New member looking for purchase advise...

Hello all,

My wife Caren and I (David) are about to be trawler owners (if you call semi-displacement a trawler) hopefully in the near future. We have installed a 24K lb lift off the back of our house so we are limited to a boat about 20K lb dry.

For a lot of reasons our current top choice is a 2005+ Mainship 34. We like the open saloon, huge fly-bridge with secure stairs (we have some elderly friends/family), inside steering, functional galley. Available inventory and price. The only downside we see is the single sleeping cabin.

Anyone out there have ideas for us for boats that are beamy in the $150K range in the 2000+ year range?

Looking forward to the forum!!!
Caren and David

WELCOME.

Nobody yet???

I would suggest copy/paste and ask the question again in the GENERAL DISCUSSION part of the forum. I expect you will get more attention.

A two year old 30 foot Ranger Tug ticks many of the boxes you mentioned IMHO. Or a Back Cove, both are much more up to date than a decade old vessel like you mentioned. Check weights carefully. Advertised vs real are not the same

I was hoping you would repost in GENERAL but since not I will add this.

Sunchaser beat me to a bunch of it.

I agree you need to be really carefull with the lift capacity vs your stated expectation of 20K dry weight. A 20K dry weight boat, at least in my experience, will hold far more that 4K of supplies. Dry weight means no fuel or water and that alone in many boats is worth 2K or more. Water is ~8.5 #/gal, diesel is ~ 7.5#/gal.

Then you have to add all the food, gear, dishes, bedding, tools, dinghies, outboards and fuel and all the other STUFF we want, people that will normally be aboard. 4K # will be eaten up fast. Be carefull as many boats listed weights are optimistic.

I have only seen one BackCove here but nice looking boat so cannot comment.
I would also suggest
Camano, Nordic Tug, Ranger Tug, although they may not be for you.

Hi David:
Welcome and congrats on the new lift. Nice to see new folks from the neighborhood on TF. Mainship is an awesome boat, so keep looking at other boats on yachtworld and when they don't list the displacement (weight) just open a new window and google it. Great suggestions above. For use around the Gulf Coast and ICW I would suggest looking for a vessel with the least draft.

From yachtworld:
1. A 2002 Mainship 34 Trawler drafts 3'8" and displaces 22,000 lbs.
2. Draft on a 2005 Mainship 34 Pilot is 3'3" and displaces 20,000 lbs.
3. The 2013 Ranger 31 Command Bridge (a bit out of your price range, though) drafts 2'4" and displaces 10,500 lbs.
4. A 2003 Camano 31 Troll drafts 3'3" and weighs in at 12,000 lbs.

I would guess that you have been looking at yachtworld for awhile and also understand that brokers don't always list the same draft for similar boats, and so you also have to check out the manufacturer's websites. Have you been to boat shows and been aboard many trawlers? Hubby Dan and I have been aboard a few Rangers and really liked the flybridge version.

Best of luck on your search for the right boat for you!