Looking for a Trawler lots of questions

[jclays]

Hello to everyone. I will be posting this thread to the various makes of trawlers please forgive the redundancies. I am interested in a trawler before I retire in the next couple of years. I've been looking at trawlers for a couple of years and have a good idea of what I am looking at. Currently have a 1966 Californian express cruiser. One of the first models made by Jules Marshall. Partial to his trawler especially the 38ft LRC. My main question on trawlers is performance. Im used to twin screws. A large percentage of the Trawlers I have seen on the market here in So California are Single screws. A few owners I've talked to prefer single screws in their trawlers. Is there an advantage? What are the speed differences between a single screw and a twin screw trawler? I would like to cruise at aprox 10 knots. I am looking in the 38ft range. Mid 70's to 1990 range in age. Lots of Leman 120's and Perkins used in these trawlers. What is an acceptable amount of hours on these engines. I am familiar with gas engines. Is there much diffrence between the Chinese/Taiwanese makes? They are very similar.
Thanks
Jim

 

[Art]

Hello to everyone. I will be posting this thread to the various makes of trawlers please forgive the redundancies. I am interested in a trawler before I retire in the next couple of years. I've been looking at trawlers for a couple of years and have a good idea of what I am looking at. Currently have a 1966 Californian express cruiser. One of the first models made by Julies Marshall. Partial to his trawler especially the 38ft LRC. My main question on trawlers is performance. Im used to twin screws. A large percentage of the Trawlers I have seen on the market here in So California are Single screws. A few owners I've talked to prefer single screws in their trawlers. Is there and advantage? What are the speed differences between a single screw and a twin screw trawler? I would like to cruise at aprox 10 knots. I am looking in the 38ft range. Mid 70's to 1990 range in age. Lots of Leman 120's and Perkins used in these trawlers. What is an acceptable amount of hours on these engines. I am familiar with gas engines. Is there much diffrence between the Chinese/Taiwanese makes? They are very similar.
Thanks
Jim

Wow, Jim - seems you have fairly good background for getting into trawler ownership. There are hundreds of answers to your questions you can easily locate by using TF search feature. I recommend you spend some time searching archives with words and short questions. You can learn some real good pointers.

Happy Trawler Search Daze! - Art

 

[denverd0n]

I don't know a lot about trawlers myself (still learning), but one thing I do know is that to cruise at 10 knots you are either going to need a fairly long water line (55+ feet), or you are going to have to exceed hull speed. If you exceed hull speed then your fuel consumption goes up dramatically and, of course, that means you can't have a "full displacement" hull.

 

[healhustler]

denverdOn is right For 10 knots you'd be cranking pretty hard on most 38 footers. You'd have to go with a power-cat or settle for a semi-planing mono-hull with greater fuel consumption. If you could be satisfied with 7.5-8 knots, that would open up a world of options, and also make singles engines more practical. Twins are mostly (but not always) pretty exposed below with no protective keel or skeg. Singles are often (but not always) keel and skeg protected on trawler style boats. All things being equal (Captain's skill and boat familiarity), twin engines have a handling advantage, and also the redundancy feature in case of a non-fuel related engine failure, but there's also twice as much to maintain. As suggested, the forum search feature will pull up plenty of other feedback, especially on the eternal debate of twins vs. singles.

 

[markpierce]

If you're satisfied cruising at 6 to 8 knots, a single propeller is sufficient unless you believe a second engine and propeller is necessary in case of single-engine failure. Single-propellered boats generally have better underwater protection. If you need speed and redundance, go twin. (That's not what I did, and so far without regret.)