Hello

Hey, I am new to this board and looking to benefit from folks who have a lot more experience than me with trawlers. I am on the threshold of a new chapter and am seriously considering buying a trawler and taking a long slow boat ride. I am quite experienced with sailboats, having owned several including a cruising cat I lived on and cruised for nearly five years. My current admiral has made it clear that if I want to go boating again, she requires more creature comforts than a sailboat is going to allow, thus I am starting to look at trawlers. Specifically I am looking for something that is long range capable and blue water capable. The rest of the details are negotiable. Having spent some time in contorted positions in small sailboat engine spaces, I would prefer to have reasonable engine access - I am not as young nor flexible as I once was. Suggestions, ideas and questions to help me clarify my thought process and thus selection criteria are more than welcome. Also, I am not absolutely committed to the open water route and may be willing to consider something like the Loop as a break in for the admiral, or as a friend suggested, the inside passage. At this point in time the options are all open.

Thanks in advance

Bemvindo, Welcome!

Once in Brazil check for www.flab.com.br

Regards

The two things you need to provide are

1. budget. (it does no good recommending a 2 million dollar boat, if you've got 200K to spend)

2. your ability and aptitude to perform maintenance. (it does little good to recommend a older boat if you are not the fixit type)

Those two things go hand in hand.

Older boats can be cheaper, but have old systems requiring a tinker type of person.

Thanks for the replies. I am currently in Brasil but am in the final stages of selling a small hotel I have owned and run for the past 5 years. It is time to get back on the water. Given my experience with boats here and the bureaucracy of getting parts into Brasil, I have no desire to even try to find something here and embark on that route.

Like everyone (or everyone I know) I want to spend as little as possible to have as much left for the cruising kitty as possible. I can do quite a bit of maintenance/repair on my own and know that whatever boat I get will need constant maintenance, but I am not looking to get a project boat as I do now want to spend more time preparing the boat than I will spend using it. I accept the definition of cruising as "taking your boat to a distant location and fixing it there" but I would like to start reasonably close at the time of purchase to being able to go without too much fixing. I am more concerned with the basic integrity of the hull, engine and primary systems than I am with electronics etc as I believe that I will have to live with what I get to figure out what I really want in terms of electronics and similar optional items. The admiral will probably be much more concerned with interior and creature comforts, but I do not expect anyone to be able easily resolve those issues for me. I figure that my budget for purchase will be anything up to 450K +/- hopefully on the minus side.

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

Drifting Way of Life said:

I am more concerned with the basic integrity of the hull, engine and primary systems than I am with electronics etc as I believe that I will have to live with what I get to figure out what I really want in terms of electronics and similar optional items. The admiral will probably be much more concerned with interior and creature comforts, but I do not expect anyone to be able easily resolve those issues for me. I figure that my budget for purchase will be anything up to 450K +/- hopefully on the minus side.

Click to expand...

Hello Drifting... you're quite correct to seek good bones and then upgrade/select the electronics you want/need. That sounds very wise.

One question I'll throw out for the experts: when dealing in this price range, would a second full survey be worth it? Of course one hires the best surveyor they can find, but would another survey, done separately be advisable? Just curious.

This refers to a used boat, not a new build.

And welcome, of course.