Looking for a pocket Trawler for sale In The Northeast

What were we talking about?

Oh yeah....Small trawlers in New Jersey. The Albin 25 is a nice boat. Don't know of any in New Jersey.

A friend of mine used to cruise up and down the coast from Florida to Canada with his wife in their Albin 25. He was the one who came up with the phrase "The smaller the boat, the bigger the adventure". How true.

New Jersey is the home of the Sportfisher and the water-ski towboat. You are going to cast your net farther if you are looking for a trawler. The Chesapeake is good place to start. Farther up the coast in Long Island sound is good and New England is better.

BaltimoreLurker said:

I guess it depends on why you have a boat. When I'm out on the boat I'm already at my destination - out on the water.

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Fish53 said:

Hi, I'm new to this forum and am building a small "trawler", or more appropriately, I'm converting one from an ex-USCG 26ft motor whaleboat. I've installed a 23hp Kubota diesel and am in the process of building a modest cabin and pilothouse. It has Capilano hydraulic steering Simrad auto pilot, Furuno radar, GPS, and sounder and a laptop with plotter program. I hope to have it in the water by September and head south.

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Come on now F53, we need pics! Lots of Navy whale boats made into trawlers, but the CG version is much fuller in the ends and faster. I always thought they would make a great conversion.
I spent scary boarding trips running those on Georges Bank winter fisheries patrols in the 70's. Good luck!
Lets see lots of pictures.

BaltimoreLurker said:

I guess it depends on why you have a boat. When I'm out on the boat I'm already at my destination - out on the water.

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You got that right!! They say getting there is half the fun. My boat's so slow, 'getting there' makes up 75% of the fun!

Fish53 said:

Hi, I'm new to this forum and am building a small "trawler", or more appropriately, I'm converting one from an ex-USCG 26ft motor whaleboat. I've installed a 23hp Kubota diesel and am in the process of building a modest cabin and pilothouse. It has Capilano hydraulic steering Simrad auto pilot, Furuno radar, GPS, and sounder and a laptop with plotter program. I hope to have it in the water by September and head south.

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You're just toying with us, Fish53!! Now we need pics and documentation of the entire project. This is the stuff that many of us crave here. Hope to see proof soon, because they say...

If you ain't got no pics, it never happened!!

Welcome to Trawler Forum!!

BaltimoreLurker said:

I guess it depends on why you have a boat. When I'm out on the boat I'm already at my destination - out on the water.

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. Agonizing about labels is an exercise in futility.Choose your boat and go boating.

Vashon_Trawler said:

I've observed an interesting trend on this site... it appears us "go slows" are occasionally having to defend our boat and lifestyle choices to owners of 20+ knot boats. Marin, this is an example of one of your posts from April:

I expected to see discussions about what's the best make of net reel or what's the best shape for an otter door, not about pathetic little 80 and 120 hp engines that are virtually useless other than maybe to power a hydraulic pump

We get--you don't like slow moving boats. But this is the "trawler" forum; and, whatever your or my definition, it is generally accepted that most so called recreational trawlers are slow cruisers that move like--in your words--a "glacier". Why do you even frequent this site if you disdain slow boats so much?

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This post should have come out long ago. We all know what a trawler is (except Marin) and what a trawler does. Mine's a bit of a slug though. Thanks for this post.

Re the post why pocket trawler? What's the matter w "small" trawler? Where's the need to be cute come from?

Oh damn....maybe we need to change the name to "trawler"forum.com

Baker said:

Oh damn....maybe we need to change the name to "trawler"forum.com

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Some might prefer "CrawlerForum" . I`m fine with TrawlerForum". Provides some sport for pedants, but even they know what it means.

Baker said:

Oh damn....maybe we need to change the name to "trawler"forum.com

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No, what you have is fine. But it's a bloody good thing you didn't ask me to come with the name for you back in 2007 because I might have picked "ToyBoat Forum." Or "TBF.com" .

But then everyone would have had endless arguments about what defines a toy boat, photo number 1 or photo number 2.

Because, by the dictionary definitions, the term applies to both, right?

From our good buddies at Merriam-Webster:

Toy (noun): 1. Something a child plays with. 2.; Something that an adult buys or uses for enjoyment or entertainment.

PS-- One of these toys is not mine.

Baker said:

Oh damn....maybe we need to change the name to "trawler"forum.com

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...and I just bought these new TF shirts!! This smells like a conspiracy to sell more shirts. Did No Mast put you up to this?

I am still looking!

Whaleboat conversion

Sailor of Fortune said:

Come on now F53, we need pics! Lots of Navy whale boats made into trawlers, but the CG version is much fuller in the ends and faster. I always thought they would make a great conversion.
I spent scary boarding trips running those on Georges Bank winter fisheries patrols in the 70's. Good luck!
Lets see lots of pictures.

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I was on many of those trawlers in the 70's 80's and 90's. I also worked in the Bering sea for years and there was a tremendous difference being boarded there or on Georges. On Georges they'd come over in a whaleboat in shitty weather with six aboard and the first one on deck had to jump aboard with a shotgun, good timing was essential. In AK they use an RIB, no guns except side arms and were generally less "tense" than in the Atlantic. That's why I have respect for a whaleboats seaworthiness, I've seen them in some pretty bad weather.

whaleboat 1.jpg

This is what it looked like when I started, the house was fiberglass over plywood and moisture got in and rotted the wood so I had to remove most of the house. Also repower and install new fuel tanks (85 gal.) and hydraulic steering.

Fish53 said:

whaleboat 1.jpg

This is what it looked like when I started, the house was fiberglass over plywood and moisture got in and rotted the wood so I had to remove most of the house. Also repower and install new fuel tanks (85 gal.) and hydraulic steering.

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keep the pictures coming as it progresses great!!!!

BruceK said:

. Agonizing about labels is an exercise in futility.Choose your boat and go boating.

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I'll 2nd that!

Fish53 said:

whaleboat 1.jpg

This is what it looked like when I started, the house was fiberglass over plywood and moisture got in and rotted the wood so I had to remove most of the house. Also repower and install new fuel tanks (85 gal.) and hydraulic steering.

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I'm in love.

Albin Owners Group • View forum - Swap / Trade / Sell

I included a link to the albin owners forum so you can see they have some problems selling and buying their small trawlers in the temperate zone. Once they went to Maine they found a small trawler in every cove and sold their's within a week. The Garden State has many good things, small trawlers ain't one of them.

I think that's the same with motorsailers up here. With our short season having a pilothouse and maybe even heat really extends a already short boating season. I can't have a boat without somewhere to stay inside if the weather sucks, but I go out in the winter too.

Fish53 said:

whaleboat 1.jpg

This is what it looked like when I started, the house was fiberglass over plywood and moisture got in and rotted the wood so I had to remove most of the house. Also repower and install new fuel tanks (85 gal.) and hydraulic steering.

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Ok dammit, now you did it. You need to go start a thread in the refit sub forum and load it up with full details and photos. Check out Hendo78's thread for ideas of what we are after.

That is one great looking boat and deserves its own thread and documentation of its rebuild.

Fish53,
Is there a town in Maine called Washington. Confusing.

Like your boat a lot. Of course that's partly explainable in that she looks a lot like or somewhat like my own Willy. I think you mentioned a 20hp 3cyl engine before.

That boat looks bigger than the 26' whaleboat Uniflite made in the 70s. A bit higher freeboard too if my eye's good today. I'd like more pics to.

I converted a 27' wood troller in the 70s and owned an Albin 25 for 6 years. So I'm fond of small trawlers. My Willard is quite small too.

She was actually built here in Maine at the Webbers Cove boatyard. They built 34',40', and 50' utility boats for the USN as well. One 34' hull was made into a lobsterboat and was the first fiberglass lobsterboat in Maine. My MWB is designed by Webber and has a full length skeg back to and supporting the rudder. Also she has more sheer, especially in the bow, than most MWB I've seen. It had a 4-108 in it but that was more power than she needs and I had the Kubota so.... I had a chance to buy a Willard 30 hull last year and didn't (to many boats already my wife said), wish I had now, very nice boats.

manyboats said:

Fish53,
Is there a town in Maine called Washington. Confusing.

Like your boat a lot. Of course that's partly explainable in that she looks a lot like or somewhat like my own Willy. I think you mentioned a 20hp 3cyl engine before.

That boat looks bigger than the 26' whaleboat Uniflite made in the 70s. A bit higher freeboard too if my eye's good today. I'd like more pics to.

I converted a 27' wood troller in the 70s and owned an Albin 25 for 6 years. So I'm fond of small trawlers. My Willard is quite small too.

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The CG MWB is totally different than the Navy version. Much fuller in the ends. Very much a drier ride than navy boats. Newer ones had 130HP Cummins power. Ocean Tech built many of them.

Is that the one that was built to be self bailing and had a Detroit 53 series in it?

Yes , the earlier boats had Detroits and later came with Cummins, Self bailing