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Old 23-01-2013, 05:54   #16
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

I say if you're serious, cut down the mast, the boom and something off your keel . . . I like the idea.

Make it a leaner machine all around and the smaller mast(and boom), will make replacing sails on the secondary market a "breeze", in availability and affordabilty(sp).

You'll get all kinds of guff about this & that . . . but the bottom line that it appears all you want is a cheap, very accomodating(sp) motor-sailing boat that will move you forward in water.

Just be certain of what you want and do it.
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Old 23-01-2013, 06:02   #17
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

semi displacement hull vs a semi displacement hull? ah right. sure.

im glad i left out the part that says im going to do the capt ron look, or maybe try to mount a small mobile home inside the boat or on top ? and yes its my money say it with me STRAWLERING, yes just one more time matey, STRAWLERING. i never said i have never lived aboard or can not sail sail, maybe i am physically unable to?
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Old 23-01-2013, 06:10   #18
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

guys i have been reading this forums for at least 3 years, ive always used my sons account and just finally joined the forums, i can not say enough how much i appreciate these forums and the ppl who have taken their time to post on here.
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Old 23-01-2013, 06:31   #19
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

Heya Surv69, cutting the mast would still make it a stabilizer? i intend to keep about 2ft of keel also, i have a basic boat buying budget of $35000+ a leettle for fudging. i have a friend with a morgan 40+ and he is always having replace this or that on the dang boat, it is always sail related, or close to 90% of his boat budget. my constant income is $1100 per month at least until im 65, and i dont mind the guff
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Old 23-01-2013, 07:03   #20
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

$35,000 . . .

I was thinking something like $3,500 or even $7k for a broken down, forgotten sailboat without a mast.

You're too rich for this blood . . .
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Old 23-01-2013, 09:06   #21
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

HEY WAIT! dont go away! whoa nellie!...... now i will tell you this $3500 or $7000 is like way better dude. im just a poor Florida country boy. that leaves alot of money left over for some quality upgrades. for navigation. and compressors for filling my own scuba tanks. im planning on driving down the west coast of florida between now and thru the summer. to check in on marinas. i would really like to find a boat in the fifty ft range
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Old 23-01-2013, 09:18   #22
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

It gets done occassionally. There are old trawlers out there for about the same price as a sailboat, why not go that way? Trawlers carry a lot more beam aft... and forward to some extent. This keeps the boat from rolling wildly. Every sailor can tell you, if motoring in choppy water or swells, a sailboat rolls badly. That's why everyone puts the mainsail up even if motoring. The large squareish aft end of a trawler helps to avoid this.
Also, if you are going to have a motor boat, why live in a cave? A trawler has nice open living area....
This is pretty much a $30,000 trawler. Ready to use: http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi...oat_id=2555808
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Old 23-01-2013, 09:33   #23
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

Were I to desecrate a sailboat, I would worry that it will never love me.
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Old 23-01-2013, 09:44   #24
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

Nice older trawler in marathon now for $14,000. Most boat deals are a right now sorta thing, you cant go looking for a deal or any boat for that matter unless your ready to buy now. Deals are for cash in hand, not tire kickers. So by all means look at lots of boats, just dont make a low offer unless you have a stack of hundreds with you. Many sellers are eager to be done with their vessel, but $7k today, is $10k next week. Is not uncommen in cheap used stuff.
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Old 23-01-2013, 09:49   #25
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

It's pretty easy. All it takes is a pair of wire cutters, a Sawzall and five minutes to convert it from a sailboat into a motor cruiser.
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Old 23-01-2013, 10:00   #26
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

here's a couple forties.

1979 Groupe Finot 42' steel hull sailboat - $17500 (sarasota)

Sailboat Cal-40 Project - $8000 (Lee Florida).
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Old 23-01-2013, 10:44   #27
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

Quote:
Originally Posted by denverd0n View Post
The article claims that a sailboat gets better fuel economy than a trawler. I call BS on that. Yes, it will burn less per hour, but it will also move a whole lot slower. Your miles per gallon are almost certainly going to be worse, not better.

And then you will have A LOT less living space in a 40' sailboat than you will in a 40' trawler. Space that you give up in exchange for what advantage? None. Not to mention the draft issues.

If you want to sail, get a boat that was made to sail. If you want to motor, get a boat that was made to motor. It's your money, your life, and you can do what you want. But personally, I find the idea of buying a boat that was designed for sailing, and then deluding yourself into thinking that it will make a better motor boat than a boat that was designed for motoring, to be pretty ridiculous.
I have to disagree with this.

Sailboat hulls are mostly the most efficient underwater shapes you can find, at least, fin keel ones. It is so much more important for sailing than it is to a 1000 horsepower trawler that the design priorities are all different.

So think it is credible to think that a sailboat hull will be much more efficient for slow, displacement motoring. It will also have much less freeboard and windage, plus with a ballasted keel should be much more seaworthy, vastly more seaworthy, incomparably. Steve Dashew took a lot of sailboat hull form ideas with him to his new series of motor yachts. The cost is very cramped accommodation compared to a similar length trawler.

Plus you can buy a sailboat with decent bones but knackered rig for nothing, probably for free.

I think it is a fairly decent idea -- a dismasted sailboat will make a, in many ways, really superior slow and low interior volume power boat, and for peanuts. Just one problem -- sailing is so cool, if you had a boat that had everything needed to sail except a rig, why in the world wouldn't you add one?? Sailing is magical, silent, free power, unlimited range. Wow, why would you give that up? That's the only problem with powerboats, which I would love to death only if I had never been sailing.
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Old 23-01-2013, 11:00   #28
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

As I have considered similar boat transformations, it's not as easy as it may sound, but if properly done to balance the mast for rolling it can be more efficient than a planning boat depending on the intended use. This has been discussed in boat design forums several times by N/As.

At a given HP pushing to hull speed fuel consumption will be less for a full displacement boat than the semi-d planning craft as it does not need to get up on plane. When speed can be achieved power is cut back but consumption per mile is still higher for equal weight than a slower full displacement.

I suppose if you are cruising islands and have the ability to cruise at higher speeds and time might be an issue. My understanding is that much of the Great Loop for example is at no wake speeds or is slow going, if that's the case, pushing a full displacement hull will be cheaper with a low hp requirement than having a Detroit diesel at lower rpm at the same speed.

Anyway, my thought would be to leave the sail or change the mast to a smaller lighter rigging that can easily be lowered and raised, while an underpowered sail arrangement may not be efficient or proper for sailing performance, it would still move with wind and steady the boat. I'm no engineer so I'd get assistance on such a conversion.....and hopefully it would not be noticed to the point of embarrasement.

The Strawler does remind me that taking one into a marina might be like driving a schoolie converted as an RV into the RV park, many are turned away.
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Old 23-01-2013, 11:03   #29
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

I have to disagree with this.
me too. My 44 Tanton cutter with a 4-108 cruised easily at 8-8.5 knots. average burn for the life I owned that boat was .65 gallons per hour. Trawlers seem to suck 2-3 times that. Not sure it makes sense... maybe the wide beam aft and the much larger engines....?
Interestingly, my Passport 47 with close to the same waterline as the Tanton and an 85 hp Mercedes burned more like .85 gph. Both had max props.
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Old 23-01-2013, 11:05   #30
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Re: turning a sailboat into a motor cruiser

Quote:
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Steve Dashew took a lot of sailboat hull form ideas with him to his new series of motor yachts. The cost is very cramped accommodation compared to a similar length trawler.
Yeah he did, but he still designed a whole new hull for his motor yachts. He didn't just use one of his existing sailboat designs and whack off the keel and mast! A hull designed to be primarily driven by an engine is different from a hull drive designed to be primarily driven by sails.

In addition, as others have mentioned, lacking a deep keel and the stabilizing effects of sails, the hulls HAVE to be different in order to be seaworthy. A production sailboat, with the mast cut off, is going to be a VERY uncomfortable boat in any sort of serious seaway. Ask anyone who's ever been dismasted during a storm.

Like I said before, it's the OP's time and money. He is free to waste them in any way he wants. I'm not saying that he shouldn't do it. But if he's hoping for an experienced naval architect to tell him what a great idea this is, I think he's going to be waiting for a very, very, long time.
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