2002 380 Sundancer Low Bridge Clearance

[LivinLife]

The time has come to part ways with my 380 Sundancer. I live on the Gunpowder River off the Chesapeake, and have a fixed bridge that I need to get under. For that reason I had a hydraulic hinge done to the arch. This now puts my clearance at about 10'6" (may be able to get more with bimini frame undone/ I have never had to get it that low). If anyone out there knows of anyone in that same bridge clearance situation that is looking for this style boat I would appreciate you passing this along to them.
Feel free to PM me if you have any additional questions that I can answer!
Kevin

 

[Bucit]

I had my 280 hinged (not hydraulic) and it works fine. I have an 8' bridge so I lower my rear bimini often. Not bad though, 2 minutes of hassle for a day (or longer) of boating. Do you have pictures of the hinge?

 

[LivinLife]

Will have pictures in the next couple of days. The work was done by Island Coast Boat Works from Cape Coral Florida. The have a picture of another boat they did under one of their tabs on their site islandcoastboatworks.com. I will try to remember to put some up when I take them.

 

[hack4alivin]

The time has come to part ways with my 380 Sundancer. I live on the Gunpowder River off the Chesapeake, and have a fixed bridge that I need to get under. For that reason I had a hydraulic hinge done to the arch. This now puts my clearance at about 10'6" (may be able to get more with bimini frame undone/ I have never had to get it that low). If anyone out there knows of anyone in that same bridge clearance situation that is looking for this style boat I would appreciate you passing this along to them.
Feel free to PM me if you have any additional questions that I can answer!
Kevin

10’ 6” is plenty of room to clear the bridge unless there is the rare very high tide. My clearance with the radar is 11’ 6 and I go out all the time, unless the above mentioned case. On the tide charts I will use high plus 1.7 as my cut off point to clear. Under most conditions you will have over 11 feet of clearance. The only thing to watch for is a strong wind from the south pushing the bay water up, be that is not often either.

 

[LivinLife]

10’ 6” is plenty of room to clear the bridge unless there is the rare very high tide. My clearance with the radar is 11’ 6 and I go out all the time, unless the above mentioned case. On the tide charts I will use high plus 1.7 as my cut off point to clear. Under most conditions you will have over 11 feet of clearance. The only thing to watch for is a strong wind from the south pushing the bay water up, be that is not often either.

The last 2 times I have been out (within the last few weeks), the mark at the bridge has been at 11 feet, and there have been boats waiting on the outside for the tide to go down. This mornings tide was extremely high also probably above the 11' mark. My neighbor waited two hours this past Sunday in his 320 w/ no radar. I have never had to wait and had the hinge done so I would never have to worry about it. Also my original clearance was 13'5" and there would be no way of getting that in and out without it being done. It has been worth every penny spent. I wanted a bigger boat than what conventionally fits back there, but also didn't want to restore an older one with a lower arch. Many times over the last few years we have come through while others are waiting to get in or out.

 

[hack4alivin]

Kevin,

Same here…. After being here a few years I know what my clearance is! I usually judge my go/no go on the level of the floating pier here to the side walk going to the pier. Even is a go, 1 inch above and it will be close, 2 inches then wait for the tide to drop. I have it down and I know when I can clear. As far as I am considered an inch is as good as a mile! I have others here at our marina wait for hours for the tide to get to low, and even then they may not go out. I know my boat and I know my clearance and give me an inch is as good as a mile, once I am out then it is see you later! Everyone else that would like to stay back can be a dock queen if they like….. I am on my way to other adventure…. Radar still intact!

 

[LivinLife]

I had my 280 hinged (not hydraulic) and it works fine. I have an 8' bridge so I lower my rear bimini often. Not bad though, 2 minutes of hassle for a day (or longer) of boating. Do you have pictures of the hinge?

Here are some pictures....

 

[hack4alivin]

That is an awesome setup. I have heard from the marina folks here that someone had it done, but that is the first I have seen. I really don’t need it on mine, like I said in the early post I can get out under most conditions. Now when I get the Sedan Bridge I want, that will be a horse of a different color…. Time to move marinas.

 

[Scott1]

That hinge is bad azz. If sea ray or somebody local could have done that for me i would have purchased a newer 260 with an arch. I put my boat on a lift and an arch would have hit my boat slip roof. So i had to get the yr with out the arch (what I did) or leave it in the water bottom painted (aint going to happen.) Can you guys post who did the work?

 

[LivinLife]

That hinge is bad azz. If sea ray or somebody local could have done that for me i would have purchased a newer 260 with an arch. I put my boat on a lift and an arch would have hit my boat slip roof. So i had to get the yr with out the arch (what I did) or leave it in the water bottom painted (aint going to happen.) Can you guys post who did the work?

Island Coast Boat Works out of Cape Coral Florida came up and did the work. The only company I could find who had done it before, and I looked for awile. It took a week to install and they guys knew exactly what they were doing. You don't want someone to try this the first time on your boat!! Hydraulic system runs off of a Bennett trim tab pump and it goes up and down completely silent with the push of a button. Can't say enough good stuff about those guys.... Had to pay for the flights and hotel for the guys while they were here in addition to the hinge work. That was the downside. But if your situation calls for it, you will find a way to make it work to get what you want.

 

[Scott1]

Island Coast Boat Works out of Cape Coral Florida came up and did the work. The only company I could find who had done it before, and I looked for awile. It took a week to install and they guys knew exactly what they were doing. You don't want someone to try this the first time on your boat!! Hydraulic system runs off of a Bennett trim tab pump and it goes up and down completely silent with the push of a button. Can't say enough good stuff about those guys.... Had to pay for the flights and hotel for the guys while they were here in addition to the hinge work. That was the downside. But if your situation calls for it, you will find a way to make it work to get what you want.

That looks incredible and its self propelled! Does it need the power assist? Or is the arch lite enough that one could do it by hand?

 

[Bucit]

Kevin, what did this mod run you? My manual hinge cost me $3500 but it's not as neat of an appearance as yours. The arch is perfectly balanced though so one person can lower and raise with no problem.

 

[LivinLife]

That looks incredible and its self propelled! Does it need the power assist? Or is the arch lite enough that one could do it by hand?

Never tried it manually, but I think it would be pretty tough to do manually especially with just one person. The power assist I think was well worth the extra.

 

[LivinLife]

Kevin, what did this mod run you? My manual hinge cost me $3500 but it's not as neat of an appearance as yours. The arch is perfectly balanced though so one person can lower and raise with no problem.

That was the tough part to swallow..... $5000.00 for the hinge, $5,000.00 for the hydraulic option, and two men travel and hotel for a week almost $5000.00. So about $15,000.00 total. But it was done right the first time professionally in a week and it was a lot of work. No other boat of this size and model year can make it back here on a regular basis, and that is what I wanted so the price took a back seat. I stopped in every day to check on it, and it was a mess in the beginning especially getting all the wiring disconnected. Then getting the arch working smoothly and getting everything connected again. The pump is on my forward bulkhead, and the wiring all has a labeled junction box behind the storage compartment to the side of the helm seat where it was reconnected. Again I don't think any other company could have done a better job. Most people would never be able to tell it was done. I will post a pic with it up so you can see how standard it looks. I did also have to get a few snap extenders for the canvas because it raised the arch a bit, but they are only on the side windows, about 4 on each side.