Looking for a Trawler

Hello All,
I'm new to this forum but an avid small boater. I am looking for a trawler that
would be a good ICW cruiser and a possible Looper. Just me and the wife on the
loop, but a son would go on some cruises with us. Looking at Mainship 34 Pilot
Downeast type trawler. Prefer the twin diesel models. Is this boat seaworthy
enough to be a looper? Any other comments appreciated as well.

Call Berry boger in MB. Why do you want a trawler? Fuel economy? Whats your price range? I'm thinking about the loop as well. Heading north in the spring though after work in Southport.

Forget looking at trawlers and look at boats. The name does not mean anything. Look at boats in your size and price range. Find what fits your life style and cruising ideas. In the mid 30' size range an extra few feet can make a huge difference in livability and handling.


Look at enough boats so that you never get on another boats and say I wish I had seen that before I bought.

Might help to read this thread:


http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/what-trawler-15382.html

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. The ONLY thing I will suggest is make sure IF you get a twin there is room to perform maintenance. A component in an awkward/inaccessible location will not only be difficult for YOU to service, it may have been neglected by PO's. I might also mention, ICW travel and the "loop" can be accomplished in almost any vessel. "Trawler" or not.

The only single thing pleasure boats called trawler have in common is the name trawler applied by some marketing type.
Hull shape, cabin layout and size, handling, engines, construction, seaworthiness ( whatever that is), fuel use, max speed all vary extensively.


Rowboats cross oceans, canoes could do the loop. Other than air draft I cant think of any other requirement for loop travel except the owners credit card.

Thanks for all the input. Im figuring out that the "chase" is half the fun. I started out looking at Ranger tugs....to much money and want more speed. Looked at Boston Whaler Conquest 315...good boats but take lots of gas. Budget is 150kish. Im not in a hurry. I like the Mainship 34 Pilot/rum runner with twins as we like to run fast sometimes and dont mind burning a little gas. Need A/C and a
Gen Set. Just curious if people like these boats....Chunky

Sent you a PM...

Chunky:


As you can see from my avatar at the left, I have a Mainship Pilot 34. It is a great long weekend cruiser, but I wouldn't do the loop on one.

Not enough storage, not enough refrigeration capacity, not enough water, ....

And I know you wanted a twin. But unless you hire midgets to work on them a twin will be a maintenance nightmare.

You can do the loop in a row boat, but I would want at least a 36' cruiser or more for that mission.

FWIW the single will cruise at 14 kts and get 1.2 NM/gal or at 7 kts and get almost 3 NM/gal. And you asked about seaworthiness. We boat on LI Sound which can be much worse than almost anything in the ICW (except inlets and sounds) and it does fine.


David

djmarchand said:

But unless you hire midgets to work on them a twin will be a maintenance nightmare.

Click to expand...

Why is that?

Because it is incredibly tight to get to anything outboard on those twin engines. I should have said skinny midgets but with gorilla length arms to reach around the backside.


David

If a boat has twin engines, it's unlikely to be a "trawler." Buy a "cruiser" that fits your needs. ... Most all our boats are "coastal cruisers" which shouldn't be operated in the open sea more than several hours from a safe port.

Mark "If a boat has twin engines, it's unlikely to be a "trawler.""

Mark: How can you say such a thing. Especially after so many threads that have beaten the single v twins to death without disparaging either one by suggest they are unworthy of being called a "trawler".

I have had singles. They were not trawlers, either one. They were sailboats, so that provides them an excuse for not having two engines. My "TRAWLER" is every bit as much a trawler as is yours. The only difference of any significance is that I need to get my tummy onto the top of my Starboard engine to pull off the oil filter cleanly.

Your belated apology will be accepted without comment.

markpierce said:

If a boat has twin engines, it's unlikely to be a "trawler." Buy a "cruiser" that fits your needs. ... Most all our boats are "coastal cruisers" which shouldn't be operated in the open sea more than several hours from a safe port.

Click to expand...

Huh ? I know several guys with grand banks with 3208 Cats. Those are straight up trawlers. Hatteras LRC's have twin engines. They top out at about 7 kts. The speed would dictate a trawler to me. I cant see the need for a trawler with twin cats though. You lose room and they still dont go fast. Its a lose, lose. I would get a single with a bow thruster.

I've a single with equal ease-of-access sides and top, with battery boxes on each side providing places to sit.

Waiting

Doesn't a trawler have a forum following?

sunchaser said:

Doesn't a trawler have a forum following?

Click to expand...

They do have a forum. Its right here. Dont you have twin engines? you might be at the wrong forum. That 48 Defever is a beautiful boat though.

Welcome Chunky! Sorry 'bout the unruly kids. They argue. A lot! But, it IS a great forum. Read a lot. Filter the chaff. Some great guys (and gals) with a lot of experience. Don't worry about the finer parts of the lingo. They'll quickly help you learn what words to NOT say.

Like "ANCHOR".

oscar said:

Why is that?

Click to expand...

djmarchand said:

Because it is incredibly tight to get to anything outboard on those twin engines. I should have said skinny midgets but with gorilla length arms to reach around the backside.

Click to expand...

Expanding on that:

Typical service points on our twins include oil filters, fuel filters, coolant filters, water pump (impeller), AirSeps, aftercoolers, and three zinc anodes.

Filters have been mounted "remotely" (i.e., different from their original or normal location) so those are all inboard and relatively easy to service.

Our port side water pump, AirSep, aftercooler, and two zincs are outboard, in between engine and water tank... with about 10" to spare in between. I can get to most of that, over the top. But changing the impeller is mostly one-handed. With a mirror.

The zinc anode on our starboard side heat exchanger is outboard, ditto 10" in between engine and water tank. I can get to that, over the top, working upside down and partly in the blind.

And "over the top" is a significant deal. We have a day hatch from the cockpit... and that makes it easy enough to do filter changes and check fluids and so forth. But serious work means removing the overhead hatches in the saloon sole. Which means moving a FlexSteel couch/pull-out bed, for the starboard side. And finding someplace to put it while I work. And these two hatches are big/heavy/awkward, so not usually a one-person job.

That's the kind of stuff to look for when somebody says to check out "access" as you shop.

-Chris

Magnawake said:

They do have a forum. Its right here. Dont you have twin engines? you might be at the wrong forum. That 48 Defever is a beautiful boat though.

Click to expand...

You may call a DeFever a trawler, Art D didn't. He liked the terms yacht and passage maker. These two terms seemed too exclusive and moved a lot of "don't fit" boats into the new found trawler category thirty five or so years ago.

Hence Trawler followed by Forum = website for all boaters with said vessels then re-labeled so one term fits all. How'd I do Marin?

Phyrcooler said:

Welcome Chunky! Sorry 'bout the unruly kids. They argue. A lot! But, it IS a great forum. Read a lot. Filter the chaff. Some great guys (and gals) with a lot of experience. Don't worry about the finer parts of the lingo. They'll quickly help you learn what words to NOT say.

Like "ANCHOR".

Click to expand...

Ha Ha. Yeah thats a good one. well, you know everyone is just having a little fun discussing the finer points of yachting, boating, trawling or passage making. At the end of the day we hope to be in some nice anchorage or marina discussing what to drink because its 5 O'clock. Thats the end goal I think. The deal with searching for a boat of any type is that you need to check off the kind on Yacht World. MY, Trawler, Convertible and so forth. My MY is used mainly as a Trawler. The broker listed it as a MY because Hatteras said it was. I havent pulled any shrimp nets lately.

You could buy mine . It's like a mullet . You know
"business in the front, party in the back " But it has a single engine with walkthru door to engine room.

Chunky: we were in your position 5 years ago, the only difference being we knew nothing at all about boats or boating. We did a lot right though: we got on a lot of boats, big and small and fast and slow. We took some boat training, safety and navigation courses. I recommend you do some bareboat charters to see what boat fits you. We took some bareboat charters, including a Mainship 350/390. We found it small. As Djmarchant said: it would be fine as a weekender but not as suitable for extended cruising.

As we went thought the process, our tastes evolved and space became more and more important. We started looking at CHB 34's and evolved all the way to raised Pilothouses, settilng on a Kadey Krogen 42. We were on an extended cruise this past summer for 10 weeks and didn't go stir crazy.

Advice: buy your last boat first!

Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

Okay, let's set the record straight about what is and what isn't a "Trawler", but first let me address markpierce...

Dear markpierce I hate to burst your bubble but you my friend do not own a "Trawler" even with its single diesel engine. By definition, a "trawler" is a fishing boat that pulls a trawl (net) to catch fish and these and only these boats are true "trawlers" also known as draggers to some. And yes, some of these true "Trawlers" had/have twins. What you own, in today's world is called a "recreational trawler", a term coined by the boating industry to market their boats to a specific group of boaters. So, whether you own a single or twin "recreation trawler", in today's world it's really just a certain style of boat, which is broadening all the time, that was given a name so the boat builders could sell more boats. Just Sayin'

p.s. koliver: don't hold your breath waiting for that belated apology. me thinks it's not going to happen. why he would make such a silly comment in the first place is confusing at best.

*edited to add content

Diesel Duck 492 said:

By definition, a "trawler" is a fishing boat that pulls a trawl (net) to catch fish and these and only these boats are true "trawlers" also known as draggers to some. And yes, some of those true "Trawlers" had/have twins.

Click to expand...

Twins on a dragger? Examples?


Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

Welcome aboard. A few VERY important things to consider when looking for a loop boat.

The lowest bridge that must be passed under is in Chicago. It has a clearance of 19' 01". If you plan on using the NY State Canal System, there is a bridge with only 16" 05' clearance. Bridge Heights - New York State Canals
You also want a shallow draft. The dismal swamp is supposed to be 6' deep, but shoaling is a constant problem and deep draft vessels risk a bottom strike.

Once you enter the Hudson River area I believe it is a no discharge zone until you reach the Gulf. Unless you want to deal with frequent pump outs, be sure you have adequate holding tanks. You will also need to be able to cover at least 250 miles without refueling if using the Tennessee/Tombigbee Rivers and 450 miles if you use the Mississippi.

Here is a link to what my wife and I consider to be the best loop boat. A Great Harbour N37. Twin diesels, huge tanks, awesome space, walk in engine room. Great Harbour N37 trawler: spacious, stable, unsinkable - Great Harbour Trawlers

DD492, many others:

Just to add further to the definition of a "trawler":
It isn't so much the boat, though depending only on size, the boat does need some similarity in order to do the job.

A true "Trawler" is simply a boat that hauls a "trawl". So the back end of the boat needs to be substantial enough to handle both a big net and a pair of boards that will pull the open end of the net to the bottom and keep it open while being dragged along the bottom.

When I was much younger, I spent a summer fishing, from the Fairweather grounds, to Hecate Straight, Queen Charlotte Sound, Johnstone Straight, Georgia Straight. There were lots of draggers (That's what we called them then). Some were as small as a recereational trawler, but most were quite a lot larger. I don't recall seeing any with twin power, but there may have been. I have also seen boats fitted out for dragging one season and for some other kind of fishing another. The fitting out changed what you called the boat, so a dragger could become a seiner, a seiner could become a dragger, or a packer, or even a troller. Trollers were generally not trawlers, as the stern was built with a cockpit from which to run the lines fitted with gurdeys and a big sounder, engine controls, radio and a place to throw the fish as they were hauled in. The stern was generally too slim for the dragger boards that would try to hold the mouth of the net as far apart as possible, and without the extra bouyancy required for the weight of those same dragger boards when not off the boat.

OTOH, many fishboat conversions, including Trollers, make great recreational Trawlers, but few draggers do.

So IMO, you call your boat a trawler if you want to, and all it really means is that you prefer going somewhat slower than those who don't.

JDCAVE said:

Twins on a dragger? Examples?


Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

Click to expand...

one of many examples of a twin engine "trawler":

Used Commercial Vessels 96ft Steel Freezer Trawler - 2212

note: this one happens to be a shrimp trawler.