550 Sedan Bridge is now ours

I have been working on the purchase of a 550 Sedan Bridge in Michigan since February. We looked at a 500 Sedan Bridge at the Seattle Boat show in January and liked what we saw. A Yachtworld search turned up a 550 in MI that looked nice, was well equipped and had the CAT 3406's rather than the Detroit's.

I had the boat surveyed (Hull and Equipment by one company, engines and genset by another company) and both came up pretty clean. I went to MI in April to sea trial the boat and the boat performed well.

I ran it at WOT for 10 minutes to make sure it was propped correctly and it hit the recommended WOT rpm's (2150) and speed (30kts) with no elevated exhaust temps.

Here's the boat........


The salon.........

Looking forward to the galley...





The selling broker is taking my 330 on trade so once we came to terms on the numbers I arranged for transport of both boats. That was a cluster f*** because transport quotes ranged from $20K to $52K.

I went back to MI last week to observe the haul out and removal of the bridge for transport. I'm having the boat trucked to Portland, OR to a yard to have some work done before I bring it home. They are putting in a bow thruster, swim platform extensiion, inverter, genset water separator, KVH Satellite System and a few other goodies.

I've heard the horror stories about dealers shipping a boat across the country cutting wires to remove the flybridge. I didn't want that to happen so I had a tech from the boat yard in OR fly back to MI for 3 days to supervise the removal of the bridge. That went smoothly with all the wires tagged as to what they connected to, and everything under the flybridge console photographed to make reassembly easier.

Here’s the boat getting ready for the lift…..

And fully raised….

Being loaded on the trailer….

The bridge ready for lifting….

It’s free and clear….

Sitting on its cradle…..

The boat was supposed to have been shrink wrapped before it left but due to the high winds that did not get done. The bridge has been shrink wrapped and is being transported on its own trailer. The truck with the boat left Tuesday afternoon and is on it’s way. The truck with the bridge should leave today and won’t have any problem catching up to the other truck.

Both should be in Portland by late Saturday or Sunday to be unloaded Monday. Keep your fingers crossed for a safe transport of both parts.

GoFirstClass,

That's awesome, congratulations. Best of luck with the transport and eventual launch. That's a fine looking vessel. :smt038

It is a very nice boat, congratulations.

Lots of room in that boat, I could live in this.

When do you expect to put it in the water once on your end ?

Very nice!! Good luck with the transport!!

Awesome! Congrats on the boat and best of luck with the delivery.

I wish the pics better reflected her condition and cleanliness: having admired her several weeks ago, I can attest that she is in stellar condition. I'm sure you'll enjoy having her home.

Congrats! That's a nice boat and I am impressed with how thorough you are in the process. Great job!

Very nice! Serious upgrade too. You didn't have 2 footitis you had 22 footitis! Thanks for taking the time to post the details & pics. Very interesting, (to me at least).

Again, thanks & good luck!

I think the 55 Bridge is one of the best SRs ever built. Beautiful and congrats!

Congrats. That's a lotta coin to move it. Hopefully it all get's here in the same condition she left. Best of luck

Nice! I see you are in Eastern WA - where do you plan to moor it?

Thanks for the comments and questions. To respond to some of them...

Big Al, The yard estimates 4-5 weeks before they will be done with it. It should arrive there this weekend and be unloaded next Monday. If they stay on the schedule it should be ready for us to cruise from Portland to Pasco, WA where we will moor it right around the end of June. I hope to have it home before the July 4th weekend.

Funny side note--two years ago, with the thought in mind that we would upsize some day, I started renting a 20' x 60' slip for the 330. I figure most people buy their big boat then scramble around looking for a place to put it. I did it in reverse and am glad we did. One less thing to worry about.

RollerCoaster, thanks for the comments. She's in much better condition than I would have exptected given she's 15 years old. I got the engine/genset maintenance records for the past five years and know she's been well taken care of. The prior owners obviously took pride in her and it shows.

Tonka, you call it "thorough", my wife calls it "anal". Either way it's my nature to want to be on top of things like this. At the same time I also have enough sense to stay out of the way of the people who were doing the work. Except for a few questions during the haul out and disassembly I pretty much stayed quiet and on the sidelines.

ChrisR, she'll be moored at the Port of Kennewick's new marina on Clover Island. Portofkennewick.org Latitude: 46.26555556 46°15’56”
Longitude: -119.25416667 119°15’15”. Our future cruise plans include spending some summers up in your neck of the woods and further on up into CA waters. We took our 330 over there (trailed it to Anacortes) and that whetted our appetites for longer distance cruising.

I like this marina and my slip has no obstructions to worry about either leaving or entering the slip. Here's a pic of the 330 alongside our 19' Reinell,



And a shot looking the other direction. I love the clear access to the slip.


It's about 1/4 mile from the slip to the bridge you can see in the photo and the no-wake zone ends about half way to the bridge.

There's also a fuel dock about 100 yards to the right that has a free pumpout.

You left no stone unturned. The boat looks great. Congratulations. TG

Congrats on your upgrade from a boat like mine to a true yacht. I didn't realize you could remove the bridge for transport. I would have thought for a boat that size you would have just cruise down to the Panama Canal and on up the coast to Washington state.:smt043. Great lines and creature comforts on your new vessel. Now you will have to put your other small boat in the transom locker to fit her into your slip.:grin: I was also glad to see you were able to trade in your 330 instead of having to broker it and hope it would sell in a reasonably short time. Wish you many hours of trouble free cruising.

Well, maybe you will have to move your 19' Reinell to the end of its dock. The 55 will take much more space than the 33 DA ;-)...

congrats!!!...and get ready to do some serious cleaning when she gets home.

Wow...thanks for posting the pictures. I never realized it was so difficult to move one of these boats across the country.

Congrats on your new Mistress!!!!!

Part of the initial agreement with the seller was that they had to take my boat on trade. I've seen too many brokerage boats sit for a year or two while the owner pays for moorage, power, etc. It could end up costing tens of thousands while it sits...and the owner doesn't get to use it during that time.

320Bob, the Panama Canal thing was lightly kicked around but quickly CANX'd because of the cost of fuel, the canal passage, time, etc. It would have been the trip of a lifetime but not now.

The Reinell is already out of the slip, sitting on her trailer in our garage. We have a place in AZ that we'll be taking her down to once I get things settled with the new boat.

Katricol, you're right about the serious cleanup job. Once it gets to the yard in Portland I'll be making weekend trips down there to do a few small things and do the "wax on, wax off" routine. I figure that will be the perfect time to do it while she's on the hard. Waxing a boat hull while it's in the water is never as easy as when it's on shore.

Nice slip!