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Aft cabin cruiser, tri-cabin, double cabin flying bridge
(DCFB), these are but a few of the names applied to a small boat
with three "cabins." But they're only three cabins if
you don't count the galley, which actually make for four major interior
areas.
Regardless of what you call it, this style boat
has always been popular, going all the way back to the 1920's. And
it is one of the most difficult layouts to achieve successfully
in a small boat because the impetus is to put too much into a too
small space. It's one thing in a 42 or 45 footer, but something
else again in a boat 37 or 38 feet long.
The Sea Ray 370 AC does it fairly well for a 37
footer. Especially for one that has such a large bow overhang as
this one does. And it does it well if you don't mind a salon that
is . . . . well, cramped. Here you get two double staterooms, and
a decent sized galley -- more about that in a moment -- and two
heads, one with a more than adequate stall shower.
This boat has a bolt-on platform, in addition to
a molded in platform, thus you loose two feet of interior space
for the convenience of being able to step down to it easily (there
are molded in steps). I'm not sure this is a good trade-off unless
you're going to be spending more time in the water than in the boat.
And additional two feet would have made a tremendous difference
were it added to the salon.
My own preference has always been for the "great
cabin" layout, one that stints on staterooms in favor a single
larger social area where people can congregate when the rain is
falling, or, as in the southland, out of the heat and sun and into
an air conditioned space. While you can do that in the 370, it's
going to be more like packing a phone booth or a Volkswagen. It's
a nice little salon, but for more than two people, you are likely
to be stepping on toes and bumping into each other a lot. There
is a convertible sofa (love seat size) and a single swivel chair,
and that's it. Seating for three.
On the other hand, you can stuff the kids or the
inlaws at one end, and be isolated at the other, for an overnighter.
The lack of floor space will become a bit maddening after a while;
the advantage this one offers is separation of quarters. If that's
what you want, you get it good here. All kinds of things could be
going on in one stateroom without hearing it in the other. Why,
you could probably even stash Monica away up there there without
the Mrs. knowing about it. But never mind, Monica's going to be
busy for a while with other duties.
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Better than average
engine room access. You'll need to ditch those puny car batteries,
though. |
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With a galley like
this, you might want to hire a saucier! Sounds like something
from a magazine review, right? But this really is a nice galley.
Well done and practical. |
This boat has one of the largest galley's you'll
ever find in this style boat. Not only large, with room to bend
over or turn around, but sufficient counter space and adequate storage.
There is a large single basin sink and a three burner stove top.
It's the undercounter reefer that provides the extra space that
we don't normally see in this kind of layout. It's that extra three
feet of space not taken up by an upright reefer that makes it. Naturally,
the reefer is smaller, but that is a small price to pay for all
the extra elbow room. Besides, the space of larger reefers rarely
get used anyway.
The counter top is molded with an integral back
board, splash board or whatever it's called, along with a high edge
rail. This has the advantage of no ugly caulked seams to mildew
or open up, no mica to loosen. No water to trickle down into the
cabinets below. Plus it is very easy to keep clean. This is
a galley in which one could actually prepare a meal without feeling
like working in a phone booth.
Opposite the galley there is no dinette, but a
head and a pantry. Well, I don't know what else to call it except
maybe the laundry room, for there was a washer dryer combo there,
in what amounts to a walk-in closet and a great storage space. The
heads have full fiberglass liners and are adequately sized. But
there is very little floor space in the forward cabin. You open
the door and almost immediately have to climb onto the double bed.
Since Monica lives at the Watergate (irony of ironies) she probably
wouldn't like that so much.
The interior is largely vinyl and formica. There
are padded vinyl panels everywhere. In fact, the thing smells like
a vinyl factory there's so much of it, but that also makes it very
hushed inside. There is a notable difference in engine noise, compared
with other boats, because of it. Okay, well, at least vinyl is easy
to clean, but there's always the problem of scuffs, tears and poking
holes in it, a condition which was already showing up. Moving things
around, you gotta be more careful, or things are going to start
looking ratty in a hurry. Ever try to fix a hole in padded vinyl?
The mica is that glossy, rosy woodgrain type used
on a very large number of cabinet doors. Meaning that there are
a lot of cabinets. All have plastic push-lock latches which
were starting to break, as were the imitation Grasso European style
hinges. While I didn't count them up, there are a lot of them. You
won't have a storage problem here, rather one of figuring out where
your stuff is stowed away and which door to look behind. Some folks
don't like mica, but I think it's very practical. The stuff lasts
forever, yet it's mismatched in terms of durability with all that
padded vinyl. The style is modernist without being too tacky, but
it surely will not please anyone with a traditionalist bent.
Mechanical Stuff What
little floor space there is in the salon is taken up with a huge
engine room hatch that gives good access to one side of the engine
room, while you have to move the (heavy) sofa to lift another hatch
to get at the other side. All-in-all, the engine room access is
not bad, except for not being able to reach the spark plugs on the
outboard banks of the Mercruiser 502EFI engines which are but 2"
away from twin 157 gallon fuel tanks.
Per usual, Sea Ray makes you stand on a little
platform about 3" above the bilge, over which oily bilge water
sloshes, making it hard to stand up on an oily deck, plus you get
to track oil all over your nice salon carpet, which had already
happened. White carpet in a boat is always a great idea, so long
as you don't mind replacing it annually. At the forward end
is a Westerbeke 7kw jenny, which is easily reached. The engines
are hard up against the aft bulkhead, so that getting at the outboard
corners is near impossible. We found the starboard side fiberglass
exhaust pipe (crossover) was so porous that sea water was leaking
right through the pipe, and dribbling sea water all over the rear
of the engine, making a real mess of things. But the owner wasn't
aware of this because it takes a contortionist to even see anything
back there. Replacing this is going to be quite a task.
The basic systems installations look generally
good, with bronze strainers and sea cocks, real reinforced butyl
rubber sea hoses (in most places) but the usual plastic junk above
the water line. Sea Ray still doesn't care that plastic thru-hull
fittings are still sinking their boats when they break off. The
electric panels are placed in convenient locations, but you get
a pair of el cheapo car batteries for DC power.
Performance. This
boat has deep propeller pockets to achieve a level and more forward
engine installation, plus more headroom. While there were specification
stickers on both engines, these little labels were completely blank
so we don't know what the advertised horse power is. While it is
certainly adequate, I wasn't pleased with the performance hit caused
by the prop pockets. She's much too slow to get up on plane,
pointing her nose high in the air, while having to advance the throttles
nearly to full to get her there in a reasonable period of time.
There are huge 30' trim tabs to help overcome this **. This is the
price to pay for being able to get all this stuff in such a small
space. She labors on getting going, and the cruise RPM is notably
higher than boats without pockets.
| ** Boats with oversize trim tabs always
serve as a clue that trim and performance probably aren't
what they should be. |
For this much power and weight, listed at 23,800
lbs, the shafts are decidedly too small at 1-1/4", explaining
why we hear so many reports of shaft breakage over the entire SeaRay
line.
It's now winter time and no more glassy ocean.
Seas were a bit too much to get a good full speed run, yet it was
pretty clear that speed wise, this is a rather slow boat that may
be marginally powered. At this weight, it needs diesels, and while
Cat 3208's are an option, putting these engines in that small space
requires a shoe horn. Don't expect a long service life from these
engines because this boat is way over the weight line, which we
draw at 17,000 lbs. for gas engines. These engines were laboring
to push this boat at 20 knots.
If you're looking for performance and speed, don't
expect to find it here; there's too much weight on too short a water
line. You have to give that up for all these amenities in a small
boat. This boat is 7,000 lbs heavier than the Trojan 12 meter, which
is slow boat with about the same horsepower (We assume it's 340-350).
While she has a moderate vee hull, she also has
that typical spoon-bill Sea Ray bow, which does not make for a good
sea boat. Nosing into a 3 foot wave, the bow, rather than the bottom,
pounds. Here's a case where mere styling creates a serious performance
hit, as well as cutting off a lot of interior space forward. Heading
out the inlet against a strong tide rip, we buried the bow under
blue water several times. Strictly a fair weather boat. Now
we understand why some SeaRays are having hull/deck separation
problems. The waves hitting up against an unsupported hull side
breaks the screwed together deck join apart.
Design Considerations For
a "back porch" boat, stylistically it's pretty good looking.
Moving from the aft deck to bridge is very easy with only three
steps up. The bridge area is spacious, equipped with soft enclosures
hung from a fiberglass arch and stainless framework. Two small
pedestal chairs refrain from taking up too much space, offering
the rather unique ability to actually be able to walk around each.
It's really tiresome climbing over seats getting from one place
to the next. As one who hates cramped bridges, this is nice. But
the painted aluminum windshield is absurdly weak and floppy, so
that anyone who inadvertently grabs onto it for support is likely
to damage it.
Ergonomically, the seat/wheel positioning is good,
but they totally blew it with the height of the helm panel where
the engine controls are much too low, causing a standing operator
to have to lean down to reach them. The tiny 16" wheel is attached
to a bottom of the line hydraulic steering system. The helm area
begins at knee height, which looks as dumb as it is. And like Bayliner
often does, they provided a private swimming pool for the engine
instruments by mounting them in a depressed area that fills up with
water.
And then there's that Roman Lounge. Yep,
there it is shown in the photo below. They put all that nice
upholstery into a fiberglass shell that fills up with water, so
that the thing sits there and stews in its own juices. I guess they
expect all those zippered enclosures to keep the water out. This
was discovered when we noticed that the carpeted deck was all wet
around that chaise. Searching for the source of the water, we found
it dripping out from the bottom of the chaise. Cool. More interior
designers at work here. Swimming instruments. Swimming upholstery.
Irrigation system on deck.
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| The Roman lounge. It would be fine
except that it's sitting in a tray full of water. |
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Hull. We can see almost nothing of the internal
hull except where an interior panel had been removed to reveal the
deck join. Here we found the upper hull side and the edge of the
deck to be extraordinarily thin. Bang on it with your fist and the
structure shudders. The sides at the deck join are washboarded,
reflecting where the fasteners are deforming the fairness. It's
so weak that any bumping against a dock is going to cause damage.
The soft plastic rub rail helps, but not enough. No blisters on
the bottom.
The decks are generally solid, as are the housetops.
We didn't find any indication of interior leaks. On the other hand,
with all that padded vinyl on the sides, if there are any leaks
it will be running down behind all this upholstery and won't show
up for quite a while, after all that foam rubber becomes saturated.
We've got 20 years experience of Hatteras doing this in their forward
cabins, and it's not a good thing. Serious leaks don't show up until
the water damage is severe.
Caulking. Caulking on the exterior of this boat
is everywhere, in every joint where every fiberglass component is
joined together. It is sloppy, collects dirt and becomes discolored
over time to lend a shabby appearance to some of the other materials
they shouldn't have used. This is silly because this caulking isn't
necessary. Apparently it was too much trouble to caulk the parts
before they were put together, so that the caulking would be within
the joint, and not showing on the exterior, but there you have it.
It's ugly and marrs otherwise nicely molded parts. There is also
a large amount of that plastic called Starboard, which has the properties
of Teflon. The caulking does not stick to it, so that it's opened
up and loose.
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| White flubber moldings belong in old
Fred MacMurray movies, not on a boat. This is what happens
to it. |
White Rubber Moldings. These were used on the cut edges of the
aft deck coamings (or weather boards), as well as the guard rails.
This stuff scuffs and becomes permanently soiled, further blemishing
the appearance. White rubber or soft plastic should never be used
on a boat because once it discolors -- which it does very rapidly
-- it stays that way forever. The bad news is that scores of builders
are using this crap in the interest of following blind trends.
Only 1-1/2 years old and this quarter million dollar boat
is already starting to look shabby because of a few cheap parts.
| Note to Builders: If you want
to build a reputation for quality, put the garbage on the
inside, not the outside where everyone walking down the dock
can see all that cheap junk going to hell. You might as well
be hanging up a sign that says: Look at how fast our
boats deteriorate!! There's no better way to advertise
a lack of quality than producing boats that look clapped out
after a few short years. If you don't like to see reviews
like this that rip your products to shreds, then use your
heads. What people think of your products today depends
on how they look tomorrow. |
Skiddish Non-skid. As one who spends his
life climbing around on boats, I'm more than cautious when moving
around on the decks. But this one got me. Rounded on the corners
and sloping forward rather steeply, like walking on ice, my feet
went right out from under me even while being aware of how terribly
slippery these decks are. I've never seen decks this bad; I could
slide 3 or 4 feet easily. The non-skid on this deck is worse than
smooth fiberglass. If that weren't bad enough, the bow railing extends
beyond the bow by around two feet, so that as I slid toward the
railing, expecting that to stop my skid, there was that yawning
two foot space between the end of the deck and the rail. Grabbing
the rail to keep from going overboard, it bent downward a good six
inches because it's just hanging out over empty space with no support.
Plastic Parts. Is there such a cost problem
with metal hardware that it now has to be replaced with plastic?
Apparently so, for plastic is showing up ever more frequently such
as the winch controls, fuel and water fill deck plates, ventilators,
hinges and other parts, many of which are already broken on this
boat. I can't think of anything that cheapens a boat more
than one with broken, crumbling plastic parts.
Summary For the size of the thing,
this is decidedly a price boat that offers some reasonably good
quality with engineering that is above and beyond what you'd get
with most of the competition. I won't name names, but you could
do a lot worse with most of the competition. Basically, you're getting
what you pay for with some exceptions.
Back porch boats tend to be very clunky looking.
People tend to underestimate what an important role good style plays
on resale values. Trendy style hurts, while pleasing, more traditional
and conservative style helps keep prices up. People jump on trends,
but pleasing lines are what sells on the resale market long after
the latest fashion sours. On this one, the "bubble boat"
styling has mercifully been minimized, and for a floating veranda,
this is one of the few I've seen that almost looks good. These huge
structures tacked onto the back of any boat disrupts the flow of
lines, but somehow this one seems less clunky.
Except for that ice slick of a foredeck, there
are few major design stupidities. There's a lot crammed into a small
space and it's done about as well as it can be done.
| These
are "reviews", not surveys, and bear no resemblance
to our survey reports.
We do not publish the results of the surveys that we perform.
Please note that the purpose of these reviews is educational,
to help you discern the differences in quality among boats generally.
They are not offered as a means to help you evaluate any particular
boat builder. We have no other reviews than those posted. |
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