400 Sedan Bridge

Thanks, the clarification helped! Nothing on the sched that weekend so either way, it sounds like fun! Great stuff up there to do also.
 
I have 2 children, 4 and 2. They have both been brought up on the boat(s). I just got the bridge boat last season, and we LOVE :smt038 it. I have no worries about safety, and the bridge boat has increased our ability to boat, our last boat a 99 40 DA, was an awesome boat too, but my wife felt like she was always relegated to the 'cave' because of one thing or another with the kids. Now, the cave is gone, the kids have a variety of things to do, and no cave feeling because of the roominess and the abundance of natural light that get in.

The door to the bridge is great, given that my son was 1 last year, it was nice to have the whole family on the bridge, close the door and not worry about anyone falling down them.

Or, if they are in the cabin, and I am at the bridge, it is also very peaceful, either way, it is good.

I am still trying to figure out the dingy thing, I think Gary's jet toy is the fun way to go, maybe this year...

Hope that helps...

Ryan

PS - We love going to Mears, great pool for the little ones.:thumbsup: Besides - It is Todd's fault (the one who started this thread), he made my wife look at bridge boats and she fell in love, then I came to love them too.
 
I see a new club forming here - The Chesapeake Bay Searay Sedan Bridge Owner's Association. :thumbsup:

Will you guys discriminate based on size or just home port?:smt089
 
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Gentlemen,

We have a 2001 420AC with bridge and back deck over the aft cabin. My wife & I love all the extra interior room as well as several areas one can go when the boat seems to have to many people on it even if its only one more person at times. We've got 3126 Cats which are inline 6's even though originally we were looking at boats with Cat 3208 and 40,000lbs+. Glad we went with the boat we bought as it weighs 13,000lbs less and probably burns 1/2 as much fuel as the 45' Californians we were looking at. Have been around SR on the lake for years but until we came across the 420AC with cats we hadn't seriously considered the SR. Very glad we did as we are hoping to head North from Ft Lauderdale in April to the lower Chesapeake area this year. We intend to go back down this fall and cross back over the FL state December 1st. Nothing like those 84 degrees days in January when at home in Central VA area it's in the high 40s for the day.:smt038
 
Sedan Brigde Owners -
Am I missing something or is there not any sort of exterior fridge for beverages? I see that the bridge has a "cubby" but the salesman said that it isn't a fridge/icemaker and there is only an icemaker in the cockpit.

I envision most underway time spent with us all on the bridge until the kids are old enough to go up/down underway without supervision.

So how does the captain get an icy beverage? :huh:
Are we back to coolers? Are there aftermarket options? How have you all solved this perplexing problem. Thanks!
 
vanburen said:
Sedan Brigde Owners -
Am I missing something or is there not any sort of exterior fridge for beverages? I see that the bridge has a "cubby" but the salesman said that it isn't a fridge/icemaker and there is only an icemaker in the cockpit.

I envision most underway time spent with us all on the bridge until the kids are old enough to go up/down underway without supervision.

So how does the captain get an icy beverage? :huh:
Are we back to coolers? Are there aftermarket options? How have you all solved this perplexing problem. Thanks!
Click to expand...
The 400DB will have either a fridge or an icemaker on the port side in the cockpit. I opted for an icemaker. I do use a cooler, but it is the worlds greatest cooler (http://www.yeticoolers.com/) that is worth the trouble.
 
I have a refrigerator on my bridge... and I've only had beer bottles break twice in it...
 
The one we're looking at has the icemaker.

That is a very cool cooler - do you keep it on the bridge? Any memory of which size you have?
 
vanburen said:
The one we're looking at has the icemaker.

That is a very cool cooler - do you keep it on the bridge? Any memory of which size you have?
Click to expand...
I have the Fiberglass Series 60 quart. I keep it on the back deck. Sometimes I may put a smaller cooler up on the bridge for long trips...

Keep in mind that Gary's bridge is air conditioned as well. Bastard.
 
The u-shaped seating up there converts to a bed but I don't like sleeping up there. The kids like it though... You just have to be an early riser as the sun comes blasting in at sunrise.

The 44 doesn't have AC on the bridge? No wonder Tim has his 8 year old drive the boat while he hangs out in the AC below...
 
Four Suns said:
The 44 doesn't have AC on the bridge? No wonder Tim has his 8 year old drive the boat while he hangs out in the AC below...
Click to expand...
The new 44 has an option for bridge A/C, it wasn't available for me... and by the way, Jack is 9.
 
i have a tiny little wet bar with a big circular "cupholder" for an ice bucket on the bridge. and when i unzip the roll-up isinglass, i have air conditioning too! :smt009
 
rondds said:
i have a tiny little wet bar with a big circular "cupholder" for an ice bucket on the bridge. and when i unzip the roll-up isinglass, i have air conditioning too! :smt009
Click to expand...
Speaking of rolling up the isinglass... one of the best things I ever did was to install snaps onto the opening windows so they can be snapped up to the arch without having to roll them up. You can see it in the pic below, all the windows are opened and snapped up to the arch. Much better for the plastic...
2285432133_5580f724a0.jpg
 
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this sounds like a great idea, since the stupid straps that hold the rolled up plastic invariably, over the course of the season, put tiny scratches in the plastic, depending on the wind and amount of salt spray. but i'm trying to picture this - do you place snaps in the underside of the bimini and arch and snap the plastic to that (thus necessitating snaps in the isinglass) OR do you unzip and unsnap the entire panel, then hinge it up and snap IT to the bimini/arch?
 
rondds said:
this sounds like a great idea, since the stupid straps that hold the rolled up plastic invariable put tiny scratches in the plastic, depending on the wind and amount of salt spray. but i'm trying to picture this - do you place snaps in the underside of the bimini and arch and snap the plastic to that (thus necessitating snaps in the isinglass) OR do you unzip the entire panel, and snap IT to the bimini/arch?
Click to expand...
The snaps are in the sunbrella border around the isinglass, not in the plastic itself. The panels stay attached along the top edge and the panel is folded up and snapped to the arch.

Where I was unable to find a place to put a snap on the underside of the soft-top (like in the case of the two side windows), I actually made up an 18" strap with snaps on it, so the two side windows snap partially to the arch and partially to each other via this strap. Kind of hard to explain, but here's a reflected ceiling plan view of the arrangement. We snap up the front window first, and then the straps for the side windows provides further support for the front panel.

It looks complicated but it takes about 10 seconds to do / undo.

2286403442_1121baff39_o.jpg

Despite how this diagram looks, there are no snaps in the plastic, they are all in the sunbrella.
 
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We had an icemaker installed in the cockpit of our 36 DB since there was not enough room for a ref there or on the bridge. I liked the Yeti cooler that Festivus had ordered so much that I signed up to be a dealer for Yeti and ordered two for myself (the Sherpa and the Fiberglass). Much cooler (nice pun huh?) than an ugly igloo sitting in the cocpit.
 
I think that we will shorly be joining this new club, details will follow as they unfold but we are definately getting excited.

The snap strategy looks great and the dealer indicated they would just "make it happen".

I confess, I am still a bit concerned about the lack of external fridge. I really like being able to arrive on the boat after a week of work and have a cold one without dealing with chilling it first. The yeti's look good, and perhaps I can find a fridge to fit in the little cubby on the bridge. I wonder how the yeti does over a week if it is well iced at the end of the weekend?

I hope that we can make it to the BIH event - that would be a great entree into the bridge boat community (and other new folks).

Would appreciate any tips and tricks on the new bridge boat life, we had our 320 adapted to our lifestyle by trial and error and I'm sure people are way ahead of us on this. For instance, can you store things like bikes in the engineroom, or is all that space a no-no?

I will post some pictures soon. We are looking to shift our flag from Spontaneity to Exuberance within a month.

Thanks all and have a great weekend!
 
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