450 EB Ready For Second Round

[xplorer]

I hate to admit that our great loop adventure is nearing an end but we’re now headed north on the ICW. We have enjoyed cruising in so many of your cruising areas and meeting so many great CSR boaters. However, with the end of our adventure we must offer this great boat to new owners for their adventure. Xplorer will be too big for the two of us when we get back on the Potomac River.

So, if you’re looking for a larger Sea Ray and especially a great 450 Express Bridge that is already outfitted for cruising or to do America’s Great Loop again, take a look at www.xplorer.talkspot.com and click on Xplorer For Sale. That’s where all the low down can be found along with details of our ongoing adventure.

We appreciate CSR member support during the last year and look forward to keeping up the super relationships we’ve made.

Mike & Cathy Cahill
Aboard Xplorer
Laying Carribean Jack’s Marina, Daytona Beach for a couple weeks.

 

[Hampton]

Good for you guys. It's too early in life for me to do that yet, but some day....

 

[W'EYE NOT]

Xplorer

I just joined Club Sea Ray today. I am printing your log to enjoy with my wife tonight. We bought a 450EB this past May and trucked it from Naples to Chesapeake City, MD.

Did you feel the boat was the right one to make such an incredible journey? Maybe one day we can make a trip such as yours. Congratulations!

Please let me know your feeling about the trip as it relates to the boat.

Thank you

Joe & Cathy Lunny
W'EYE NOT

 

[xplorer]

Joe,

I just wrote this long winded reply to your question and somehow lost it as it didn't post. In brief words we loved the 450EB for lots of reasons. I'll see if I can recover the longer version over the next couple of days.

 

[W'EYE NOT]

Thanks we look forward to additional information!

 

[W'EYE NOT]

Mike and Cathy

When you get a chance, we would love to hear your opinion on the experience as it relates to your boat where we have just bought the sale 450 EB and had it delivered in June.

We have been enjoying it on the Chesapeake Bay.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Joe & Cathy

 

[mike472]

Mike and Cathy,

I'd love to hear your opinions about the 450EB. I read xplorers travelogue but he didnt go into much detail about the boat and its functionality, fuel usage, rough water handling and other things like the options you have and what you like or dont like about the boat. Thanks

Mike Katsoris

 

[xplorer]

I tried this once and lost the info while posting but here goes again.

We loved our 450 EB and found it extremely beneficial during our Great Loop experience. In no order of importance here are our thoughts on several issues during the 13 months we were on Xplorer.

Solid electronics – we had upgraded from the RL70 (green CRT) chartplotter to a RL80CRC and used it all the time with C-Map NT+ chips. We added a 2nd VHF radio on the bridge which was very handy during locking and flotilla coordination. Radar came in handy in open water and during busy river conditions.

Economy vs Time – We loved having the ability to come up on plane and cruise at 20-22 MPH or cruise at trawler speed for days at 10 MPH. The latter allowed us to go through most of Ontario Canada on less than two tanks of fuel (remember you buy by the liter there!!). For those into numbers, we burned approx 23 GPH at 20-22MPH and about 7 GPH at 10MPH. We did adhere to our mechanics recommendation to run the engines at something greater than 18 MPH for a half hour at the end of a slow cruising day. This was to heat the turbo chargers and oil in the engines.

Flexible Space – We fell in love with the 3 stateroom layout on the 2000 EB because it let us use the 3rd stateroom for storage of clothes, spare parts, charts, guidebooks, etc. This left the 2nd stateroom available for guests. We never felt cramped but we did find every nook and cranny available. We took so much food into Canada and over to the Bahamas!! You know what, both have grocery stores!! We generally took our boat when traveling as a group because we could get more folks on it comfortably. On one outing in the Keys’ we had 14 aboard on a snorkeling trip!

Safety First – We can’t expound on the safety that a center walk down from the bridge provides. Cathy was so pleased with having the ability to walk down the center during our 100+ locks and nearly twice that in dockings. She also found the recessed walkway on the bow provided her with a true sense of security when handling lines on the bow because she could brace her knees on the bow well rather than having to rely on leaning on the bow railing.

Sure Handling – We found that Xplorer handled well in seas under 6 feet for a planing hull vessel. I’m sure that weighing 43,000 pounds helped. For one brief period we traversed through 10-14 foot, short period swells while traversing outside around Wale Cay in the Bahamas. She did well but you had to stay ahead of the curve and power down over the tops. Gratefully, this lasted about 15-20 minutes before we were back onto the banks. The other great aspect of this boat was its close quarter handling in the locks and around small marinas in Canada. I try not to rely on the bow thruster but it did come in handy.

Great Maintenance – The 450 Cummins were bullet proof. We had only one issue with the either engine. One of those 5 cent E-clips popped off the post holding the throttle linkage! So, I can say, we traveled over 7,400 miles on the Cummins and spend 5 cents on parts!! Oh, of course, I’m not counting the case of racor filters, numerous oil changes, etc. but these are routine maintenance items that we did religiously. All told, we completed the entire trip and only required the following: replaced bow thruster battery charger, one set of duck bills and a gasket on one of the vaccuflushes, one fuel pump and one impeller shaft seal on the westerbeke generator and that’s it… Heck, I replaced way more than that stuff on my newer 310 with fewer hours.

We added a highly rated water filter at the galley sink which allowed us to operate off on board fresh water supplies rather than bottled water. This worked very well for us.

We loved the Splendide washer/dryer. I know some complain about its size but we found as long as we did laundry about every other day it worked well. We were always at the dock when we did it and took sheets and big stuff to the marina’s laundry.

Things I would like to improve on:

Relocate the shower sump pump – it is in the worlds most difficult spot to clean and there is tons of space available for SR to locate it…

I’ve probably missed some items but this is a good start.

Mikehttp://clubsearay.com/forum/images/icons/icon7.gif