New/Soon to be liveaboards

[Swabby]

Hello all! Great site! Looks like the right place to find honest information. Just retired and plan on purchasing and moving aboard with my wife no later than spring 2014. Sailing background so "trawlers" are all new to me. Have my search narrowed to Mainship and Albin models 2000 and newer and price range from 100-150k. Cant afford the higher end Krogen/Nordic Tug etc......Are there any Trawlers im missing? Thanks

 

[mahal]

An older Defever 44 aft cabin/sundeck is hard to beat for a low priced liveaboard. Great space for a 44 footer.

 

[Moonstruck]

An older Defever 44 aft cabin/sundeck is hard to beat for a low priced liveaboard. Great space for a 44 footer.

+1 It is also one of most popular models of the Defevers.

 

[jwnall]

Welcome aboard. Lots of people on here with sailing backgrounds, so you are in good company. And Myrtle Beach is a good place to branch out from, looking for the trawler that suits you. That stretch from Annapolis in the north all the way down to Florida in the south has a lot of boats. Most of them falling into one of "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" categories.

 

[Swabby]

Love the lines of the older yachts but trying to stay away from the maintenance that goes with them! Hoping with the newer yachts come less work, probably wishful thinking!

 

[THD]

Swabby-I have a boat that comes with almost no maintenance. It is about 18" long, plastic, and sits on my desk. All I have to do is dust it once in a while.

 

[ranger58sb]

Hello all! Great site! Looks like the right place to find honest information. Just retired and plan on purchasing and moving aboard with my wife no later than spring 2014. Sailing background so "trawlers" are all new to me. Have my search narrowed to Mainship and Albin models 2000 and newer and price range from 100-150k. Cant afford the higher end Krogen/Nordic Tug etc......Are there any Trawlers im missing? Thanks

There are trawlers... and then there are trawlers... some suitable somewhere, others suitable elsewhere...

Where do you want to go with it?

-Chris

 

[Swabby]

Chris,
Plan on doing the loop, the keys and the Chesapeake Bay in the summers. Basically a "Snowbird", on the Bay in the summers and down South in the winter.........Brad

 

[Off Duty]

That sounds awesome Swabby, and welcome aboard!
Good luck with your search.

 

[Baker]

What Mainships and Albins are you looking at???

 

[Swabby]

Looking at the Mainship 350/390 and the Albin 36 fast trawler. Prefer single engine with bow thruster but small twin diesels will work also. Been looking for a year and just want to make sure im not missing other newer reasonably priced trawlers. Also, trying to get the Yanmar and not the Cat....Thanks

 

[Baker]

Looking at the Mainship 350/390 and the Albin 36 fast trawler. Prefer single engine with bow thruster but small twin diesels will work also. Been looking for a year and just want to make sure im not missing other newer reasonably priced trawlers. Also, trying to get the Yanmar and not the Cat....Thanks

Okay. I shopped those two heavily against each other for a very long time. I don't think you are missing anything. You can find the Albin 36 with a single Cummins C series engine that always intrigued me. My opinion of the two:

The Albin I believe is a better built boat. Just switchgear and overall joinery seem to be more solid...the little stuff. The Mainship is a bigger more spacious boat. I was looking for a boat with a turn of speed so the Albin appealed to me in that regard with the twin Yanmar 315s. The Albin has a better planing hull. The Mainship will plane with the twin Yanmar 230/240s. But, for me, those were hard to find. In the end, it was a total tossup for me. Whatever boat could find me in the soonest amount of time. And then this Carver thing entered the pictured at a price I couldn't refuse so that is the way I went. The pool of Albin 36s have seemed to dry up! I haven't looked lately because I have been shooting the money gun at this thing.

Don't discount the newer Mainship 34s and even the Mainship 40. The 34s can be had for well under $150k and I am seeing the 40s around $175k. Again, choose the power to accommodate the speed you desire.

 

[Swabby]

Thanks for the feedback! That's pretty much the same conclusion I came to. Plenty of Mainships on the market,{ that worries me a little }, why so many?, but very few Albins. My wife, lets call her the "finance dept" for arguments sake, likes the Mainship better because of the bigger salon. And seeing how this is my third and final{ wife}, probably have to go with the Mainship. Any thoughts on the better engine? they came early on with the Cat and the newer ones have the Yanmar
Best regards,
Brad

 

[Moonstruck]

Chris,
Plan on doing the loop, the keys and the Chesapeake Bay in the summers. Basically a "Snowbird", on the Bay in the summers and down South in the winter.........Brad

Good plan!

There are so many Mainships on the market because they built so many of them. Either boat should work for your purpose.

 

[Baker]

They just made significantly more Mainships than they did Albins. Nothing inherently wrong with the Mainships although I do think you should find some owners as I am sure they have their little idiosyncrasies. I would prefer Yanmar power as well although nothing wrong with the Cats. I did mention on another thread that the Cat 3116s did have an issue but I think most of them were cleared up under warranty by Cat. BUT, I would definitely make sure before buying. Just mention "soft block" and any surveyor worth his salt should know what you are talking about. Most decent brokers as well. I would definitely cross check a 3116 with a Cat dealer database to make sure the boat you are considering is not powered by a "soft block" 3116.

It is funny that you mentioned your wife because I had typed out a long response basically saying to make sure your wife is happy with the choice and not "going along to get along"...because if she ain't happy.... Anyway, I didn't post because I didn't feel like it was my place but I think you got the idea!!!! Good luck!! And if there is something I forgot, I will let you know....

 

[Codger2]

There are so many Mainships on the market because they built so many of them.

 

[Baker]

Please note that Seahorse and Moonstruck and myself are all former Mainship owners....and I am pretty sure that it is safe to say that we all look back on the ownership of our Mainships fondly!!!!!

 

[Codger2]

Please note that Seahorse and Moonstruck and myself are all former Mainship owners....and I am pretty sure that it is safe to say that we all look back on the ownership of our Mainships fondly!!!!!

I sure do!

 

[Baker]

 

[ranger58sb]

Please note that Seahorse and Moonstruck and myself are all former Mainship owners....and I am pretty sure that it is safe to say that we all look back on the ownership of our Mainships fondly!!!!!

Yep, me too.

Older than those new-fangled ones, though

-Chris

 

[ranger58sb]

Chris,
Plan on doing the loop, the keys and the Chesapeake Bay in the summers. Basically a "Snowbird", on the Bay in the summers and down South in the winter.........Brad

Assuming you can time your movements to match sea states, pretty much most "trawlers" will work for that, then. The Chesapeake can beat you up a little if you have to travel in a chop, but otherwise it's reasonably benign... and the Keys ditto except for those pesky occasional hurricane things (at which point the brand of boat won't usually matter as much as other things).

Defever, CHB, Marine Trader, Island Gypsy, Sabreline, Monk... Just grab whatever brand names come up from a "trawler" search on Yachtworld, if you haven't done that already.

In the meantime, the Mainship boats have been decent (I think there's still an owners group on Yahoo or somewhere). Can't speak first-hand to Albin, but I see others have... and it sounds like a credible option.

-Chris

 

[Swabby]

Wow! The feedback has been awesome. Its nice the old salts share their knowledge with the new guys. Hopefully in a few months I will have my new home, probably run it thru this forum first. Baker, thanks for the Cat soft block issue, hadn't heard of it. Don, signed up for your blog, looks interesting. Knowledge is power..................................Brad

 

[Moonstruck]

Don, signed up for your blog, looks interesting...................................Brad

Nice to have you aboard, Brad. We are in the middle of some upgrades, but will try and work in some local cruising around Vero Beach to Stuart and Jupiter. A couple of longer cruises are in the works to Biscayne Bay and the
Abacos. Then we are heading North with the first stop at Hilton Head for a few months. Then who knows? We will try to work our way to Maine over a couple of seasons. The stops along the way are just too interesting. We usually stay longer than planned.