New almost Semi Trawler wannabe member

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RBack

RBack

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2017
Messages
53
Location
Finland
Vessel Make
Åbo båtvarf Delfin 1962. 34'
Hi,

Well then...
Thought I'd just as well post something in this department of the forum, before adding posts or comments in other threads.

I'm not really owning a trawler. I do have a boat, but I'm not sure of the proper definition of it in English - or among English speaking communities. It's a 34" double ended boat with an 52hp Parsons Pike Marine (a marine version of a Fordson Super Major). Both the boat and the engine are made 1962. It's one of the first generation fibre glass boats made here in Finland. The model is built in Turku (Åbo Båtvarf) and it's hull shape is based on traditional (wooden) Finnish open coastal fishing boats of the Baltic Sea. This model "Delfin" (Dolphin), was made for the state and used by Pilot and Lighthouse personnel, as well as the Customs and the Police. They used them mainly as a pure transportation (or "commuter") boats during the 60s and 70s.

It contains nothing more than the space consuming motor, a small fuel tank, and a steering wheel. A rather rough and inconvenient boat indeed. It's outstreched but narrow and low. No chance of standing with a straight back inside. So while driving, I mostly have my head out of the lid in the roof - unless it's raining or strong headwind with powerful horisontal showers from the bow breaking waves.

The hull moves quite swiftly through the water and a convenient cruising speed is 8-8,5 knots. Top speed is 10-10,5 knots. Due to lack of galley, toilet and similar "luxury", it's mainly a day boat. The fuel tank is also only 60 l (16 Gallons) so the range is limited. However I carry spare Jerrycans and can travel some distance anyhow. I've owned it one summer and that was mostly spent repairing stuff. The motor got a complete overhaul with lots of changed parts. The coming summer will surely see longer trips and I'll add a portable dry toilet as well as a small portable "kitchen". Furthermore there are quite many good guest harbours to stop at.

So... Boating for me is anyhow in some kind of "trawler oriented" direction. And at any given opportunity I'd surely check into getting a boat of more trawlerish proportions and character. This forum is therefore a most natural place to visit in order to get ideas, various experiences and so on.

And last... despite the rather "inconvenient" features of my boat, I do like it a lot. To me it's a small chapter of Finnish boating history and furthermore my dad was a pilot. This model wasn't used by the pilots anymore at that time, but it's a part of that history as well. And I was always out with the pilot boats as long as he worked.
 

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Pretty neat!
 
Welcome to TF. Very nice, I love classic boats that have a real history behind them.
 
Wow, that is certainly a slippery, efficient hull. Welcome - from another semi, sort of, trawler owner.
 
Welcome aboard! That is one very pretty shape. It deserves a nice interior when you can give it one.
 
Welcome to the forum! Very interesting hull form.

Ted
 
Very shippy looking vessel. There is a small cadre of boats that were made in Alaska based on your type of hull. Google Allweather Boats. The owner has died and they are no longer made.
Welcome aboard!
 
Interesting boat. Nevertheless, I'd find it inconvenient to have such a small fuel capacity requiring frequent refueling. Refilling half my tankage every 9 or so months is sufficient inconvience for me.
 
Hi, and welcome a board! Tervetuloa mukaan!


I think you have more genuine trawler in more than here (me too). I think these traditional Finnish boats are an interesting blend of pure displacement body which, however, can not reciprocate, SD hull and up to 40 knots planing boat. You probably know "fanny" the boat as an example. you have a good body to start building inhabited by about little by little, you know what you want and need.


Kevään odotusta, näyttää siltä että se tulee tänä vuonna aikaisin.
 
Thank you all for your warm welcome!

SoF// Those Allweather Boats are certainly nice. I'm very fond of the type.
Markpierce & SoF// At the moment I simply use a pump to get the diesel over from the cans to the tank. A little bit of extra work but not a great mental obstacle - yet. One day it'll probably get a bigger tank but I'm not planning any major rework done before the upcoming season. Last season turned out to be very short due to various restaurations, so this summer I'll only use the boat with all its lovely inconveniences. The engine is old and thus not the most fuel efficient possible choice. But it has some torque and keeps low rpm during cruising speed. I'm checking into a new prop at the moment in order to perhaps find some small gain in reach per litre. I plan on keeping it, so I'll let my experiences from this boat dictate further adjustments and solutions to make it more user friendly.
NBS// Fanny is familiar indeed. Those Pellinge fishing boats was for a long time of particular interest when it came to getting a boat. But it ended up with this one.
 
RBack,
You've probably got the most efficient low drag hull of any boat here. Lower drag than my Willard I'm sure. 52hp may be an abundance of power. But she's so long and narrow exceeding hull speed will probably be easy. So the 52hp will come in handy at times ... or whenever you feel the need to zip along faster.
The lines come off well and the boat is a well integrated assemblage of features and style.
What can you tell about the Parsons engine? May be as interesting as the boat. There are a few other boats here that are somewhat similar .. but not very close.
Part of my Ancestory comes from this general area and I have a friend in the very northern part of Finland now .. Utsjoki .. Lapland?
Looking fwd to hearing all about you and your boat.
 
Parsons was an English company that made marine versions out of Ford/Fordson Tractor engines. This particular engine - Fordson Super Major - is indeed well beyond powerful enough for the hull, but it's good with a few extra horses at times. For example I ended up towing a heavy speedboat this summer, and despite going far from full throttle, it was good to have the torque. Bad weather is of course another reason for using a little bit of extra power if or when needed.

There are a lot of these Fordson tractors still in service and spare parts comes easy and cheap. That's a most valuable thing.

Actually I have a hard time going slower than 6,5 knots. The gear is 1:1 and with lowest possible throttle (idling) the engine pushes the boat to speed rapidly. So in and out of harbours, I need to put it in and out of gear quite frequently. Anyway that's no problem. There is anyhow a lot of short bursts of throttle and gear while maneuvering in tight places. I have to rely a bit on the turning effect of the prop when going slow. Long keel and now bow thruster.

A negative issue is that this engine is large. Too large i size when it comes to inner space. But the Super Major is know as a trustworthy, reliable perpetuum mobile so I'll stick to it.

I've had it out on a "rough sea trial" once and it behaves very well up and down (head & tail) wind/waves. Waves from the sides is of course equal to loose stuff flying around in this kind of boat. Being an early fibre glass boat means that it's a lot of fibre glass. During those days they made them extra sturdy since they weren't entirely sure of how well the boats would hold together. Therefore it's also quite heavy and behaves with some "calmness" in bigger waves.
 
What a graceful hull shape. Sleek!!!

Wish modern builders would take note...
 
RBack,
What a wonderful boat!
I wish there were many other boats similar to your's on the forum. I'd like diversity in a group of people I was to join to the extent that it's at least somewhat proportional. Your boat's a slider. A very good slider.

There must be numerous Albin 25's in Finland. I had one for 6 years and still miss it. Mine cruised at 8.5 knots and topped at 11. Very nice hull but a light boat. My speeds with the Albin was about exactly the same as your boat. Had a 34hp Yanmar.

In Finland what kind of boating community exists there? Boating equipment stores? Rules and laws? Do you have big tides like Alaska? (23')

We had a fellow some time ago on the forum that had a beautiful express type cruiser. Lots of wood on it but I think the hull was FG. He was doing maintenance on his hull bottom in the winter. That must have been about the year 2000. Lots of pics.

As to your boat being a trawler she's more of a trawler than many many boats here. I never thought of a trawler being a boat with lots of accommodations as the trawler type only has a bit more than most faster cruisers. To me "trawler" is more about hull type. Some of the best trawlers are full displacement whereas a typical trawler is semi-displacement. And definitely I like boats with minimal "house". So your boat fits.
 
Thank you Eric!

I must admit that I'm rather fond of my boat and I do consider it quite wonderful myself :)
It fits and fills my current requirements quite well.

Your Willy sure is a beauty (as well).

There is a lot of work to be done on the hull of mine - it hasn't got a name yet, and I'm having a hard time finding a satisfactory one.
It (the hull) needs restoration since the outermost layer (some topcoat) is starting to come off here and there. It was most probably laid on several years ago and it's rather rough here and there. So the best thing would be to grind (or sandblast) the whole hull and give it a proper epoxy treatment. There are also old and rough repairs that would be nice to smoothen out a bit.

There are actually surprisingly few Albin motorboats here in Finland. In Sweden however, there is plenty. It is indeed a nice boat but I have no practical experience of it.

I'd say boating communities are quite strong around here. Every little village have its own little harbour, lots of people have summer cottages along the coast and there is a lot of boating activity of various sorts. There are of course equipment stores but I don't have much experience of those since the stuff I need for my boat is not really standard equipment. I buy engine parts in agriculture machine/tractor stores and each time something needs repairing it's a lot of one off solutions that I have to find out my self. I contact tractor services for repairs I can't manage on my own - although I want to be able to do as much as possible on my own.

However there is a lot of skill and knowledge around in the area. Lot's of boatbuilders and persons knowing both this and that in my neighbourhood. We have for example the two extreme sailing yacht companies Nautor Swan and Baltic Yacht here. Furthermore there are several good motorboat makers in the area. Everyone knows someone that knows what needs to be known about a certain boat matter.

Rules and laws are the normal international ones. Can't come to think of anything specific that would be different here.

No tides in the Baltic sea. Here on the west coast in Kvarken (the narrow part of the Gulf of Bothnia) we have some currents now and then depending on the weather. Either south winds pushing water up north or north winds pushing it out (south). But those currents are seldom something to take into consideration. Most important around here is to be aware of the billions of rocks spread out everywhere in the archipelago. Even experienced fishermen sometimes finds new rocks :) Waves are sometimes a bit "sharp". Short and high. That's also good to have in mind.

Prior to this season I changed prop. Mostly because the old one needed repair - or changning. So I chose the latter alternative. Did a lot of calculations and discussions togehter with a local company that among other things actually made props for the US Marine experimental Vessel (Juliet Marine stealth vessel "Ghost"). The conclusion was that I could go from the old 15x15 prop to a bigger 16x16. That should in theory be a bit more efficient.

Well naturally it reaches hull speed with lower rpm - which of course is not necessarily equal to better fuel efficiency and/or more proper engine load at certain rpm - which was one of my aims even though the outcome might be marginal at best. However the engine doesn't seem to reach max rpm and maximum speed is somewhat lower this year. So it seems like it's now a bit overpropped. I still need to check details (filters and such) with the engine because there can very well be such issues as well. The prop stays on this summer and I'll re-evaluate until next season. I'm anyhow going mostly on very low rpm and the engine ticks along very nicely, without vibrations or anything that would indicate high loading in cruise speed.
 
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Nice
Reminds me somewhat of Nigel Irens Rangeboat
 
I cant believe that crane has the lifting straps so close together in the center! Scary.

Beautiful boat though! Looks fun.
 
South of Heaven said:
I cant believe that crane has the lifting straps so close together in the center! Scary.

Beautiful boat though! Looks fun.
Click to expand...

They where a bit close yes. But the engine is heavy and in the middle of it all. He (the driver) took it really slow and let it hang for a while just above the water level just to be sure.
This year (in October) we used an "X-construction" (don't know the proper name) above the straps to get them further apart.

And now it looks like this.
 

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That’s where the engine belongs ..

That’s probably what the old “speed boats” like Chris-Craft, Correct Craft ect run so nice.
Ballance.

This boat is a trawler but dosn’t look like one. There are quite a few trawlers (at least lots of people call them trawlers) that aren’t trawlers but this boat is a trawler. However it falls short on accommodations. But is that needed? Probably so because trawlers are heavy cruisers. And cruisers have accommodations.
 
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I don't think the crane straps in the original pic were too close at all. I think your crane operator had it just right. Engine amidship, no real interior weight. In my experience, these peeps know their "bidniss".
 
Nomad Willy said:
That’s where the engine belongs ..

That’s probably what the old “speed boats” like Chris-Craft, Correct Craft ect run so nice.
Ballance.

This boat is a trawler but dosn’t look like one. There are quite a few trawlers (at least lots of people call them trawlers) that aren’t trawlers but this boat is a trawler. However it falls short on accommodations. But is that needed? Probably so because trawlers are heavy cruisers. And cruisers have accommodations.
Click to expand...

Well, the term "trawler" is to me personally a bit superfluous. I've just quickly read through the current "what is a trawler-thread" and I feel attaching a specific stamp onto something is mostly about us humans trying to organise and - through that - understanding our environment.

Probably I'm also affected by the Swedish translation of Trawler - which is trålare. And a trålare is strictly the particular fishing vessel made to drag the "trål". so it's also a language thing I guess. So in that perspective my boat more related to commuting boats or fishing boats made to go out laying nets and to go picking them up again. However those traditional boats where around here almost always traditionally completely open (without pilot house). Small (mostly aft) pilot houses started to appear in the 70's I think. This particular boat is only based on old fishing boats and that's because they (the hulls) behaves well in the water.
This boats original purpose was only transportation of staff to a lighthouse and a pilot station.

The Swedish term for this kind of double ended displacement boat is "Snipa" (in Norway "Snäcka").
My mothers tongue is Swedish - therefore these references.

Thus my headline of this thread is actually slightly ironic. But I do indeed like the kind of boats that are typical leisure (or live aboard) trawlers. And I wouldn't mid owning one. However I'd probably aim for one that is not so frequently mentioned in this forum (If I one day had the opportunity - read money).
 
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RBack,
Your boat is nothing less then SENSATIONAL !!!
Such a smooth looking slippery craft and the full keel - very impressive.
I would like to see a picture of the bow, is it flared ? There seemed to be quite some water coming onto the windscreen from a moderate looking sea in the video.
What does she weight and is she ballasted?
My boat is originally designed in Finland from an imported mould and built in Australia in the early 1980's. Also a double ender.
 
bogranjac1 said:
RBack,
Your boat is nothing less then SENSATIONAL !!!
Such a smooth looking slippery craft and the full keel - very impressive.
I would like to see a picture of the bow, is it flared ? There seemed to be quite some water coming onto the windscreen from a moderate looking sea in the video.
What does she weight and is she ballasted?
My boat is originally designed in Finland from an imported mould and built in Australia in the early 1980's. Also a double ender.
Click to expand...

I don't really have a good photo of the bow directly from the front. It's quite flared but it doesn't have an "extra step" that projects spray more sideways. The spraying in the film sequence comes from the shortness between waves (the boat goes more through them) and the strong head wind that immediately blows the spray over the wheelhouse. Here's slightly bigger/longer waves but less spray:
https://www.facebook.com/robert.back.984/videos/10209435110983744/

Your boat looks way more practical than mine. I was partly looking for something similar but happened to stumble over this one and completely fell for it - despite its flaws of inconvenience when it comes to practicality and space. There are a few boats similar to yours in my harbour. However they don't have the fore-cabin which is rather unusual around here.
 
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