We are extremely excited to officially introduce you to our new nomadic home on the water – m/v Y-Not.
Y-Not is a 1999 Bayliner 4788. She’s a 47′ 4″ long motor yacht with twin screw (twin screw = two engines) Cummins 370 HP engines, bow thruster and a custom hydraulic folding arch.
Despite Bayliner being regarded as a relatively mass-market focused boat maker, the 4788 was their high-end flagship and the model earned a reputation as a solidly built vessel that has withstood the test of time. Eventually the design was actually migrated to the Meridian brand to present as a more upscale yacht to get away from the ‘Barfliner’ association.
The Great Loop
Quick Re-cap:
Our next nomadic chapter is exploring America’s eastern coastal waterways, canals and rivers via the Great Loop – slowly over several years.
Y-Not is our new summer nomadic water home base.
We’re keeping Zephyr, our 1961 bus conversion, as our winter nomadic land base to continue exploring around the south.
If you’re just tuning in, here’s some related posts about this upcoming adventure of ours:
While pictures may tell a thousand words, video tells even more. So if you have the time and bandwidth, here’s a quick 12 minutes video tour of our new vessel:
General Interior
We’ll follow up later with more on what lead us to selecting a pilothouse v-berth layout this large, even when we were originally specifically interested in a 38′ – 42′ aft cabin sun-deck style. But it was in large part the smooth flowing layout and wide open views of the 4788 that won our hearts.
Bayliner 4788 Living Space Layout
We kinda neglected to take a lot of photos of the interior of Y-Not, so thank you Pier One Yacht Sales (selling broker) for providing them from the listing to share with you.
Before
Before
The boat has 4 different levels, not including the engine room. Two bedrooms (originally it had three), 2 bathrooms, 6 sinks, 3 air conditioners and 7 heaters. We have five distinct hang out areas onboard – cockpit, flybridge, salon, pilot house and bow.
Suffice it to say, it’s a mansion in comparison to our 35′ bus.
Upon delivery it was in pretty great shape and pretty darn livable from day one. And we’re of course already in progress on making some updates and building our list of projects we want to eventually tackle (yes – lithium, solar, induction and more.)
General Bayliner 4788 Specifications:
Custom Hydraulic Arch
The seller of the boat lived in a canal community that had a fixed 14′ bridge to get under. He had modified the boat with a hydraulic folding arch to get the bridge clearance down to 12′ with less than 10 minutes worth of effort. PERFECT for doing the entirety of the Great Loop!
Arch folded down
Prepping the flybridge to fold the arch
Y-Not with the arch down – a unique feature to get the bridge clearance down to 12′.
This was a major selling point for us with Y-Not, on top of the owner having taken excellent care of the vessel.
The name Y-Not was also a selling point on our pros & cons lists of boats we were considering. It’s the original name of the boat taken from the first owner’s name of Tony (Y-Not backwards).
As many alternate names as we could come up with, we just couldn’t find anything that would make it worthwhile to go through the efforts to change the name. It’s a huge process – between Coast Guard documentation & appeasing the gods.
Y-Not just perfectly summarizes our life philosophy. So, we’re keeping it.
Upcoming, we have a post planned to share with you:
Why we decided on a 47′ pilot house motor yacht
The shopping, buying and closing process (yes, including the expenses involved with purchasing a boat of this type)
Hello Ye’ Maty’s!
I owe ya a bit of gratitude. I have been looking at boats since I fell off the family sailboat at 2 years old. It’s been a dream to live on one. I shared that dream with my Dad but, it’s too late for him now. I’ve decided I’m not about to make that same mistake. I just needed some reality check to push me in the right direction. You have done that for me. I really needed some good numbers to run for a Bayliner like Y-Knot. See, that’s what is scary at first because so much of the costs of ownership people won’t talk about. So, thank you ever so much for the excellent break down. My plan is to sell my house which has luckily doubled in value from its purchase price and follow your lead. You made great financial sense as I still work and have income too. My target is at least a couple years away still so I leave the land without “land based bills”. Keep up the great work because your time and effort has been very helpful.
Y-not is a real beauty! We are quite interested in your blogs and web casts as we are currently shopping for something similar. We have followed you for a couple years and really like your blogs, casts and commentary on various topics. Safe sailing!
Hopey you enjoy your new adventure. Sure it will take some practice and repetition. In the video the gentleman with white beard, what was his first name? He looks like a high school friend whom I know is a huge sail enthusiast living in Florida, but I believe lives on east coast side.
But our first night anchoring out, a neighboring boat ran a janky contractor style generator all night long. I imagine we weren’t the only ones fantasizing about swimming over to turn that generator into an anchor with a little shove…
I just stumbled upon your blog today, and I think this is completely awesome. I live in Tampa, so it sounds like you’re in my neck of the woods! Happy Travels!!
Just curious as to why you didn’t get a trawler if you’ll be running at trawler speeds anyway. You could run a single engine and cut your maintenance costs and use less fuel.
I am so happy for you two. I have been following you for about a year now. We have a Marine Trader 36′ trawler aft cabin sundeck, ( you might have looked @ one in shopping around.) We love the layout of the Bayliner 4788. We have been looking for a 4588 which is identical to yours, just shorter. I know you will enjoy it. We live in Va. on the Chesapeake bay, part of the inter coastal you will be traveling when you head north. HAVE FUN…
NICE! Going to have lots of fun. We live in Fairport, NY (on the Erie/Barge Canal near Rochester) if you want to stay at our house for a couple days when you go through the area, you’re more than welcome. I’d be happy to cart you around for supplies if needed on the weekend. Can also do a cookout at our house. We look forward to fultiming in 2yrs 5months and can’t wait. Thanks again for all the posts. Look forward to following your posts.
Interesting that some people insist on crabbing about your decision to move to a boat even part time.. As if they were the arbitrator of your life… Sheesh.. I think the boat is gorgeous. and BTW who says RVing has to be done with wheels? The boat is a recreational vehicle as well. Just on water. Enjoy!
We’re very blessed that most of our fans have been super excited for us.. the few who crab about the loss of RV-specific content has been relatively minor (but amusing nonetheless – as if we’re going to put off our dreams just to create the specific content they want?)
Hah.. we told our broker about your first dibs claim. He said we might the first buyers he’s encountered to already have an offer to sell a boat we hadn’t even decided on yet, let alone bought. 😀
Since you are talking about taking 3-4 years to complete the loop, we will be at or near 70 years old by then. I hope we are both still physically capable of managing a boat on our own by then. I think so, but you never know what health surprises may be in store for you.
Congratulations to you both and the Admiral! Y-Not is a beauty and I’m sure will be a joy to live and cruise on. Honestly, after following your travels in the Zephyr, I fully expected to see you in a Grand Banks 36! Ha! Shows how little I know! My wife and I plan to embark on the Great Loop sometime in the next two years, departing from Tampa Bay. We’re looking now for larger shoal draft sailboat with a mast tabernacle. We’ll keep a lookout for you and Y-Not along the way! Wishing you the very best in your voyage.
We did look at some Grand Banks.. beautiful, indeed. But the older ones in our price range had teak decking (too much maintenance), fuel tank problems, etc. And the newer ones out of reach 🙂
NIcely done! Congratulations on your new boat and the next phase of your life. I’ve enjoyed following you all for some time and look forward to your next video!
. . . or clean and paint the bottom, or satisfy the Coast Guard requirements (not really that difficult, but there just the same), or learn how to anchor for a blow, or . . .
It will be SO much fun!
Sigh.
No, no envy here . . .
Ed H.says
Looking forward to sharing your adventures!! Your livin the dream
Great choice of boat..I love the layout… you would be hard pressed to find a better bang for your bucks…These boats are super well built and are really holding their value.. Again congratulations… you hit gold 🙂
Very nice boat and a good choice for your plans. I’m sure you’ll also want to get it setup for the boating equivalent of RV boon docking, anchoring out with no hookups, away from marinas.
Wow!! Beautiful boat, and your choices clearly show the careful research you did about find a “Looper” boat. Good luck with the modifications and upgrades, and I look forward to following your Great Loop journey!
Wow guys I am SO jealous! Gorgeous boat! I’ve dreamed of doing the same for years. I grew up on the ocean and spent 14 years as a lobster fisherman in Maine so I am VERY familiar with boats but all of my boats were working boats (with the exception of the speedboat I had in Montana before buying our RV). Maybe in a few years we’ll be ready to make the jump.
Love the video and the pics! Keep ’em coming so I can live vicariously through you! 🙂
As I stated b 4 we are way past excited for you both! U r about a 2 years ahead of us as we finish our RV Adventure next Dec go back to our sticks and bricks for a year or so, then The Great Loop is calling us! The 4788 is the boat we are also really interested in (Other half needs that space and luxury to be convinced) for the Loop! So looking forward to being along for your Great Loop voyage! Keep up your great work, blog, seminars and videos! Kudos and big HUGS!
Congratulations! It looks like a beautiful boat. I can’t wait to stay stuned along the way. Thanks for all of your insights while we took our family cross country in a travel trailer. Now we’re managing a campground and I give out your website every week to people interested in internet upgrades! Cheers to your new journeys ahead.
You two are so brave and adventurous. I envy you!
Wishing you the best in your new venture north and thanks for sharing. It is going to be so much fun being a part of your travels. The water is going to be so different then the road travel….. Thanks for sharing….
Nancy Green
CONGRATULATIONS…yes I am shouting as I am so thrilled for you two. We are ardent PNW boaters and new RVers too. We share your excitement about doing the Great Loop but are a few years behind you as we are having to much fun in our RV part of the year right now.
The 47 Bayliner is a great boat and a great choice for the loop plus you can easily still work aboard. We have a 38 Bayliner and love it as well. Happy to talk boating anytime!!
You will have SOOO much fun!
Brenda King
MV Beach House
LY Road House
Our38ftlife.wordpress.com
Oh my goodness – it’s huge – and beautiful. Great choice. You are going to have so much fun! I’m so happy for you.
We are FINALLY getting an RV on 4/3 and will finish getting the rest of our stuff sold so we can be full time, too.
So you will going through the Great Lakes (a couple of them anyway) on this trip. I live in Canada, about 42 miles North of Lake Erie. one you will be passing through, although your boat will pass is through the Welland Canal (you and your boat would have trouble with Niagara Falls), which is about 80 miles away as the bird flies. In your travels through Lake Erie, stop and pony up to Port Dover Ontario. There are some very good eats within walking distance, fish, Hot dogs, just do not stop there on a Friday the 13th, as every Friday the 13th the Bikers from around the Continent and World meet in Port Dover, cars are banned from the town you can see one of these gatherings here in this Video I made about 6 or 7 years ago – https://youtu.be/JUy6l8FoJqM A lot of People form this town head to Port Dover on the weekends for feed and walk through town. You also in Lake Ontario the Western end, you need to stop and either rent a car or get a taxi and Visit Niagara Falls, that is a World Heritage town – https://youtu.be/IVKXywZ6hPk Also during the Summer, out the end of Long Point in Lake Erie, they have a party out there boats only, the push together two barges, use that as a stage and it grows every year.
Have great fun on your trip, be safe.
Palladini
Hello Ye’ Maty’s!
I owe ya a bit of gratitude. I have been looking at boats since I fell off the family sailboat at 2 years old. It’s been a dream to live on one. I shared that dream with my Dad but, it’s too late for him now. I’ve decided I’m not about to make that same mistake. I just needed some reality check to push me in the right direction. You have done that for me. I really needed some good numbers to run for a Bayliner like Y-Knot. See, that’s what is scary at first because so much of the costs of ownership people won’t talk about. So, thank you ever so much for the excellent break down. My plan is to sell my house which has luckily doubled in value from its purchase price and follow your lead. You made great financial sense as I still work and have income too. My target is at least a couple years away still so I leave the land without “land based bills”. Keep up the great work because your time and effort has been very helpful.
Y-not is a real beauty! We are quite interested in your blogs and web casts as we are currently shopping for something similar. We have followed you for a couple years and really like your blogs, casts and commentary on various topics. Safe sailing!
Hopey you enjoy your new adventure. Sure it will take some practice and repetition. In the video the gentleman with white beard, what was his first name? He looks like a high school friend whom I know is a huge sail enthusiast living in Florida, but I believe lives on east coast side.
Y-Not looking very nice. Congratulations
At least on a boat you can run your generator without offending the neighbors. LOL
Our generator is indeed pretty quiet…
But our first night anchoring out, a neighboring boat ran a janky contractor style generator all night long. I imagine we weren’t the only ones fantasizing about swimming over to turn that generator into an anchor with a little shove…
Y-not is beautiful. Happy for you and the adventure you are about to take.
Just watched the video. WOW, Wow, Wow. Just beautiful. Thanks for always sharing with us your adventures.
Y-Not is a beauty! You won’t know what to do with all that space 🙂
I just stumbled upon your blog today, and I think this is completely awesome. I live in Tampa, so it sounds like you’re in my neck of the woods! Happy Travels!!
Just curious as to why you didn’t get a trawler if you’ll be running at trawler speeds anyway. You could run a single engine and cut your maintenance costs and use less fuel.
Couldn’t find any with the layout we wanted 🙂
Hi there,
Tony & Chris here, so funny to see the name of your boat!! Must catch up !!
Love T & C
I am so happy for you two. I have been following you for about a year now. We have a Marine Trader 36′ trawler aft cabin sundeck, ( you might have looked @ one in shopping around.) We love the layout of the Bayliner 4788. We have been looking for a 4588 which is identical to yours, just shorter. I know you will enjoy it. We live in Va. on the Chesapeake bay, part of the inter coastal you will be traveling when you head north. HAVE FUN…
Congratulations! Enjoy this new phase of your life!
You two are adorable and your excitement is contagious! What fun you will have on this new adventure and it was fun to get the tour of your new home!
This is so exciting and I’m so happy for you two. Have a great time! I can’t wait until we’re on the water as well.
NICE! Going to have lots of fun. We live in Fairport, NY (on the Erie/Barge Canal near Rochester) if you want to stay at our house for a couple days when you go through the area, you’re more than welcome. I’d be happy to cart you around for supplies if needed on the weekend. Can also do a cookout at our house. We look forward to fultiming in 2yrs 5months and can’t wait. Thanks again for all the posts. Look forward to following your posts.
I don’t typically follow the comment section. Just email us ahead if you want to take us up on the offers.
Thanks.. it’ll probably be a 2-3 years before we’re up that way – but if you’re still around and spot us nearing, be sure to be in touch!
Wow! What an adventure! Look forward to it, especially when you’re in the Great Lakes.
I’m so glad you finally decided to get a boat, can’t wait to see your adventures!!
Congratulations ! Looks like you are going to have a lot of extra sf. Looking forward to seeing all the gadgets you will be setting up.
Tim
Cherie and Chris
Interesting that some people insist on crabbing about your decision to move to a boat even part time.. As if they were the arbitrator of your life… Sheesh.. I think the boat is gorgeous. and BTW who says RVing has to be done with wheels? The boat is a recreational vehicle as well. Just on water. Enjoy!
We’re very blessed that most of our fans have been super excited for us.. the few who crab about the loss of RV-specific content has been relatively minor (but amusing nonetheless – as if we’re going to put off our dreams just to create the specific content they want?)
Very cool…she’s a beauty! Another fabulous way to explore the country. Good sailing and stay safe!
Don’t forget, we claim first dibs when you are ready to sell! 8^)
Hah.. we told our broker about your first dibs claim. He said we might the first buyers he’s encountered to already have an offer to sell a boat we hadn’t even decided on yet, let alone bought. 😀
Since you are talking about taking 3-4 years to complete the loop, we will be at or near 70 years old by then. I hope we are both still physically capable of managing a boat on our own by then. I think so, but you never know what health surprises may be in store for you.
Congratulations to you both and the Admiral! Y-Not is a beauty and I’m sure will be a joy to live and cruise on. Honestly, after following your travels in the Zephyr, I fully expected to see you in a Grand Banks 36! Ha! Shows how little I know! My wife and I plan to embark on the Great Loop sometime in the next two years, departing from Tampa Bay. We’re looking now for larger shoal draft sailboat with a mast tabernacle. We’ll keep a lookout for you and Y-Not along the way! Wishing you the very best in your voyage.
We did look at some Grand Banks.. beautiful, indeed. But the older ones in our price range had teak decking (too much maintenance), fuel tank problems, etc. And the newer ones out of reach 🙂
Ok, since we’re talking about ‘out of reach’ here, are you willing to let us in on how much this new home ran you?
That’s coming in a future post.
How exciting. Can’t wait to hear more about life on Ynot, and especially Kiki’s adventures.
NIcely done! Congratulations on your new boat and the next phase of your life. I’ve enjoyed following you all for some time and look forward to your next video!
Rather, *She’s* the Cat’s Meow! Gotta learn sailor’s lingo! Looking forward to learning lots more as “we” go!!
Kiki approves… well done!
It’s the Cat’s Meow! Mazel Tov!
After hearing the wordplay reversal-ish name origin, now the pressure’s on to take this boat to NY…
Conveniently, NY is along the Great Loop 🙂 Looking forward to it!
Beautiful!! Boats and RVs have a lot in common (and a lot different!). I am excited to follow your new adventures!
Indeed, there are things in common and things that are very different. Like, we never had to clean our sea strainers on a bus 🙂
. . . or clean and paint the bottom, or satisfy the Coast Guard requirements (not really that difficult, but there just the same), or learn how to anchor for a blow, or . . .
It will be SO much fun!
Sigh.
No, no envy here . . .
Looking forward to sharing your adventures!! Your livin the dream
Great choice of boat..I love the layout… you would be hard pressed to find a better bang for your bucks…These boats are super well built and are really holding their value.. Again congratulations… you hit gold 🙂
Thanks.. we really felt this model of boat was a great cross section of quality, affordability, design and an active community to share with.
Your new home is beautiful. Good luck & safe travels on your new adventure. Thanks for taking us along!
Very nice boat and a good choice for your plans. I’m sure you’ll also want to get it setup for the boating equivalent of RV boon docking, anchoring out with no hookups, away from marinas.
Absolutely!
Oh my goodness! That yacht is lovely!! Now I want to come aboard and travel with you!!!!!
Congratulations! It looks SO nice!
Beautiful boat congratulations
Good luck! Been following you both for about two years or more now. So fun to follow your story!
Wow!! Beautiful boat, and your choices clearly show the careful research you did about find a “Looper” boat. Good luck with the modifications and upgrades, and I look forward to following your Great Loop journey!
Congratulations; she’s lovely. Will look forward to hearing how life aboard Y-Not compares to life in the bus. Happy motoring!
Congratulations!! Y-Not look perfect for your adventures. We look forward to learning more with you. Thanks!
Wow guys I am SO jealous! Gorgeous boat! I’ve dreamed of doing the same for years. I grew up on the ocean and spent 14 years as a lobster fisherman in Maine so I am VERY familiar with boats but all of my boats were working boats (with the exception of the speedboat I had in Montana before buying our RV). Maybe in a few years we’ll be ready to make the jump.
Love the video and the pics! Keep ’em coming so I can live vicariously through you! 🙂
YNOT is a perfect name. What a great looking boat. Looking forward to your adventures.
As I stated b 4 we are way past excited for you both! U r about a 2 years ahead of us as we finish our RV Adventure next Dec go back to our sticks and bricks for a year or so, then The Great Loop is calling us! The 4788 is the boat we are also really interested in (Other half needs that space and luxury to be convinced) for the Loop! So looking forward to being along for your Great Loop voyage! Keep up your great work, blog, seminars and videos! Kudos and big HUGS!
Looking forward to seeing along the Loop somewhere 🙂 We’ll probably still be at it.
Perfect name to keep that matches your nomadic adventures, so why not! 🙂 Congrats Cherie & Chris & Admiral Kiki!
Congratulations! It looks like a beautiful boat. I can’t wait to stay stuned along the way. Thanks for all of your insights while we took our family cross country in a travel trailer. Now we’re managing a campground and I give out your website every week to people interested in internet upgrades! Cheers to your new journeys ahead.
I included a bottle of wine for your send off…..Enjoy!!!
You two are so brave and adventurous. I envy you!
Wishing you the best in your new venture north and thanks for sharing. It is going to be so much fun being a part of your travels. The water is going to be so different then the road travel….. Thanks for sharing….
Nancy Green
CONGRATULATIONS…yes I am shouting as I am so thrilled for you two. We are ardent PNW boaters and new RVers too. We share your excitement about doing the Great Loop but are a few years behind you as we are having to much fun in our RV part of the year right now.
The 47 Bayliner is a great boat and a great choice for the loop plus you can easily still work aboard. We have a 38 Bayliner and love it as well. Happy to talk boating anytime!!
You will have SOOO much fun!
Brenda King
MV Beach House
LY Road House
Our38ftlife.wordpress.com
Cheri & Chris, congratulations on on your conquest, that has been a dream of mine. I wish you all the best of luck and happiness on your endeavors.
Oh my goodness – it’s huge – and beautiful. Great choice. You are going to have so much fun! I’m so happy for you.
We are FINALLY getting an RV on 4/3 and will finish getting the rest of our stuff sold so we can be full time, too.
So you will going through the Great Lakes (a couple of them anyway) on this trip. I live in Canada, about 42 miles North of Lake Erie. one you will be passing through, although your boat will pass is through the Welland Canal (you and your boat would have trouble with Niagara Falls), which is about 80 miles away as the bird flies. In your travels through Lake Erie, stop and pony up to Port Dover Ontario. There are some very good eats within walking distance, fish, Hot dogs, just do not stop there on a Friday the 13th, as every Friday the 13th the Bikers from around the Continent and World meet in Port Dover, cars are banned from the town you can see one of these gatherings here in this Video I made about 6 or 7 years ago – https://youtu.be/JUy6l8FoJqM A lot of People form this town head to Port Dover on the weekends for feed and walk through town. You also in Lake Ontario the Western end, you need to stop and either rent a car or get a taxi and Visit Niagara Falls, that is a World Heritage town – https://youtu.be/IVKXywZ6hPk Also during the Summer, out the end of Long Point in Lake Erie, they have a party out there boats only, the push together two barges, use that as a stage and it grows every year.
Have great fun on your trip, be safe.
Palladini