By Scott Rinehart
My wife (Ash) and I bought our SeaHunter 33T from SeaHunter’s Eddie Leon and Marky Berta in March of 2025. We then sold our 25-foot SeaCraft within a day. We bought the SeaCraft in 2021 as I needed a stress reliever from my career as a mortgage broker. Boating opened the door to a whole new life for us. I have been boating for 25 years on and off but never owned a center console.
Once I started my mortgage brokerage, Ocean Blue Lending (OceanBlueLending.com) and got the business running, it was time to upgrade vessels. We first set foot on the 33T at the Stuart Boat Show. We were in the market for a bigger boat as we cross to the Bahamas too often for a 25-foot boat. We have been caught in many storms coming and going that pop up out of nowhere.
We looked at the Regulator 31, SeaVee 32-34, Contender 32ST and the SeaHunter 31. Once we stepped on the SeaHunter 33, Ash fell in love. It feels like a much bigger boat as its 33’ 10” long and has an 11’ 4” beam. SeaHunters are solid boats with every cavity foam filled. Storage from here to yaya which allows me to be prepared for any situation that comes our way. I like to be prepared to get my family home safe anytime we go offshore.
The Everything’s Ari (names after one of our golden retrievers) had all new electronics, an upper station with two Garmins, full controls, a Seakeeper 3 and the dreaded Yamaha 350’s. While I think they are great engines if you properly maintain them, these were not maintained. We opted for Yamaha 450’s with Bob’s Extreme jack plates for the long Bahama Bank runs. She is much quicker on plane and feel much lighter than the 16K loaded weight. We cruise at 38-40 at 1-1.1 depending on load and conditions. Top end is 58 mph light. We could get 1.2-1.3 from 30-35mph, but where is the fun in that? She has a 396-gallon tank, so we have about a 400-mile range which easily gets us to the Abacos without thinking of fuel. Next up is SeaKeeper Ride and new upholstery…. After some time of course unless I find the right deal!
My wife, 14-year-old daughter Kinlie and 10-month-old golden retriever named Boopie are on the boat every Friday-Sunday. I occasionally take clients out for one or two days during the week. We are mostly weekend warriors while putting 300-400 hours a year on our boats. We mainly troll and are about to get into deep dropping to ensure we put fish in the boat. My wife is my fishing buddy, and I would rather be out with her than anyone else! I have always wanted a boat dog, so we started bringing Boopie out every weekend since she was eight weeks old. Ari, our 10-yr old, wants to jump off and swim to any buoy she sees so she comes out on occasion. We run out of Jupiter, Florida to West End, Grand Cay and Elbow Cay in the Bahamas often, so if you ever see us, feel free to stop us and say hi!
