Which Trawler should I consider ?

[Al B]

A boater all of my life
Never a go fast boater , just a boater with love of ocean & the adventure
Owing family cruisers & trailer fishing boats

Knowing the negatives of twin FEED ME Volvo Penta gas engines with twin duo props , purchased 4 years ago .
Beautiful sharp looks of a 30 ft 2005 luxury cabin cruiser
We searched a year all over Fla were we live . That too was an adventure and something that should have been fun turned out too be not fun or exciting .
We became untrusting after viewing train wrecks boats looking nothing like pictures lying brokers & private sellers .
I stumbled across my present boat at a consignment dealer not searching for a boat . MURPHY"S LAW

Wife fell in love with cabin, was excited getting a boat we can enjoy together I caved knowing double gas engines double trouble .
After 4 years, that boat is almost a new boat with new long block engines , lots of expensive repairs . ITS A WEEKENDER Time too move on too another boat
Retired couple
We enjoy sleeping aboard few nights a week . A condo . When we go home marina hauls and put boat into a cradle were I flush, clean & cover keeping boat pristine
Next purchase I hope l will have a mfg & model in mind not shopping like a rookie boater .

I am a young 70 . Healthy running 5 miles daily
I have sailed in past never alone and really a beginner with sail boats .. I would motor more then sail .
My sailing buddies owing 36 & 40 Beneauteu tell me don't get a sail . Since I never owned a sail boat only owing some sort of power consider a motor sailor or Trawler .
Broker at my marina who is listing my boat suggested a Trawler saying most sailors my age are selling getting into trawlers .
Trawler should be Economical , engine room must have room too work . Access too all areas of boat
My goal at this stage of life is too cruise coast , few month journeys, wife , dogs .
Then go back home .

I am leaning towards a trawler .
I know nothing about trawlers , only they are roomy, and considered fuel efficient .
What mfg should I consider
Mfg I should keep clear of
Boat size around 36 ft .
Diesel engines what is considered high hours .

thanks for your thoughts

[ontherocks83]

Nordic tugs are my favorite.

[Tayana42]

You might want to ask this question on Trawler Forum also. Most ( though not all) of the participants here are sailboat owners.
http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/

[ranger58sb]

Yep, check Trawler Forum (sister site).

-Chris

[eyschulman]

Which woman do you want to live with? Which boat do you want to live with? Not so sure asking others for answers works well in these situations. There are also many who would say if you don't know you have not found the right one yet.

[Stu Jackson]

It would seem to me that your first step would be to find out who makes trawlers.
Wouldn't a simple Google search find that answer?

[rsn48]

I'm surprised some are telling you this isn't an appropriate forum, I have foolishely assumed this forum labelled "Powered Boats" would be mostly about power boats only, since sail stuff rules the roost in most of the other forums here.

Maybe we need a moderator to intervene and define what this forum is all about.

I'm 70, or to use your phrase "young 70" as I too am active.

1. I made the jump from sail to power. My wife wouldn't be able to handle a sail boat if I accidentally fell into the drink.

2. In British Columbia coastal waters, many days have very little to no wind so a lot of motoring, even if sail driven.

3. I no longer wanted to deal with sails up, trimming sails, tacking and jibing, changing sails, etc.

4. I wanted the luxury of pointing my boat in the direction I wanted to go and get there. I just finished a cruise, late in the season here, in a great deal of rain that would not have been fun in a sailboat, dressed to the "T's" in rain gear, pretending to have fun. We wouldn't have been able to do the trip we did in the time parameter as we would have been tacking and jibing and never reached some of our ports of call.

5. I like the extra room found in power boats. My sailing friends were surprised when I told them my boat is 28 feet, it feels larger, particularly coming from a sailing background. I can comfortably set up four collapsible chairs on the aft deck with a child's table in the middle for snacks, drinks etc. at days end. Or one or two chairs set up while cruising so if a person wants to sit back and relax as the scenery goes by, they can. I don't have a command or flying bridge, instrument console in the cabin (thank you Lord) which is wonderful in rainy, cold, windy weather. Maybe in your area, a cabin with air conditioning would be really nice, while the sail boaters sit in becalmed conditions sweating their a.. off, pretending they're having fun.

6. We both have paid our dues to the sailing world, time to move on. In the Pacific Northwest and coastal BC, for the life of me I haven't been able to figure out why more sailors don't own, sailboats with pilot houses. In the eighties when many, myself included, would drink and drive (boats included) a group of us sailed from Point Roberts Washington, a little point of land which is USA mostly entranced by land from British Columbia, to Friday Harbour ("Harbor" for my American misspelling friends), arriving at three in the morning, sailing through heavier seas in October - March, rain pouring down while my friends handed me hot mulled wine as I manned the tiller on a 37 CT built like a tank, not pilot house sailboat. Over the years, this slowly converted me to a power boat kind of guy.

What I would look for:

1) A boat with a larger aft deck. Amazingly I've seen many a trawler with a small aft deck, considering this is where we live mostly at anchor, I don't get these dinky areas on some trawlers.

2) On any boat that isn't new, the condition its in is more important than what year it is. The one big exception to this is of course wooden hulls. I have given my son three rules of boat purchase 1) Never buy a wooden boat 2) Never buy a wooden boat 3) Never buy a wooden boat. Having said that...lol!..my boat has a fiberglass hull and a wooden top, so not too bad.

3) My philosophy changed as I was looking. At first I was going to buy something used in the $50,000 - $60,000 range. I eventually bought a 1961 boat in great shape, not perfect, but good enough. I figured I would spend another $45,000 on it for fixing what needed fixing and adding toys I wanted like a bow thruster and radar, new dink and motor, efoy (fuel cell) and stuff to bring my boat into the modern age.

4. A bimini and roll up/down canvas walls greatly assist my boat in an extra area to sleep in the rain, protection while motoring in the rain while relaxing in above mentioned chairs, and protection while BBQing in crappy weather. We get a lot of crappy weather in the Pacific Northwest and coastal BC.

My boat is a semi-displacement "express" cruiser (I laugh at this term as my boats cruising speed is 7.5 knots and full out at 11.3 knots) single screw (would be nice to have another motor, more for safety than anything else - C Tow here I come). What's the most important thing for me, and I know you'll relate, it brings a smile to my face. And for me a new aspect of boating I never dreamt I'd be doing - Victoria Classic Boat show 2019 - here I come!

[boatpoker]

No advice can be reasonably offered without a budget.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by rsn48

I'm surprised some are telling you this isn't an appropriate forum, I have foolishely assumed this forum labelled "Powered Boats" would be mostly about power boats only, since sail stuff rules the roost in most of the other forums here.

Pointers to Trawler Forum -- a sister site to this one -- were not at all meant to mean this isn't a good place too... it's just that most (almost all?) of the members there either have a trawler, want a trawler, often run whatever they have like a trawler, or often want to run whatever they get as a trawler.

Just thinking it's a matter of more quickly attaining critical mass, possibly more likely there than here.

Also, Trawler Forum is then subdivided further (as is CF) into various useful categories that sometimes make it easier/faster to find an answer -- or sometimes at least a starting point -- has already been posted to various questions... or at least that some discussion on various topics has already happened.

And then there's that whole thing about different mindsets. For example, many members "here" would be aghast to discover that sometimes people "over there" run their genset all the time while underway. (Gasp!) No right or wrong implied, just different approaches.

Carry on, as you were...

-Chris

[a64pilot]

While your absolutely welcome to ask Trawler questions here, this is the Powerboat section of course.
It’s likely that you may get more and possibly better answers over at the Trawler forum, as it’s, well a Trawler forum.

I’d post both places

[rsn48]

Unless of course, he wants to hear of other options than a trawler.

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by rsn48

I'm surprised some are telling you this isn't an appropriate forum...

No one said that this forum wasn't appropriate. They simply said that you might get more useful answers in the other forum, which is true.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by rsn48

Unless of course, he wants to hear of other options than a trawler.

Certainly.

Lots of other viable options, many of which aren't trawlers... which has become more of a marketing term, anyway... often only meaning power boats often operated at slow speeds, often relatively economical to run, and possibly looking slightly "fishy" in the troller sense.

Mostly the other forum represents that mixture of power boat styles, plus some fellow travelers. Ours for example, is slightly "fishy" but not in the troller sense (see avatar), but often operated slowly, sometimes even relatively economically.

It sometimes helps to be active in both places, to see a wider breadth of discussion... or sometimes to see a 180° different perspective on some things.

-Chris

[Sir_Crabs_A_Lot]

I had a 1979 Coaster 39' DeFever for many years, cruising Puget Sound and the Canadian Gulf Islands. Loved that boat.

It was made in Taiwan and the hull bottom was about 2" thick solid fiberglass. The transom however had a balsa core construction, and that's where the dryrot started; watch out for rainwater leaking into cored construction!

Single engine Ford Lehman diesel. The only way to start that sucker in freezing weather was to aim a hair dryer up the air intake while cranking. Very stable boat, and comfortable. Lots of room in the engine compartment if on your hands and knees.

I would suggest subscribing to PassageMaker Magazine.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by rsn48

2) On any boat that isn't new, the condition its in is more important than what year it is. The one big exception to this is of course wooden hulls. I have given my son three rules of boat purchase 1) Never buy a wooden boat 2) Never buy a wooden boat 3) Never buy a wooden boat.

Glad we never took that advice
If we did we would be working another 40 years to be able to buy the comparable fiberglass version of what we have now and then be too old and broken to enjoy it.

Instead we retired decades before official retirement age and live and cruise fulltime on a wonderful timber trawler.