Sea Gull
Well-Known Member
It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since we took delivery of Sea Gull, our L650 FLY at Port Canaveral Florida. As we approach this happy anniversary, Sea Gull is again at Port Canaveral for bottom paint and some service work before she makes the trek back to the Northeast for the summer.
So, as she's come full circle to the place of her birth (or at least her delivery to us), I thought it would be fun to do a little public recap of some of the statistics from the first year. The L Class and especially the L650 FLY boats have generated a lot of interest among owners of smaller Sea Rays, the boating press and public in general. – I’ve been told that inquiring minds want to know...
After taking delivery in May 2015, we brought the boat to her summer home in Connecticut. That trip took 6 days and was a steep learning curve for us, trying to learn and maintain the systems and to keep track of the inevitable “punch list” items that crop up. Sea Gull is only hull #9 of the L650 FLY, so there have also been some design changes that Sea Ray has implemented retroactively as they refine their design. We have found both Sea Ray and MarineMax to be very responsive to our needs, and Sea Gull proves herself to us every day.
Summer 2015 was spent cruising the Northeast and included a Club Sea Ray rendezvous in Atlantic City and the MarineMax “Black and White” event in Montauk. We migrated south to Florida in November and enjoyed cruising Florida and the Bahamas. Unfortunately work demands meant that we were only part time boaters – as we say, the boat lived in Florida for the winter. We just visited.
During the year we spent 130 nights on Sea Gull, exceeding my plan for living aboard 1/3 of our time. But we didn’t just sit at the dock either. We logged 278 engine hours, 450 generator hours, and 445 hours on the Sea Keeper gyros. We covered roughly 4,000 nm of coastline and burned a whopping 15,000 gallons of diesel.
Operating costs were lower than we budgeted, but partly because much of the service work was covered under warranty and fuel was relatively cheap this year. Overall, expenses were only 3.6% of the purchase price of the boat, and we budgeted for 10%. The biggest bill was for fuel, followed by dockage, insurance, service and parts.
All in all, it was a wonderful first year. We look forward to summer 2016 in New England and adventures beyond.
So, as she's come full circle to the place of her birth (or at least her delivery to us), I thought it would be fun to do a little public recap of some of the statistics from the first year. The L Class and especially the L650 FLY boats have generated a lot of interest among owners of smaller Sea Rays, the boating press and public in general. – I’ve been told that inquiring minds want to know...
After taking delivery in May 2015, we brought the boat to her summer home in Connecticut. That trip took 6 days and was a steep learning curve for us, trying to learn and maintain the systems and to keep track of the inevitable “punch list” items that crop up. Sea Gull is only hull #9 of the L650 FLY, so there have also been some design changes that Sea Ray has implemented retroactively as they refine their design. We have found both Sea Ray and MarineMax to be very responsive to our needs, and Sea Gull proves herself to us every day.
Summer 2015 was spent cruising the Northeast and included a Club Sea Ray rendezvous in Atlantic City and the MarineMax “Black and White” event in Montauk. We migrated south to Florida in November and enjoyed cruising Florida and the Bahamas. Unfortunately work demands meant that we were only part time boaters – as we say, the boat lived in Florida for the winter. We just visited.
During the year we spent 130 nights on Sea Gull, exceeding my plan for living aboard 1/3 of our time. But we didn’t just sit at the dock either. We logged 278 engine hours, 450 generator hours, and 445 hours on the Sea Keeper gyros. We covered roughly 4,000 nm of coastline and burned a whopping 15,000 gallons of diesel.
Operating costs were lower than we budgeted, but partly because much of the service work was covered under warranty and fuel was relatively cheap this year. Overall, expenses were only 3.6% of the purchase price of the boat, and we budgeted for 10%. The biggest bill was for fuel, followed by dockage, insurance, service and parts.
All in all, it was a wonderful first year. We look forward to summer 2016 in New England and adventures beyond.