Cruiser vs. Trawler - how to decide?

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by markpierce

Square-sterned, displacement-hull trawler:

Nice! Big prop and barn door rudder. A taper from the squire stern to the waterline would eliminate some stern wave. Effectively being a canoe stern at the water line. Probably a nit at displacement speed.

[EggHrbrGuy]

but in many ways a motor sailor is often the worst of both worlds.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by reed1v

When we retired from sailing we bought a Grand Banks trawler. Did not like it much after a while due to the noise, the smell, the rolling, the constant need to refill the tanks, and the lack of the sailing mystique that grabs the soul.

Sounds like there comes a time to bite the bullet on mystic. I can't even comment on Grand Banks, they have made so many different styles.

[donradcliffe]

Here is a displacement hull which will slide through the water, instead of dragging it behind the transom.

[EggHrbrGuy]

Well stated reed1v. We recently sold the Tartan and are looking at trawlers. Toured a beautiful Grand Banks 42 yesterday. Sailed a Sabre 36 this morning and immediately forgot about the Grand Banks.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by reed1v

When we retired from sailing we bought a Grand Banks trawler. Did not like it much

Should have bought a better boat

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Here is a displacement hull which will slide through the water, instead of dragging it behind the transom.

Someone could buy and old Chris Craft with a hell of a bow and stern wave. Fisher, Fairway Marine in England has made some nice hulls.

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Should have bought a better boat

Can't get them much better than the Europa. Bigger than most houses. Stabilizers, big engines. And Grand Banks has been making the same overall design from the getgo. Just in different sizes. They are about the most expensive trawler unless you go bigger into some of the very long distance ones, but they are around 5-8 million. A bit much.

[rwidman]

In my mind, a "cruiser" is a streamlined boat that might be capable of fifteen knots or more. A "trawler" would not be so streamlined and would have a much lower top or cruising speed. There are "fast trawlers" that blend or muddy the difference.

I wouldn't worry so much about what someone calls a boat, I would buy the boat that best meets your needs. The slower boat will be much more economical to operate but going that slow is not fun for some folks.

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by rwidman

In my mind, a "cruiser" is a streamlined boat that might be capable of fifteen knots or more. A "trawler" would not be so streamlined and would have a much lower top or cruising speed. There are "fast trawlers" that blend or muddy the difference.

I wouldn't worry so much about what someone calls a boat, I would buy the boat that best meets your needs. The slower boat will be much more economical to operate but going that slow is not fun for some folks.

Actually you are wrong. A trawler designed boat is full displacement. Can not get beyond hull speed. A real Yacht can exceed hull speed(Like Allen's mega yacht). Trawlers are for poor folks. Real yachts are for the rich. A real yacht consumes about 30-60 gph while the impoverished trawler folks get about 3-8 gph. No self respecting billionaire would have a trawler. impoverished doctors buy trawlers.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by rwidman

In my mind, a "cruiser" is a streamlined boat that might be capable of fifteen knots or more. A "trawler" would not be so streamlined and would have a much lower top or cruising speed. There are "fast trawlers" that blend or muddy the difference.

I'd go along with this definition, except I'd add that what I think a trawler is, won't plane no matter what, but big ones can go pretty darn fast, just won't crawl onto plane.

Only thing I would differ here on what I have heard is that I too have had flow scans on a couple of pretty quick planing hull boats and have graphed fuel burn over distance myself and in all cases the faster you go, the more fuel you burn with the best mileage being idle. True the graph did get steep right at the point where it would break over on plane and again for the last few kts, but at no time did the graph fall, indicating better mileage at higher speeds. We were using the trim tabs correctly as well.

We generally accepted that the slowest we could stay on plane was the best we could do and still cover ground quickly, but it did burn more fuel than displacement speeds.
I've had several conversations with power boaters regarding fuel consumption, and always I bring up the big wakes, and how much power is in those wakes, they always agree, then I explain to them that 100% of the energy in those big powerful waves, comes from their fuel tanks, you can see the eyes widen when the realization sinks in.


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[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by reed1v

Can't get them much better than the Europa.

And among the most inefficient hulls on the water creating wake like sport fisher or a bull dozer.

[Cheechako]

It was interesting when I was in Fort Lauderdale for the boat Xmas parade on the ICW. Sitting in the dingy at the shore to watch, there was a huge difference in the waves created from one similar size boat to another. They all had to go at pretty much the same speed. A 100 footer would go by and kick up a 3 ft wave, nearly capsizing our dingy. Another 100 footer would go by and have a wave of less than 6 inches.

[captlloyd]

I stated on this thread that I thought a 38-42 ft trawler was what fit your needs. As you have read a "cruiser" big enough to meet your needs will suck diesel fuel like it is going out of style. If you are in a hurry, fly in and rent a condo. You are talking about traveling some pretty decent distances and fuel usage is a major factor. Unless you have a wagon full of money, you need something that sips fuel.

[Tom.B]

How to decide is based on two real factors... Time and Money

We went from trawler to motoryacht last year. The trawler was awesome as a first boat. Slow and cheap on fuel (1.75 GPH over the 5 years we had it).
Time and Money: Unfortunately, we came to realize that we didn't really have the time for a slower boat. Even a simple weekend trip from New Bern to Morehead City pretty much required us to take a day off work (yes, we still have jobs) to really enjoy our stay there. Sure, we enjoyed the trip down the river, but we could only be at our destination for about 16 hours before we had to come back home. However, the 40 mile trip took 5 to 5.5 hours, but only burned around ten gallons (or less) to make the trip. One way.

Enter our new 42' planing motoryacht that can cruise at 18 - 20 mph. Between our fast and slow over the past tank, we are averaging around 16GPH and that is low for a boat this size and speed. It has a very efficient hull that takes less horsepower than others in its class.
Time and Money: We now have the ability to get anywhere we want in far less time, but we pay the price on fuel. We knew that going in and set the budget accordingly. So the same trip as above take just under 3 hours (there are a couple of places we should go slow) but takes more than 50 gallons of dino juice. One way. However, we made that same trip just a few weeks ago, we stayed slow and only did it using less than half that.

That brings up a very important point... A fast boat can always go slow, but a slow boat can never go fast. We can get 5GPH if we took the new boat down to the old boat speed. But I will tell you honestly, once you get used to hopping up on plane, it is hard to WANT to go slow again. We have to force ourselves to do it. Still, we love the idea that we can now outrun weather and go quick in an emergency when we have to.
Time and Money: The aforementioned time saving piece of mind takes a firm investment. We planned for it from Day 1. it is also something our marina mates, mostly sailors, tease us about incessantly when we tell them we just spent $100 in fuel to goto Oriental take a few pics on our cell phones to post on Facebook and come home... or that it will only take us, on plane, 4 to 5 hours to get to Ocracoke. They hate us when we remind them of that

If you go into anything like this with the correct mindset, it will make ownership MUCH more pleasing. Know what you are getting into. If that is your worry, talk to the previous owner about real-word fuel burn numbers. Almost everyone keeps a fuel log of some kind. See if they will share it. Then, double those numbers (or some nominal higher factor) to set your expectations. You really won't know how to milk the lowest burn rate the first year.

Ironically, my wife and I now both have jobs that pay better than when we owned the previous boat and also allows us far more schedule flexibility and WFH options that opens up a new range of possibilities. Good luck with your decision. It is a tough one. I'm happy to help where I can.