3270 Suitable for Liveaboard/Cruising/Fishing?-gctid826995

[BryGuy]

I'm a Canadian landlubber from the prairies of Alberta. I'm heading out to Vancouver Island to live on a boat. A boat that has caught my eye in my price range is an old 1983 3270 Motoryacht. Do you think it is realistic to use this boat as a liveaboard but also head out to the harbour pretty regularly for fishing/crabbing/prawning and also occasional overnight cruising? The price would leave me room to make some improvements if necessary. Right now it has twin Crusader engines which I think means gasoline. They are both at 1500 hours. Is repowering a boat like this realistic? Does anybody know what it would cost to repower to some rebuilt but modern diesel engines? Remember I'm in Canada and the work would have to be done somewhere on Vancouver Island or pretty nearby. Any thoughts will be appreciated.


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[Pcpete]

The 32xx is a great boat for livability. As with all boats there are bunch of compromises. Looking at the picture and your comments about powertrain, I have some suggestions that are somewhat personal but things you may not have thought about. First, the engines. Converting to diesel would be crazy expensive. Probably more than the price of the boat, you will never recover the cost in fuel and insurance savings and IMO, I'd just update the gassers with new as a compromise. You will want a diesel furnace or some sort of hydraunic or heat pump heating system. It's warmer here on the coast but it still gets cold and wet. Consider installing a fresh water flush electric toilet. I have found that I really like the cockpit hardtop. I'm looking forward to enclosing the cockpit so the area becomes more all weather friendly.

You may find the bigger challenge is finding moorage that allows live aboards.

That is a nice looking boat but make sure it has the major things you will need to make it comfortable.

[boatworkfl]

If your married, buy a 38xx boat, larger salon, or more important a port stateroom for guests or storage.

Price is close to the same depending on the boat, I would look for a 3888.

Find one that an older person is selling because they do not use it or retiring to a land lumber life.

You can buy a lot of gasoline for the price of re-powering with new or very good condition diesels.

Insurance is slightly higher for gasoline, but be sure to install fume and fire sensors.

I have a huge Halon system in my engine room with gas engines, the size is over kill.

I did live on my boat as a single for many years, now I go back to Alaska and spend summers there, I am in Florida now.

I met a sweetheart from Florida, now at 73 I still like the arrangement, best of both weather systems. perfect arrangement.

[diveguy]

Pete hit the nail on the head with his comments. Diesel would be an at expensive venture. The 32xx has a great layout and we love ours. The salon seating and and table is great for guests. We raft next to a 38xx and we end up on our boat to dine as the table fits 5 easily. I don't a lot fishing from mine but to cockpit is great when we do.

[Mr._Darcy]

One addition for live aboard you might consider is a transom door. The previous owner put one in my '86 3270, and I can't imagine climbing over the side every time I came home with groceries or whatever. It is especially nice to have in rainy weather. Also you will want the propane galley stove. Very economical to operate and much quicker than the 110 volt a/c electric ones. Like Pcpete said a diesel heating system would be great. I heat mine with a portable electric heater (1500 watt) most of the time. When it gets in the low forties and colder the Dickinson Alaska free standing diesel heater works great. You could likely install a gravity feed tank on the flybridge in some fashion. My boat has diesel engines so I am plumbed in to the starboard fuel tank with a low pressure 12 vdc pump and regulator. You could install a forced air diesel furnace (like the Wallas, very quiet) instead for the convenience if you wanted. The 3270 is a very comfortable one person (or a cozy couple) boat to live on.

[BryGuy]

Thanks all for your quick replies. I am married so there will be two of us on the boat but it sounds like it is doable as long as we both understand the sacrifice involved. I just haven't seen a lot of 38xx available in my price range and I want to stay somewhat agile in the marina. I think I'll drive out and take a look at this boat. It does have the propane galley stove and that is one of the things I noticed. I'm not sure the two burner electric/alcohol stoves in the express cruisers would really cut it for liveaboard. I have started looking for liveaboard moorage in the Victoria area and you are right, it is scarce, but I guess I'll just have to figure that out as we go.

[Pcpete]

I wanted to suggest the 38, but was gun shy. Since you have an Admiral to keep happy, you definitely want a transom door. Another item with the 38 is the master cabin has a walk around, well, along side bed so thos trips in the middle of the night are less of an issue. The guest cabin is huge, and having two heads with guests is really nice. We bought the boat in August of 16 so this past summer was our first vacation on it and it was the first time my Admiral wasn't ready to go home. After two weeks on our 2950 Encounter Sunbridge she was done with my late night trips. We slept in the mid cabin sideways berth and I was against the bulkhead. I was cut off of any beverage after 3PM.

Crabbing is easy, we bring the pot up, set it on the swim step and bring it through the transom door. Fishing was also successful once we made some adjustments in method.

[Mr._Darcy]

I looked on craigslist at that boat. Some of the photos are a bit dark and hard to see what there supposed to show, but overall looks decent and the $16,900 is probably reasonably in the ball park. It does have the propane range, so that is a plus. I also like the lower helm gauges and engine/transmission control layout better than my '86 with the "Star Wars" gauges. See if the fuel tanks have ever been replaced. If not get a estimate from North Harbor Diesel in Anacortes, WA and use that as a bargaining issue. Tanks on that model typically last 20 to 30 years. Mine were replaced in 1992 when only six years old and now the starboard tank needs to be replaced again. If you are going to repower, new tanks would be a good idea to do at the same time. Tanks are about $1,200 to $1,400 USD each plus labor.

Greg

[lhighland]

I bought my 1983 3270 new and still have it. I repowered the V6 Crusaders with diesel when they had about 1,500 hours. It now bears very little resemblance to original.

If the fuel tanks in the boat you're considering have not been replaced, they likely will soon need to be.

If you want to send me a PM with your contact informaiton, I'd be happy to send info along or talk.

[BryGuy]

Thanks again for all the input, lhighland was even good enough to phone me with the lowdown on the 3270 series. This forum is awesome. The 3270 does look like a great boat but after some discussion with my wife I think we will take some of the earlier advice offered and step up to a 38xx. We don't want to set ourselves up to fail on our liveaboard adventure and it would be nice if the kids could stay on our boat more or less comfortably when they visit. This has just been invaluable though, thanks everybody, I think I now know exactly what I'm looking for.

[diveguy]

Keep us posted on your adventure.