabout

This runabout is custom designed by the famous marine architect Charlie Jannace from Delmar, MD (about 50 miles outside of St. Michaels, MD) telephone 410-883-3059 and hand made by the Hugh Saint boat building company in Cape Coral, FL telephone 239-574-1299.

Charlie designs both fiberglass and wood boats for many boat building clients (some for regular production and some one-off (custom) designs. He is a very experienced naval architect. And his boat designs work in the real world!

The Hugh Saint, Inc. boat building company builds in the WEST system of wood and epoxy. They typically use double planking of mahogany wood matching the wood’s grain where its important, encapsulating all that wood in epoxy so water never reaches it. They are not alone in building wood boats in this manner of construction style in today’s world of wood boat building.

mahogany wood cold molded runabout photo

This custom Gentleman’s Racer is 28 ½ ’ long with a 9’ beam. She is a performance boat, but not a race boat. In a gentleman’s racer strength, luxury, and a good, comfortable seating in the cockpit are balanced by sheer speed thrills. A fast, dry ride is important. Absolute top speed is not. Such a boat satisfies its owner, not a broad audience of boat buyers. She is powered by twin “small block” 350 cu. in. chevy gas engines using a v-drive drivetrain system to get the power to the two propellers to push the one off mahogany wood boat. The top speed is simply quoted as 50 mph plus. It gives that speed in luxury and comfort for its owner.

WEST system mahogany wood power boat photo

2012 Chris Craft I. O. power boat

She is a sport boat on the exterior and a four sleeper, complete galley, and head down below. This power boat tops out at 48 mph and cruises from as low as 16 mph to as high 42 mph with the same fuel economy. The photo shows how this performance boat handles in a turn. Should one call her a sporty boat, a performance boat, or a cabin cruiser?

Chris Craft builds a stylish way to run around all the waterways in its Corsair 36 power boat model. In the USA she usually runs twin 8.1 Volvo gas engines with twin diesels as an optional choice. Volvo marine engines has tested and approved the engine installation details in this boat model. She went from 0 to 30 mph in acceleration boat tests in less than 10 seconds while weighing just under 10 tons with some 2,500 lbs. of fuel, water, crew, gear weight onboard and are willing to show their test report numbers to interested boaters.

2012 Chris Craft Corsair power boat

This model of the Corsair series is actually over 38 feet including the swim platform and 36’ 3” without it. The beam is 12’ 6”. She weights some 16,000 – 16,500 lbs. dry. Air Conditioning, two refrigerators, a microwave, a cabinet mounted coffee maker, a convertible dinette, and then a queen size bed in the owner’s cabin all of which is done in a high nautical fashion makes for a luxurious boat.

Take a look at your local boat show, where she may be what you need for this coming summer’s adventures on the water.

power boat cockpit of a Chris Craft Corsair

layout with its private owner's cabin

Boat Show Grady White boat / Yamaha outboard

Grady White invented the walk around cuddy cabin family fishing boat and they teamed up with Yamaha outboards to make this class leader. Note the recess walk way in the deck all the way around the bow and cabin house. That makes this 232 Grady White a Walk Around model boat within the boating industry. Yamaha is a leading boating industry manufacturer of 4 stroke outboard motors. The match up makes a very good marriage.

A boat and motor combination is all about performance on the water. A 300 Hp single  Yamaha outboard on the 232 Grady White power boat gives a best cruising speed between 4,000 rpms (about 24 mph according to the test) and 4,500 rpms (about 31 mph in the test). It is the right outboard match for the boat with these kind of numbers. The top speed at just under 44 mph at 5,900 rpms is far secondary to the best economy (at reasonable engine rpms) cruising speeds.

The boat by its self is 4,500 – 4,600 lbs. With the engine, some fuel, people, and gear the test weight was 6,711 lbs. On a trailer, figure on a tow package weight of 9,000 lbs. or so.

The hull length is 23’ 5” with a beam (that needs a simple wide load road permit) is 9’ 3”. The standard fuel tank capacity is 150 gal.

Grady White has won awards after awards for their good boats and I would be remiss if I did not mention this here.

While at the show, allow time to try your hand at the free power boat docking game where you maneuver a model boat in a test tank using a full scale boat helm into a marina slip. It’s a timed test, with offsets for bumping, that is a challenge for beginner and even if you believe yourself a pro boater.

232 grady white layout at boat show

wood yacht sportfisherman with Volvo IPS

Take four fisherman plus two to four crew at and back some 250 miles offshore in a wood boat in comfort using a custom boat powered by Volvo IPS to get this performance.

The room created by the IPS system allows for two double berths under the salon deck for the crew while two luxurious staterooms accommodate the owner’s party with two large heads. So it’s a three stateroom / two head boat.

She is all about good fuel economy, offshore high performance, quick maneuverability, ease of handling, and big fish fighting ability. “Spencer Yachts has taken the Carolina style and tradition of boat building with a unique look and transformed it into a World Class and high performance Sport Fishing Yacht”

 She has South Carolina flair, outstanding styling, and the world class fit and finish of the highest class custom boat.

 This sportfisher is 57’ long with a beam of 16’ 10”. Her engines are Twin 1200 model 900 Hp Volvo Diesel D 13s. Fuel capacity is 1450 gal. Her draft is 4’ 5”. She weighs 26 tons. It has been said that it’s the most maneuverable boat of its size on the market. It certainly has  outstanding looks.

Spencer yachts are in Wanchese, NC at 252-473-6567, with their hull boat building plant at Manns Harbor.

One final quote…. “Amazing is the only word for (the boat’s) handling, maneuverability, spinning and backing down on a blue marlin.”

wood boat layout photo by Spencer Yachts

wood composite yacht image with Volvo IPS

wood power boat 1959 Lyman 16.5 foot outboard model

This power boat is shown being restored in Maine. The photo is from Androscoggin Wooden Boat Works (207) 685-9805. It shows the nice work that they do, particularly on Lyman Boats. This classic outboard runabout is said to be a boat for sale and at a very attractive price. Give them a telephone call if this is something that you need for this upcoming summer boating adventure season.

This outboard Lyman boat seems to have been updated with a painted finish rather than a varnished, but not stained, boat hull interior. The seats, deck and other parts show, to me, the correct, as built, finishes. Lyman mahogany filler stain with varnish over that would be the proper choice. Lyman was also known for its use of ribbon striped (sometimes called tiger striped) mahogany veneered marine-grade plywood in its decks. Check for that feature on this boat. Most restorers use a different style of mahogany plywood if they replace the deck on a Lyman runabout.

The 16.5 foot boat was a popular boat model and it was in production from 1957-1960. In 1959 they made 366 of these. It is a 16’ 7” long runabout with a beam of 70”. It weighs 560 lbs. and could take up to a 60 Hp outboard. That is Hp that is rated at the power head, not rated at the prop shaft as outboards are rated today. Use an older motor or drop back to a maximum rating of about 54 Hp. She goes real well with a 35 Hp, by the way.

Lymans are clinker built or a lapstrake construction style of planking. Each plank edge overlaps the other and are clinched nailed to the ribs and screwed to the frames such that an edge is shown at each plank its full length along the hull side that helps soften the ride, and they are flexible boats that can twist over the waves somewhat to give a better ride than a classic boat person would expect. Ride a Lyman to experience this for yourself. I know of several prior owners of carvel, hard chine classic wood boats that marvel at the ride that they get in their Lyman compared to what they are used to.

By the way, get a Lyman model a little older than this model year and you will see a dimpled finish in the planking on the outside of the hull. Lyman used a duck billed clinch nail for better holding strength and sometime (in the mid-50s?) began to completely fair over both the screws and the duck billed nails for a smooth exterior finish.

fiberglass bow rider power boat by Cobalt boats

Cobalt Boats have put their 210 bow rider on sale at the boat show. This is an opportunity to put your family in a luxurious, top quality Cobalt Boat at a terrific value. Now you can have all that makes for a top shelf family bow rider power boat on your waterways.

But it is the ride and handling that a Cobalt boat is known for. Buy a boat for its performance on the water. Get to know that legendary bow rider experience for yourself. It starts with a chop splitting sharp vee at the bow and continues into a hull bottom shape that gives a soft ride in a quick to plane performance boat. Yes, she is a performance boat, just try her out and you will experience performance on the water in a top-of-the-pile family boat.

This Cobalt bow rider power boat is 22’ 5” in length with its swim platform and has a trailer able maximum 8’ 6” beam. The boat and engine weight in at about 3,850 lbs. before you fill its generous 40 gal fuel tank and cockpit with up to 1,650 lbs. of family, friends, and gear. The Coast Guard rates that as a 12 person boat.

After the ride a Cobalt boat is all about fit, finish, and a healthy dose of hand craftsmanship from a dedicated group of middle of America folks that make outstanding power boats. Tour this boat builder’s plant and see happy, energetic people, as Seabuddy has.

The Cobalt 210 fiberglass bow rider power boat is something for you to see at the boat show.

cockpit and helm photo of Cobalt bow rider fiberglass power boat

Pricing sign photo of model 210 Cobalt boat bow rider power boat

getting ready to be the queen of the boat show

The oldest (since 1905) boat show has traditionally had a “Queen of the Boat Show” cabin cruiser power boat.  This year it’s the 54’ 9” Sea Ray Sundancer express cruiser.

Sundancer is a name that Sea Ray applies to their boat models that have an extra bed under the mid-section of an otherwise express style cabin cruiser. The first boat that came with the name “sundancer” was a 24’ 4” SRV 240 Sea Ray in 1975. That boat had a trailerable beam, not the 15’ 3” beam of this year’s Queen.

If they did not invent the mid-cabin boat design (some say that Skipjack boats is also in contention for that recognition), Sea Ray boats certainly has made it a runaway success story among boaters and also within the boating industry.

C. N. “Connie” Ray started building outboard powered 16’ runabouts in 1959 in Oxford, MI, which is north of Detroit. The 2012 queen of the boat show uses twin Mercury Marine Mercruiser Zeus drives.

Today’s boat has up to 1,430 Hp using diesel fuel, not the 25-35 Hp using gasoline as a fuel that the 1959 runabout was powered with. The Sea Ray Queen’s engines are made by Cummins.

The master stateroom is the one that is amidships and not at the bow. It has a TV as big as the main salon, not the smaller one that the forward bow stateroom has. Both staterooms have a “dry” head; that is a bathroom with a separate shower stall so that the entire bathroom does not get sprayed down when the shower is turned on.

By the way, the generous luxury space of the master bedroom can be ordered configured as two small staterooms so this cabin cruiser has three private staterooms if that is what your family needs. In that layout, the Master Stateroom would then be the forward bow stateroom by default.

Note my boat photo of the thru-bolted bollard style cleat that Sea Ray uses as standard equipment on this yacht. It is one of eight onboard, and they are very impressive!

bollard style cleat on Sea Ray boat show queen

Queen of the Boat Show underway