Family of 7! Trawler Size Question?

[GalaxyGirl]

Originally Posted by Kevin84

By the time your kids are off to college and you're ready to go cruising, you will probably have the experience you need to run her without a captain. I would still recomend having one or two crew however, depending on if you're going to have anyone with you or not and how experienced they are. If its just going to be you and one other person, I would go with two crew to help with watch standing and docking/undocking.

Yeah, that makes, plus the kids will be gone, so I'll have plenty of room to bring a couple extra folks along.

[Capt Phil]

I'm a fan of the Sea Ranger 65's as well and have driven one from Barre Navidad to San Diego, and put about an additional 2000 km on her with the owners aboard. Not the fastest bullet out of the gun but very seaworthy, safe, roomy and easy to maintain mechanically with a good size engineroom. If you are looking at an older model, say built prior to 1990, have a qualified marine electrician check the systems out thoroughly, particularly the control panels. If you don't plan to do any immediate cruising, remember to replace the through hulls on the survey haulout. You can handle the plumbing replacement as the need arises. Good luck with your search... Capt Phil

[GalaxyGirl]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

I'm a fan of the Sea Ranger 65's as well and have driven one from Barre Navidad to San Diego, and put about an additional 2000 km on her with the owners aboard. Not the fastest bullet out of the gun but very seaworthy, safe, roomy and easy to maintain mechanically with a good size engine room. If you are looking at an older model, say built prior to 1990, have a qualified marine electrician check the systems out thoroughly, particularly the control panels. If you don't plan to do any immediate cruising, remember to replace the through hulls on the survey haulout. You can handle the plumbing replacement as the need arises. Good luck with your search... Capt Phil

I will definitely remember to get a good electrician and replace through hulls. Thanks for the advice. Glad to hear that you like the Sea Ranger and give it a good review

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Kevin84

By the time your kids are off to college and you're ready to go cruising, you will probably have the experience you need to run her without a captain. I would still recomend having one or two crew however, depending on if you're going to have anyone with you or not and how experienced they are. If its just going to be you and one other person, I would go with two crew to help with watch standing and docking/undocking.

That's just what I was thinking, that there would be a great advantage to picking a boat now that you can take your time to get familiar with. Right now in your life, if the boat is laid up at the dock for some repair or other, no big loss since most of the year you won't be free for long trips anyway. You'll have lots of time to sort the boat out and learn what you need to learn.

Take a look at local technical colleges. One of them here *used* to have a great class on diesel engine maintenance. Unfortunately they don't offer it here any more but you might be able to find one where you are/will be.

[Palsa]

Hello. I have 55 foot trawler motorsailer for sale right now. My family (4 kids for now) feel vey good on it. We have sailed even in heavy weather - very good. Still can be operated by myself and do not need any assistance: Cruisers & Sailing Forums - Palsa's Album: Long range motorsailer Palsa