Sedan Bridge 550

Brock Chobar

Brock Chobar

New Member
Jan 9, 2018
18
Long Beach, CA
Boat Info
1992 370DB "Kara Jane" twin 7.4 Merc's. 10'6'' INMAR rib tender with a 20hp Honda.
Engines
7.4 454 Mercruiser with Hurth trans
Hey all,
I am pulling the trigger on a 1992 Sedan Bridge 550 permitting the hull out goes well. Engines checked out good. Powered by twin Detroit 6v92's. I was curious to who has on and what everyone thinks/knows about them. good, bad, ugly. Anything in particular on this one to look for? The HIN is SERY.. so a Florida built boat. Hull out is late next week so if you have thoughts lets hear it! She needs a little TLC on some small things but mostly good. I currently own a Sedan Bridge 370DA so at least I have that to help. Thanks in advance!
 
Brock, I have a '95 and love it. Mine has dual helms, Cats, and all the comforts of home.

The good: All the comforts of home and a very comfy boat to cruise on. Comfy for up to 6 adults on an overnighter, and we've had as many as 22 guests on board for an evening cruise.

The bad: It takes a bunch of fuel to push that much boat through the water. You will find it's MUCH cheaper to operate if you're running at "cocktail speed", or around 6-8kts. At WOT (which I NEVER do) it running at 30.3kts and gulps 65 gallons per hour.

The ugly: The looks on the faces of some on the docks when you pull her into a new marina or where you're tying up for dinner.
 
We have a similar vintage 500 Sundancer with 8V92s. We are close to 3000 hours with little repairs. We had some injectors go bad and washed out 3 cylinders, not an engine fault, just bad fuel. I think as long as they are not the DDEC version, which didn't come out till 1997, I think, you should be good to go.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Brock, I have a '95 and love it. Mine has dual helms, Cats, and all the comforts of home.

The good: All the comforts of home and a very comfy boat to cruise on. Comfy for up to 6 adults on an overnighter, and we've had as many as 22 guests on board for an evening cruise.

The bad: It takes a bunch of fuel to push that much boat through the water. You will find it's MUCH cheaper to operate if you're running at "cocktail speed", or around 6-8kts. At WOT (which I NEVER do) it running at 30.3kts and gulps 65 gallons per hour.

The ugly: The looks on the faces of some on the docks when you pull her into a new marina or where you're tying up for dinner.
Click to expand...
Awesome! Thanks for the reply! She sure does have a lot of room and what seems like endless storage. Id love to add a bow thruster at some point... im sure getting off a side tie can be a challenge at times without it? No more asking the wife for a little dock push lol.

We seem to cruise at 8-10kts on longer trips and when the wife isn't looking I throttle up.

we love how big the cockpit is! This one has the 2 corner benches so outside dining will be nice.

Any tips, trick or add on's you've done that you like id love to hear! I need to replace upper helm gauges and hunt down some misc sea ray parts that are broke.
 
bahamabreisus said:
We have a similar vintage 500 Sundancer with 8V92s. We are close to 3000 hours with little repairs. We had some injectors go bad and washed out 3 cylinders, not an engine fault, just bad fuel. I think as long as they are not the DDEC version, which didn't come out till 1997, I think, you should be good to go.
Click to expand...
Cool! yeah we are excited to get her! She seems very solid. We currently have a 370 sedan bridge.. This kinda randomly came up and was way to good of a deal to pass up. Wish it had a bow thruster being this big but we can always add that next year.
 
Bahama's comments notwithstanding, I have a thruster and, while I don't use it often, when I do use it it's nice to have.

A "freebie" way of getting off a dock is to use a spring line. And by that I don't mean the kind of spring line where you use them to hold your boat ONTO the dock. These are used to get OFF the dock and they're wonderful.

When you go to replace the gauges you'll find the ones on the lower helm and the ones you're replacing aren't made any more. If you want the upper and lower gauges to match you'll have to replace all of them. Sucks, but that's the reality.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Bahama's comments notwithstanding, I have a thruster and, while I don't use it often, when I do use it it's nice to have.

A "freebie" way of getting off a dock is to use a spring line. And by that I don't mean the kind of spring line where you use them to hold your boat ONTO the dock. These are used to get OFF the dock and they're wonderful.

When you go to replace the gauges you'll find the ones on the lower helm and the ones you're replacing aren't made any more. If you want the upper and lower gauges to match you'll have to replace all of them. Sucks, but that's the reality.
Click to expand...

Gofirstclass, how do you use that off the dock spring in yours? I've done it but in much smaller boats.
My inside helm gauges are in great shape so I'll.wait on those till next year. What gauges did you use on your bridge? Did they just wire up the same for the most part? I've done hot rods so I assume it's the same. Thanks bud!
 
Brock, let me put together a Paint thingy to show you because I think that would be clearer than I could explain it. It works to spring the bow our the stern out away from the dock.
 
Well, Microsoft changed my Paint program from the old Paint we're all used to, to a 3D version that I don't want to take the time to learn right now.

So picture your boat tied to a dock on our starboard side. Put some extra fenders near the area where the side of the boat curves toward the bow.

Set up a dock line that goes from your forward cleat, down to the dock and wraps one time around the dock cleat then back up to have your Admiral hold the bight end of the dock line. It's important that you only go about 1/2 way around, not a complete loop. The line should pass under both "horns" on the dock cleat but not make a complete circle around the cleat.

Remove all the other lines then put the port engine in forward for just a couple of seconds. That will start the boat moving forward but it can't go too far because of you one dock line.

As the boat tries to move forward it will pivot at the dock line, sending the bow gently toward the dock and swinging the s.tern out away from the dock. More gentle applications of power on the port engine will help the process.

When the stern gets out far enough that you can back away from the dock (about 45 degrees) have your Admiral release the bight end of the dock line and pull the line back onto the boat.

The key to success of this is to practice it a lot so you and your Admiral get your timing down. You are the one who tells her when to release the line from around the cleat and pull it back onto the boat. If you do this will very little time in gear and at very low speed it works very well.

If you're trying to move the stern away from the dock and against the wind it may take some judicial application of power. Remember, it's a big, heavy boat that takes time to respond so don't be in a rush.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Well, Microsoft changed my Paint program from the old Paint we're all used to, to a 3D version that I don't want to take the time to learn right now.

So picture your boat tied to a dock on our starboard side. Put some extra fenders near the area where the side of the boat curves toward the bow.

Set up a dock line that goes from your forward cleat, down to the dock and wraps one time around the dock cleat then back up to have your Admiral hold the bight end of the dock line. It's important that you only go about 1/2 way around, not a complete loop. The line should pass under both "horns" on the dock cleat but not make a complete circle around the cleat.

Remove all the other lines then put the port engine in forward for just a couple of seconds. That will start the boat moving forward but it can't go too far because of you one dock line.

As the boat tries to move forward it will pivot at the dock line, sending the bow gently toward the dock and swinging the s.tern out away from the dock. More gentle applications of power on the port engine will help the process.

When the stern gets out far enough that you can back away from the dock (about 45 degrees) have your Admiral release the bight end of the dock line and pull the line back onto the boat.

The key to success of this is to practice it a lot so you and your Admiral get your timing down. You are the one who tells her when to release the line from around the cleat and pull it back onto the boat. If you do this will very little time in gear and at very low speed it works very well.

If you're trying to move the stern away from the dock and against the wind it may take some judicial application of power. Remember, it's a big, heavy boat that takes time to respond so don't be in a rush.
Click to expand...


Thanks a million!!! That's what I had in mind, just wanted to be sure since you have the same boat. The wife is a little worried about her roll on such a big boat so anything to calm her is great. I feel fine running the boat and know I can do so no problem. I got the 2 way head sets so we can talk and not yell lol. She gets a little sensitive to a raised voice.

Hey, what do you do when on the hook or can for power to your fridge? These on mine are 110v so the gen is obviously needed a lot! Do you run your gen all day? Or have you added batteries and inverter? If so what did you do? My last baot had a 110v/12v fridge... Bummer to have to run gen all day on this boat.
 
Brock Chobar said:
The wife is a little worried about her roll on such a big boat so anything to calm her is great.
Click to expand...

I too was a little worried about my wife's roll on a bigger boat, so I use this technique which requires her to do nothing when we leave a dock. Notice the outcome is the same but you don't need a spring line. All the docks and bulkheads in our area are padded. I wouldn't try this against a raw wood or concrete edge.

In Figure A. My lines are untied and the boat is right next to the dock.

In Figure B. Once at the helm, I put the starboard in forward and port reverse. This pushes my bow against the bulkhead and swings the stern away.

In Figure C. Once the stern is far enough away from the bulkhead, put both engines in reverse and back away safely.

Untitled-1.jpg
 
Brock, when I bought the boat I had the yard that was putting her back together add some additional equipment. Ailmong that list was a 4K inverter and 3 HUGE batteries to support it.

It converts 12VDC to 110VAC. My refer runs on 110VAC unless there is none of that available, then it runs on 12VDC but as I understand it's not as efficient on 12VDC.

The inverter also lets me run a microwave, toaster, coffee pot, etc., without having to start the genny. The stove is 240VAC so to use that I still have to run the genny. Running the boat's heat and A/C units also calls for the genny.
 
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