52' Jefferson Monticello: to bid or not to bid?

[rickali]

Hello everyone,

Last weekend my husband and I had the opportunity to look at several boats in the 43'-52' range. Our intention is to use it as live aboard while my husband works in out of town projects and eventually as a Great Loop boat.
Chartering it is not out of the question.
We were very pleased with the lay out of the 1988 Monticello and we are familiar with their Taiwanese building origin, yet it has been very hard to get any information regarding its structural integrity, reliability in open seas (there may be times when we can be outside the ICW, depending on weather, etc), hull blisters, quality of ride, magazine reviews, etc.
Also the lack of a Jefferson owners forum is somewhat of a concern. Our other options are a 1970 44' tri-cabin Hatteras (saw one that requires looots of work and the salesperson pretty much talked us out of it) or a 1981 48MY Hatteras (which have not seen in person but like the plan in paper), which seem to be built like tanks.
Any comments, advise, previous ownership of any of these will be greatly appreciated.
PS: Jefferson Yachts filed for Liquidation earlier this year. Very sad when any boating company closes its doors.

[gettinthere]

Is this a full cabin yacht, with no side decks? Many motor yachts are gunnel to gunnel with cabin. If you want to do the loop, you'll appreciate being able to walk the entire perimeter of the boat outside to handle docking & locking. Worth it to give up a bit of interior room.

[rickali]

It does have side decks up to the upper helm/salon area where we would have to walk through to handle the aft lines from the aft deck. Good point about the open deck all around. Are you thinking about handling the canal locks? Is a 52' too large for the Loop?.

[gettinthere]

Much bigger boats have done the loop.
Your main concern would be air draft. The limit is about 17' or 15', depending on which part of the Erie Canal you take. Exact heights are available from various sources, I gave approximations from memory.

With twin engines plus thruster, a competent helmsman shouldn't have much trouble. A boat that size's biggest problem will be cross winds.

But if you don't really need that big a boat, then don't. You will occasionally have minor issues finding dock space for anything over 50' and deeper than 5'

[rickali]

Originally Posted by gettinthere

Much bigger boats have done the loop.
Your main concern would be air draft. The limit is about 17' or 15', depending on which part of the Erie Canal you take. Exact heights are available from various sources, I gave approximations from memory.

With twin engines plus thruster, a competent helmsman shouldn't have much trouble. A boat that size's biggest problem will be cross winds.

But if you don't really need that big a boat, then don't. You will occasionally have minor issues finding dock space for anything over 50' and deeper than 5'

Thanks for the advise. The radar arch in the bridge is hinged so it can fold. We have college kids so tri cabin arrangement would be nice although a double can do.
Still no one seems to know much about Jeffersons in general. I realize that each boat is assessed on its own merits, yet to have a whole brand ignored is puzzling!

[skipmac]

Never heard of the Jefferson before so take my comments with a grain of salt.

I did find photos on the net and the one I saw definitely had a side deck walkway to the bow.

For a power boat, just as critical as the hull construction and quality is the condition of the engines. If the engines are shot you could spend $50,000 to repower.

If you can't find any information on the boat find a good power boat surveyor to do an initial checkout for you.

[rickali]

We plan to have both general and engine surveyors. The owners seem to have kept good records. On the other hand when we raised a floor access panel in the front cabin, there was a fairly bit of water. There is a head next to this area. No offensive smells.Not sure what may be leaking...