New Trawler Build: Introduction and First Question

Tad was responding to two things: 1) my comment about how I would like to see the boat that he designed (that the TT35 reminds him of in certain aspects), and 2) a PM that I sent him asking why he thought the helm needed to be moved back or the windshield forward.

Tad, thank you for the photos of the boat you designed. She is a beauty. Obviously designed to get up and go yet also with living amenities. You packed a lot into a 30-ft boat.

When I look at your initial post on this thread I see that you drew lines from the side view to the bird's-eye view of the TT35, and posted that pic. Thank you for pointing out that the helm was too close to the windshield in that drawing.

Speaking of the main helm, one of the things that we have requested is a "comfortable" helm seat and wheel. Ergonomically designed to be more like an automobile's, where the wheel is above the lap when seated but also so that the chair can be easily pushed back when the captain wishes to stand. This stems from my observation that on the 15 or so boats that my father and I have owned, not a single one of them had a comfortable helm. (I should mention here that my husband and I are both fairly short people, 5'6" and 5'4".)

Any comments on that idea?

Sweet Pea

I think that you will find zero boats set up as you describe with the helm above your lap as in a car. There are several reasons for this:


Boat helms need several turns lock to lock unlike cars


Unlike cars you sometimes need to get up quickly from your seat and stand. A helm sitting in your lap would be too constraining if you had to first move the seat back to do that.


In practice I stand up at the helm when I am in confined spaces so I can see and react better. Otherwise I sit back in the helm seat and operate the autopilot using a remote.


David

I had the same thought about the need to get up quickly. Wondered if a swiveling seat would alleviate that.

The drawings on the TT35 webpage don't line up between the top view and the side view in a number of places. At this point I would not be making a big deal of the location of the helm vs. the window. Since Great Harbor have built a number of boats, they probably know what is required and will get it right.

Wait 'til they get proper drawings out before getting wound up about it. To me the top view just looks like a quick sketch someone did as to how it might be arranged.

Miz Trom said:

...
Water 50 gallons (although there is some discussion about going with 30-gallons water and a watermaker)...

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Quite minimal if having a freshwater toilet.

Miz Trom - Have you received any updates on your TT35? Noticed on the Great Harbour web site that production has slipped somewhat.

HopCar said:

Welcome aboard!
As far as I can see composting toilets are just glorified litter boxes. I don't enjoy scooping my cat's box. I wouldn't enjoy dealing with human waste.

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How is my cat doing?

The TT35 looks a lot like the Cargile Cutter to me

Hi Richard, I'm afraid she has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

My apologies for not posting updates

Hi Donsan:

I apologize for not posting more here in regards to our experiences with buying and building hull #1 of the Great Harbour TT35. A different project I have been working on consumes the majority of my time.

I am puzzled where you might be getting the information that production has slowed. Here are photos from our last several visits, with the most recent visit about a month ago, to the Great Harbour manufacturing plant. Production is moving along quite nicely.

We are getting into the nitty gritty of selecting our electronics right now. We love the Simrad broadband radar (it is safer than the Garmin microwave radar and uses much less power), but are a little concerned with just a few older reports we have seen concerning the reliability of Simrad electronics. But my goodness, broadband radar seems like such a no-brainer. You can hug the radar dome while it is operational, unlike the microwave radars.

This appeals immensely to us because we expect to pilot the boat from the flying bridge for the majority of the time, and a non-microwave-emitting radar mast can be placed anywhere up top, including within a few feet of the captain's chair if we so desire.

Warm Regards to all,
Sweet Pea

Welcome aboard and congratulations for all new things on your life!!

Miz Trom said:

I am puzzled where you might be getting the information that production has slowed. Here are photos from our last several visits, with the most recent visit about a month ago, to the Great Harbour manufacturing plant. Production is moving along quite nicely.

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Sorry, didn't mean to imply production has slowed but rather they will not have the boat ready for some of the early fall boat shows as they had hoped. This was in the last monthly newsletter:


The painstaking process of perfecting the mold tooling for the TT35 is finally over, and within a few weeks we will have hull number one ready for preliminary water testing. Our initial hope was to have the boat ready for public showing at the 2016 Annapolis Powerboat Show. That might still be possible if we were willing to pull some late nights and rush the interior work. Most every boat builder has stories of how they were still adding final details to a new model as it arrived at the show. But that's not us. We like to get things right, and if that means taking a bit more time, so be it. We are still looking at a Fall completion date, but in Florida, and closer to Thanksgiving. Between now and then, the pace will pick up and you'll begin to see more frequent updates on our Facebook page and in the October issue of the newsletter.


The pics look real good and thank you! More pics please!

Okay - more pictures!

Hello Donsan:

I note that you live up near Palatka. I used to to waterski on the St. Johns River when I was a kid. The St. Johns will be very likely be one of our first trips on the boat.

I am guessing that you may have noticed in the photos that the design has changed somewhat from the original drawings (my avatar). Pierce, the Marketing Director at Mirage, suggested that the forward "swoop" of the gunwales be moved forward to accommodate the option of a helm door. I like it; what do you think? And of course, now I want a helm door.

Here are some more photos. That's Mr. Smurf holding up the mockup against the gunwales for steps to the bow. Ken tells me that Mr. Smurf is the one who has been at Mirage the longest. He is extraordinarily knowledgeable, and an absolute gem to talk with concerning the build.

Warm Regards,
Sweet Pea

Miz Trom, thanks for sharing your experience! My wife and I love the idea of the TT35, the ability to trailer it, ship it on a RORO, the shallow draft, and much more. We look forward to hearing more about your experiences and the boat!

Miz Trom said:

I note that you live up near Palatka. I used to to waterski on the St. Johns River when I was a kid. The St. Johns will be very likely be one of our first trips on the boat.

I am guessing that you may have noticed in the photos that the design has changed somewhat from the original drawings (my avatar). Pierce, the Marketing Director at Mirage, suggested that the forward "swoop" of the gunwales be moved forward to accommodate the option of a helm door. I like it; what do you think? And of course, now I want a helm door.

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We moved from Vero Beach to Buffalo Bluff about 2 months ago. With the exception of two hurricanes with their obligatory power outages, we are loving it. It is kind of backwards and Putnam is a very poor county but I like rural. Really, I am shocked the way development along the FL coast just passes this place by. The St Johns between Palatka and the south end of Lake George is great for boating. The area from south Lake George to Astor, no so much but I would probably view it differently in a trawler. We haven't made it down south of Astor yet.

The helm door idea sounds like a great one. Having one on each side would be even better. Is the helm door an option or the revised base design? If you plan to do the loop, you will probably need those doors in the locks.

Keep those pics coming!

I do not know if the helm door will be an option or not.

Dan,
Good on you for not calling the TT35 a trawler. It is an OB cruiser as is the sea dory ect. For that matter most trawlers are cruisers too. The word trawler sounds big and masculine so naturally everyone wants to align w it.

I'm a big fan of cruisers and would probably trade my trawler for the right cruiser .. preferably an OB. I have an 18' OB open boatw a 60 Suzuki. Mine is w the older 1300cc powerhead. One of the reasons I chose it was because of the large displacement but most likely more important is the lower unit gear ratio. Think mine is 2.67-1. For you a 3-1 gear would be ideal but the lower the better. My 60hp on the 18' FG OB is very low power for the boat. Most all other boats of this size and weight have 115 to 150hp. On my OB running light w my wife and I and 12 or so gallons of fuel she performs well but add two more people and she's obviously underpowered. We rarely exceed a light loading so I'm going to address the "problem" w one or two lower pitched props. You may do that as time goes on. I had a very light 28' OB w a 55hp Johnson and I had an 11" pitch prop that I used w full fuel tanks. Would stop and put on a 13" pitch prop when about 1/3 of the fuel was burned. Seldom needed to fill the tanks.

Just throwing this out for furure thinking.

Beautiful boat...good on ya!

I looked at the specs for the 37...sure does have some cute little engines

2008 Great Harbour N37 Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Lobstah said:

Beautiful boat...good on ya!

I looked at the specs for the 37...sure does have some cute little engines

2008 Great Harbour N37 Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

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Hope it didn't suffer any hurricane damage.

Thats all that boat needs is little engines, anything more would be wasted with that hull shape. She is what she is , not designed to be a speed boat.

Comfort over speed! The older I get, the more I like it!

question

any progress on acquiring your new TT35 Great Harbor trawlwer?

Welcome to Trawler Forum, Bill from Belton. Is that Belton, Texas, just north of Austin?

We visited the plant about 3 weeks ago to see the mockup of the interior done up in plywood. The photos aren't very good because of the tight spaces. I will look through them again to see if any are worth posting.

Pea

Photos of plywood interior mockup

We brought Lucy the Wonder Dog, a.k.a. Captain Lucy, with us to check out the interior. Lucy is a Labrador Retriever/Basset Hound mix, so she has a Lab body with very sturdy but short legs. She loved the boat, and really took a liking to Ken Fickett. We all agreed that the settee table needs to fold over in the middle for Lucy to be able to sit comfortably there. The handsome fella in the grey sweatshirt is my hubby Dan.

Fridge

Forgot to mention, the galley will include a full-size fridge!

Hi Pea - Yes we are located in Texas just north of Austin. We are very interested in the TT35. In our current trawler (Cutwater 26) we have an Airhead toilet and it is incredible. No odors, easy to use and clean, and we get an extra 30 gallons of fresh water instead of a macerator and black water tank. When do you think you will be able to pick up your new boat? I spoke with Ken and hope to visit him in May, 2017. Keep us posted on your progress - Bill

Hi Pea - Is your boat the only TT35 boat on order at this point? Is your interior custom or pretty much standard? Those sheets of plywood look none too comfy!

Donsan said:

Hi Pea - Is your boat the only TT35 boat on order at this point? Is your interior custom or pretty much standard? Those sheets of plywood look none too comfy!

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Well, we do have some minimalists here. Maybe they'd like such?

I that is pretty damn cool that they do that plywood mock up and even cooler that you posted the pics!!! Thanks!!!

Bill J:

We met with the owner of Airhead at the St. Pete boat show last week and he allayed all of our fears concerning the composting toilet. Super guy.

We had the exact same thought about more room for water tanks when there is no need for a blackwater tank, so we are.... taking the chance on an Airhead! In addition, Pierce Hoover from Great Harbour did a bunch of research, reaching out to a number of composting commode full-time cruisers and they all expressed similar positive opinions as yours.

We are hoping that the boat will be ready by February. They were tearing out the plywood mockup the day after we left and are working like crazy on the interior build right now. We hope to get up there next week and see the progress.

Being hull #1, we understood from the start that the build time was a guesstimate. Sometimes I have to restrain myself from thinking about all the boats we could have bought this year, and been enjoying, if we hadn't ordered the TT35.

But then I think about all of the features of the TT35 that I love, that I haven't found in any other cruiser (low draft, outboards, trailerable - which shows how completely I am my father's daughter) and I sigh and open up my study books on navigation. Or as I am doing tomorrow, lowering the boat and putting up the Christmas lights on our little 18-ft boat for the neighborhood boat parade.

Those Cutwater boats are absolutely beautiful. Does yours have the sterndrives? We almost bought one before we chose the TT35.

Warm Regards,
Pea