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Where do I start...... I am afraid its all over the map.
Here is basically my short list:
Vista 328
Carver 320 or 325
Carver 3607
Silverton 34 Sedan Classic
Mystery boat!
Of the candidates, the Vista 328 has the best fuel mileage because its the only one of the bunch with I/Os. Well, sorta the best fuel mileage (see Carver 3607 trawler mode). And that has to be a consideration for any boat we buy. We have been thinking about this for a couple of years now, and when we started, I fully expected marina gas to be at $5 per gallon when we upgrade, but in retrospect, maybe we're estimating low. Regardless, we have to take fuel prices into consideration. It isn't going to prevent us from buying a boat, but it will influence what we do buy.
Except for a sailboat. The admiral has told me in no uncertain terms that a sailboat is NOT in our future. Well, more accurately; not in HER future.
The Vista 328 with I/Os should get about 1.2MPG, which when compared to the 2MPG or so I get with the 268, its within being acceptable. So the Vista will be the "fuel mileage" candidate if we have to go that route.
The Carver 325 is about .9MPG, the Silverton a bit less, and the Carver 3607 - well, it depends on how fast you push it. The 3607 is a unique boat, and has a dual-mode hull, designed to run as a trawler or at planing speeds. The main difference; trawler speed is about 9mph @ 2MPG, while planing speed is about 20MPH at 0.5MPG (or less).
This will be a retirement boat for us, so it will be as much a cabin as a boat, and when retired, since I don't have to be anywhere at a given time, I won't care how fast we go. I like the idea of 2MPG at trawler speed, but we can "goose" it if we need to get out of bad weather. This is really no different than a "fast trawler", and in fact, for a couple of years, Carver made a "long range" version of the boat with a single diesel engine (have not seen any of those on the used market though).
Besides, we can strap a jet-ski to the transom so I can still get my speed-kicks.
And the 3607 has a great deal of room in it, just what we want for a floating cottage. The only issue is that the 3607 was made from 1982 to 1989, so the last one was made 17 years ago. Therefore, there will be a lot of upgrades needed to update all of the equipment, but hey, that means more boat projects!
We had also been leaning towards a true trawler, but those are +100K, which is above our price we want to pay. So a 3607 might be the next best thing to a trawler, and the going price for those is in the $40K to $70K range - give or take.
To be honest, we are kind of getting tired to the cave-like layout of express cruisers, and we are also tired of taking the canvas up and down each day.
The Mystery Boat means that there are probably other boats out there that we have not yet considered. I also like the Silverton 330 Sport Bridge, as well as the Carver Mariner 35, but the wife thinks those are really big boats with too little room in them. But they are around $120K for used ones at this time - who knows what they will be in 3 years.
So, the wife wants something that has windows and we don't have to remove the canvas all the time. The problem is, FW doesn't make a motor-yacht or sedan-type of boat. I have grown quite fond of my FW, and this is the second one I have owned. The company is top-notch, have always been very helpful, and they seem to really want to take care of buyers of used boats, even though they don't get anything out of it.
Well, they get good will, and I suppose that is worth something.
So we really don't know right yet what we will do. We retire in 3 years, at which time, we will have access to a lot of money that is in our 401K (we have a 401K set-aside for toys).
So a lot depends on gas prices, what we get for our boat, when we sell our boat, the stock market over the next three years, and a whole host of other variables.
I might also be in a situation at work where they might close down next year. If they do so, I have 32 years in, so I would get an early retirement. Great for upgrading the boat, but I would take a slight penalty for retiring before age 55 (which I will be in 3 years), so that is another variable thrown in to the mix.
We are thinking of something in the $60~70K range. We have about $100K in our toy money 401K to play with right now, but I don't want to spend all of the toy money on a boat - want to keep some in reserve. We are beginning to see Vista 328s approach the $80K range right now, so in two or three years, they would be right on target with our price.
The 328 is the only FW we would be interested in. If we go with a 348 or 378, we're looking at lower fuel-mileage inboards, so for that reason, the wife keeps pointing me towards motor-yachts such as the Carvers I mentioned.
So regardless of all of this, we're thinking of whether or not we should broker our boat. Right now, its 7 years old, so maybe we should begin the process.
If I got low to mid $40s for it, I would be happy and probably sell it right away.
I have not added up the cost of all of the improvements, but I think that I probably put $10K worth of improvements into it. Now I am not naive enough to think I'll get all that back, and I made the improvements for my own personalization, not to increase the resale value.
However, I would hope that some of the more substantial things, such as Air Conditioning, Windlass, and the entertainment system might increase the value, while the other items, while not necessarily increasing the value, should make the boat sell quickly.
So the only things I know for sure are:
- I'll retire in 1 to 3 years, depending on if they close the facility before I reach age 55. So even if I lose my job next year, I am in the retirement window.
- We will be definitely buying a boat at retirement, unless some unknown factor, such as health prevents it.
- The boat will likely be in the $60~$70 range, and somewhere between 32 and 36 ft.
Otherwise, I don't even know myself what we will end up with.
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1999 Vista 268
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