Krogan Manatee

[Bumper]

The wife and I have already logged a little over 23,000 ocean miles aboard our old HC33T before we sold her. We're not in the health we used to be and are now just interested in cruising the ICW, maybe the Great Circle, the tenn-tom up to the land between the lakes, other rivers and the Keys, Hawks Channel and maybe inside the keys as well. We've been considering buying a Krogan Manatee as there are a few on the market, mostly way over priced in my opinion, but we like the space, etc. Anyone have any experience with them they'd care to share would be appricated. I know you have to climb a ladder to get to the pilot house but I'm pretty sure I'll be capable of doing that for a few more years. It's for sure NOT a boat I'd ever feel comfortable going off shore with but for our purposes it looks ideal. Any comments from current or past owners? Thanks in advance for any advise you care to offer.

[HopCar]

Hop over to the Trawler Forum. They have a forum for Krogan owners.
Krogen - Trawler Forum

[bikeshredder]

Sir: My wife and I have a Manatee and like yourself we have logged over 25.000 miles of off shore sailing. We bought a manatee abt a year ago and love the boat. The boat has a ton of room and sips fuel; the boat that we have did not have a bow thruster and we are installing one this coming week with our haul-out. If you have any question you can e-mail my wife (who picked out the type of boat and the actual boat} at lmyrick21*at*gmail*dot*com. I have to sleep in an upright position and the manatee main cabin is large enough for a lounge chair. Good luck with your search and if we can be of assistance please write, Michael and Lisa of Roxanne.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Michael and Lisa.

I'll bet that there's an interesting tale behind your screen name.

[bikeshredder]

This is the wife here. The boat I actually wanted was a 40'+ sailing cat, but that's never gonna happen. After doing research for a trawler for a number of years and convincing my husband that, yes, we must have another boat, I happened on an old article from 1984 when the Manatee was first introduced. My first thought wow, what an ugly boat, but funky, and as it turned out extremely well thought out and functional. Same reaction when we looked at the first one. You couldn't ask for a better liveaboard layout, and the aft cockpit is larger than a lot of 50 footers. We have ours screened in so it's our back porch and the double doors are left open to extend the living space except extreme hot weather (we're in Florida). The ladder to the pilothouse (enclosed with isinglass and glass in front) is not a bad climb and going up and down has proved good for us. The hull was originally designed by Jim Krogen from a workboat hull made into a coastal cruiser/liveaboard. It tracks well, runs at about 7 knots and rolls like any trawler. All the specs and history can be found via internet reseach. The prices right now seem high in this economy but, if you're patient, the deals come up now and then. While we were looking, a repossessed one went for $90k, another one for $109k and we got ours albeit a bare bones model for $95k. If you're in Texas, we know a couple that owns one that's in Lake Travis if that's anywhere near you. We're seeing them in 2 weeks - their 2nd visit to our boat. They would be glad to show you theirs if you're interested. Send me your email to lmyrick21*at*gmail*dot*com, and I will pass along to them.
We plan on moving aboard as soon as we can sell our house, cruising sw Florida for now and eventually Bahamas when we can work out a 6mos there/6mos in Florida working probably Florida east coast.
Lisa and Michael
KK Manatee Roxanne
Madeira Bch, FL