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Looking for opinions on the best blend of offshore fishability, speed, fuel efficiency, and family comfort in an express or convertible style boat. I'm very familair with CC's and Albies. Looking for something with a touch more family comfort down below. Any thoughts????
If you need to sleep more than four Stamas is a good boat. The Stamas Express boats have a raised bridge deck which allows for a mid cabin. The raised bridge deck also provides excellent all around visibility. The mid cabin allows you to sleep two additional people. I have the 34 which sleeps 6 and I have owned the 31 which slept 4.
I forgot the speed info. With twin Yanmar 370's my boat cruises at 25 knots at 2700RPM burning apx. 24 GPH. WOT it will top 35 knots but burns more than 40 GPH. The 31 I owned had twin gas inboards and was not as fast but was pretty stingy as the boat would climb on plane as soon as I touched the throttle.
The guy at my buddies marina has a 32' stamas express with twin yanmars he does a 100 mile round trip and burned 80 gals he says, He loves the boat says its dry and is a good head and following sea boat. His wife says she loves it also the cabin she said is very big and comfotable to weekend in
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Man, the Cabos are fine boats and would certainly be a top pick of mine, but you are going to pay up a good bit for one of them. Stamas and the Tiara look like great combinations of fishing and family comfort but the prices are not as elevated as with the Cabo. You mentioned the CCs and must have already looked at them. For the money they seem hard to beat. I don't really know about the comfort factor in those boats but they certainly look nice enough.
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Big price ranges, new or used. Cabo has a new 32 and so does Tiara. Tiara now offers a sportfishing package to increase the "fishiness" of the boat as they like to say. There are some good deals on the Tiara 3100 Open Classic which came with a hardtop and other features for fishing and cruising. I think most were gas (8.1 Crusaders) but there maybe some diesels out there. The Tiara 29 Open is still made with the classic package of options, but the cabin is fairly small, not really a "family of four" affair IMHO. My personal opinion is that in this size range "cruising" with the family is mostly confined to dayboating and overnighting for any party larger 2 adults and 2 non-teenage kids. Wife and I currently have a 29 Tiara Coronet which has a smaller cabin than the 2900 Open and 7" less LOA w/ same beam of 11'4".
Another vote for the Tiara. If you are really looking for speed AND fuel efficiency then I don't know of an express/convertible is what you really want. You can find one or the other but both is difficult. Everything is a compromise.
But only you can tell what boat will really appeal to you and fit your needs the best. Make a list of what you are looking for in a boat. Start with the basics that you need (i.e. must sleep 4, head, galley etc.). Add in the things you would like (hardtop, tower, radar,etc).
Then find the boat (brand/model) that appeals to you with all the basics you need. Once you know what your looking for you can find the one your looking for. Go thru your list of wants to help narrow down the choices if the boat is used. Of course if you looking new the options are wide open.
Stamas is my favorite in the family fishing boat catagory. You can get them in either outboard or inboard (diesel or gas). Your choice. They also have nice sized mid cabin berths so sleeping is not too cramped.
Tiara is also a very fine boat.
__________________ 2009 Judge Yachts 27 Chesapeake powered by Honda Marine
Too broad of a question for starters. The discussion of FB vs. express is interesting enough to entertain us throughout a winter. 32 might be a little small for a FB, although I love my 31 Bertram.
So how often do you go fishing vs family cruising? Looking for a family dayboat or an overnighter. Got any friends who have fishing boats that you can hitch a ride with when you want to go fishing?
A dayboat is not much good as an overnighter. If overnighting is the priority you need things like lots of water capacity. 40 or 60 gallons just does NOT cut it. That is all you get with the faster expresses. Water is heavy. You need hp to move it & you will need big fuel tanks to feed the hp.
Most dayboats only have a single burner & a microwave. How to power the microwave while away from a marina with no genny is beyond me. The genny is more weight to move & needs space.
In most of the expresses galley counter space is minimal, suitable for making a sandwich & not much else. They are, after all by their very name, 'expresses' not cruisers.
Consult your Admiral. If she is not happy neither will you be. On the subject of keeping the Admiral happy, does what you are looking at have a proper shower stall so that water is not sprayed everywhere? There is that importance of good water capacity again if you plan to do some true cruising & not have that umbilical cord of water & power connected to land.
Best 28-32' Express/Convertible????
