Outboard powered Trawlers?

Hi All and Greetings from Ireland,

I've been lurking here for a while looking at the posts; very interesting and informative.

I'm interested in a trawler, BUT buying a 30 year old model does not appeal to me because of the potential of a financial melt down if the engines blow up. To me it's the same question as "How much is a 30 year old truck worth?" When you come to resell your boat.

I was looking at these outboard designs in alloy which would come in at 'budget' brand new, the complete hull/superstructure ready welded at about €2k/ft; the interior fitted out as a home build. Just hang the outboards on the transom and go!

32', 3 tons, 300hp.......

Are these really trawlers?

32 FT Commercial Crab Boat (1442) | Aluminum Boat Plans & Designs by Specmar

I'd say you can cruise them any way you wish. Whatever you wish to call them they look light, efficient and capable. Personally I think you can get by fine with less than 300 HP (assuming twin 150's) but it's all dependent upon what you want a boat to do. R Cooke at this forum has a boat quite similar to the one on the bottom picture and he regularly cruises long distances in it comfortably.

He has a book about it to you can find on Amazon I believe, Google his name.

CPseudonym said:

I'd say you can cruise them any way you wish. Whatever you wish to call them they look light, efficient and capable. Personally I think you can get by fine with less than 300 HP (assuming twin 150's) but it's all dependent upon what you want a boat to do. R Cooke at this forum has a boat quite similar to the one on the bottom picture and he regularly cruises long distances in it comfortably.

He has a book about it to you can find on Amazon I believe, Google his name.

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The naval architect stated that this design has 20 degree deadrise for 'rough water use', and I was just wondering how deep vee boats would cruise at trawler displacement speeds; I wouldn't be able to afford to cruise at 15-20 knots with only 1.5 mpg for long!

I was only interested in a coastal cruiser, would this make a good slow cruiser at say 7-8 kts and maybe 4 mpg?

These always intrigued me, and would get a closer look if we ever decide to go for a trailerable boat;

Caledon 27

I'm no Naval Architect but will say this as an owner of a planing hull boat. My boat slow cruises very economically with over 300 HP available at 6 or so knots but if the conditions get snotty it bounces around like a cork. My simple solution when conditions get like that is to kick it in the butt and get her up near planing speed, say about 12 knots for my boat and push through it, stabilizes my ride and gets out of the washing machine faster.

Planing hulls generally handle well when going faster but can slow down and get great mileage in benign conditions. My 2 cents and worth half that probably

MurrayM said:

These always intrigued me, and would get a closer look if we ever decide to go for a trailerable boat;

Caledon 27

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Here in Europe you're only allowed about 27' long by 8'6" wide on a trailer, although the 3tons weight would be fine( max 3.5 tons ) with a private car licence.

The design seems to be 'nearly too good to be true' weighing at only about 3 tons, but I love the trawler workboat look!!

The new generation of OB's like the Suzuki leanburn seems to burn about the same fuel as a similar sized diesel.......

What's not to like....?

This is a trawler with an outboard, we saw it near Ft Myers Florida a couple of years ago. It looked like a 32-34 footer.

CPseudonym said:

I'm no Naval Architect but will say this as an owner of a planing hull boat. My boat slow cruises very economically with over 300 HP available at 6 or so knots but if the conditions get snotty it bounces around like a cork. My simple solution when conditions get like that is to kick it in the butt and get her up near planing speed, say about 12 knots for my boat and push through it, stabilizes my ride and gets out of the washing machine faster.

Planing hulls generally handle well when going faster but can slow down and get great mileage in benign conditions. My 2 cents and worth half that probably

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Here on the Shannon I see lots of planning boats like bayliners etc, and at slow speed they oscillate from side to side like demented devils! Ribs aren't quite as bad but still suffer from the same problem.

Is there a formula for knowing what is the max vee that is stabile at slow speed ?

Correct me if I'm wrong Rustybarge but can you acquire diesel outboards in Ireland?

Steve said:

This is a trawler with an outboard, we saw it near Ft Myers Florida a couple of years ago. It looked like a 32-34 footer.

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That's a very nice looking boat.

What make is it?

CPseudonym said:

Correct me if I'm wrong Rustybarge but can you acquire diesel outboards in Ireland?

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Ahh, you must have been reading my post on the boat design forum.

MurrayM said:

These always intrigued me, and would get a closer look if we ever decide to go for a trailerable boat;

Caledon 27

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That Caledonian looks very light for its size with all that heavy wood interior.
I would guess more like 5 tons than 3tons!

Rustybarge said:

That's a very nice looking boat.

What make is it?

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Sorry, I didn't see the make I'd guess Mainship or Carver? I believe the O/B is an add on mounted on the swim platform I'm sure the standard platform would need substancial reinforcing.

Rustybarge said:

Ahh, you must have been reading my post on the boat design forum.

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No, haven't checked in there in a while now. Earlier you mentioned not cruising long at 1.5 mpg. If you want much more than 3-4 mpg you'd better start looking at sailboats in my opinion because you'd have to have one efficient boat to get much more than that.

Steve said:

Sorry, I didn't see the make I'd guess Mainship or Carver? I believe the O/B is an add on mounted on the swim platform I'm sure the standard platform would need substancial reinforcing.

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Bolting a standby OB to the swim platform sounds like a great idea, those Yamaha high trust 60hp are meant to be great motors.

CPseudonym said:

No, haven't checked in there in a while now. Earlier you mentioned not cruising long at 1.5 mpg. If you want much more than 3-4 mpg you'd better start looking at sailboats in my opinion because you'd have to have one efficient boat to get much more than that.

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I was following the epic trans Atlantic voyage on the KK42 on this forum; can't remember what economy he was getting at 6/7 kts; will a modern OB able to match a slow running diesel?

I think Richard was getting about 4 nmpg on that passage. The most efficient outboard I know of isn't quite a trawler, has a much higher cruise speed of 16 kt but does get 4 nmpg at that clip. Slow down to 14 kt and sip at 7 nmpg.

MC30

Rustybarge said:

I was following the epic trans Atlantic voyage on the KK42 on this forum; can't remember what economy he was getting at 6/7 kts; will a modern OB able to match a slow running diesel?

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Apples and oranges. That Krogen is significantly north of your stated budget. Can they match efficiency??? No idea, perhaps in a very lightweight cat in benign conditions but that's just a wild guess based on nothing but personal conjecture. Others on this forum are far more qualified to opine on that than me. Fuel mileage is not my thing at all, when I need it I just whip out the credit card and fill er up

Hi Rusty, I don't think that's the boat for cruising but I like the idea of using an outboard to power a trawler cruising boat.

I'm going to cause some thread drift sorry. One of our members just completed an Atlantic crossing and is in Castletownbere. If you're any where near there you might want to stop by and say hello.
You can see where the boat is here: https://share.delorme.com/Dauntless

I see that Richard came up in the conversation while I was typing.

20 Deg V bottom not a good choice

A 20/21 deg planning hull is not a good choice for trawler speeds in anything more than flat water. They are very sea kindly on plane at 20knts and up. Slow speed they pitch and roll in rough conditions. Lose power and they swing beam to and roll. I cruised a 28' 21 deg 10' beam boat for over 10 years. You are pretty much stuck with the 1.4 mpg. A well designed outboard is a good choice, however very pricey when compared to a car block marine outdrive. Aluminum cats can do both go fast and slow. Probably a better route. They can be full displacement run fast with lower power and are very stable at slow trawler speeds. Think Glacier Bay.

Wth 20 degrees deadrise and the engines all the way aft a boat will trim very bow high and be very inefficient.

Not trawler like at all.

At a knot below hull speed an OB will power a trawler but in rough going the prop may come out of the water.

I think it's hard to declare any OB boat a trawler but perhaps a very unusual one could qualify. Example ... An OB powered Albin 25 w the lower unit several inches deeper than usual I'd be inclined to call a trawler.

Outboards are high rpm and don't have low enough gears for an appropriate diameter propeller. If they did 15hp would be plenty on the Albin. IMO

Too bad Yanmar no longer makes their 27 and 36 hp diesel outboards.

Check out the rosborough 27 made in Canada. Sounds Exactly what you want, length, price and performance.

I enjoy the whole concept behind outboard trawlers. In my opinion, decent units are available here in the Rosborough and Duffy brands, easily convertible or build-able to diesel outboard if one wanted to really. Nimble boats might be a decent selection also. The Motorcat 30 has even more space and does trawler speeds on two 9.9 gas outboards. But let's get real. I don't know anyone that would choose to limit themselves to hull speeds if they didn't have to. If you had say, 50 or 60 HP, you'd have the option of going faster and extending your range. Why not.

Here's a Duffy that I passed today in Longboat Moorings. It had a 200 Volvo in it and uses a gallon per hour at 6.5 knots, but with a 16 knot cruise, it offers a good range. If you really could keep your foot out of the throttle, you either have slowpoke syndrome like some of us do, or you've got a lot of budget discipline.

The other two photos are of a central-Florida trawlette, basically a metal shed on two pontoons with A/C, generator, galley, berth and plenty of seating. At $6500, it's a novel idea that's practical for inland fishing and camping aboard, but hardly a choice for open water.

http://m.yachtworld.com/mobile/boats/1994/Rosborough-RF-246-Sedan-Cruiser-2640217/CT/United-States

Here's the Rosborough 246 and the Motorcat MC-30.

I don't like bouncing over waves. Prefer to plow through them.

I agree Mark.

Banging along dosn't seem very trawler like to me either but they will call anything a bit salty and cute a trawler. Especially brokers. For whatever reason trawlerness is vogue now.

Rustybarge said:

Are these really trawlers?

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The only legitimate definition of a trawler is a boat that fishes using trawl gear, like the langoustine trawlers out of northwest Scotland.

In the recreational boat world, "trawler" is purely a marketing term first coined by boat manufacturers and dealers who wanted their boats to conjur up the image of ruggedness and seaworthiness, however you define that.

So these days you can slap the term "trawler" on anything you want, and you won't be wrong. I expect we'll soon see the term applied to stand-up paddle-boards.

We have good boating friends who have a 36' custom lobsterboat. Powered by a 420hp Cat diesel, the boat weighs about 16,000 pounds and cruises at about 15 knots, although the owner cruises it a lot slower than that now to conserve fuel. It's a planing hull with a keel. When the water gets sloppy, at slow speeds it is a very uncomfortable ride with not-so-great directional control. Kick it up to 15 knots in the same conditions, and it rides like it's on rails.

As others have said, pick what you want to do. Most boats, if any, don't do slow and fast equally well.

Marin said:

...
In the recreational boat world, "trawler" is purely a marketing term first coined by boat manufacturers and dealers who wanted their boats to conjur up the image of ruggedness and seaworthiness, however you define that. ..

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My understanding was that the original intent was to define a recreational vessel with living accommodations having low fuel consumption, limited to hull speed, due to the fuel crisis of the 1970s when fuel costs rose manifold. The term has been corrupted because it is a good marketing device.