Sailing vs. Trawlering

Seems like half the people on here switch over from sailing.
Why??

I haven't done it, but sailing seems legit - you save on fuel, it's much quieter without the engines running, and you can still use them when you want.

The only downfall I can see is bridge clearance and a few extra things to maintain. What's the rub??

This Grand Banks is our first boat, but if we could have afforded it we probably would have bought a sweet Catamaran. All that to say, I am very happy with the GB, just trying to figure out what I'm missing.

Most sailors (at least up here) seldom use their sails, they motor to get to their destinations. If you don't have a destination or don't care when you get there sails are fine. Maintaining the rigging is expensive and if you don't maintain it the consequences can be high. Sailboats also have an engine and mechanical system to maintain, so trawlers are about half as complicated.

The view out the windows of a trawler is much better than the view out of most sailboats. Also the amount of uncluttered deck space on a trawler vs the deck and rigging of a sailboat are different animals.

It's a balance of features, older sailors I believe realize how little they actually sailed and how much they just enjoyed being on the water and choose a simpler vessel that more closely matches what they actually have been using their sailboats to do when they switch over to trawlers.

JMO

My sailing friends always glare at me when we are out cruising together and I am nice and dry and warm and drinking hot chocolate while they are in their foul weather gear in a cold, wet cockpit.

Around here sailboats are under power about 60% of the time or more often because they are trying to stick to a schedule and don't have time to sail at 6 knots in a direction 45 degrees from their destination. On the Chesapeake, we are fortunate to have plenty of sights and harbors worth visiting within 20-30 miles or each other but this still requires a minimum of 5 hours of sailing in ideal conditions for most cruisers. If you are sailing inland, the land masses funnel the wind such that more often than not, you are trying to go directly upwind or downwind, the slowest points of sail. Other considerations are the effort and number of hands needed to raise, handle and douse sails as well as draft and height restrictions.

I've never been a sailor but know many sailors in our yacht club. It seems to me that they go sailing just to be out on the water where we only take our boat out when we have a definite purpose.

I like fiddling with my steadying sails, but would not like tacking all over the place to get where I want to go. I also don’t want to sit outside all day on long runs— I like my air conditioned pilothouse.

Some would say I have the worst of both worlds — a smallish sail plan that won’t move the boat well enough by themselves (and the subsequent added maintenance and expense), but I think it’s kind of fun to have a little wind power.

Plus, if my engine konks
out and the wind is blowing a bit I might be able to get back home (or get somewhere depending on the wind direction), not just sit out there bobbing like a cork.

Nothing wrong with sailing, but sailboats suck! Small dark cabins, tiny heads, nowhere to get out of the cold wet wind when traveling. Oh, and they lay on their sides when moving......

If you want to see what you are missing with your Grand Banks, next time you go out, you could always sit on the foredeck and have a friend throw buckets of water on you.

As a former sailor with extensive Bluewater experience I can tell you experience is significantly different. Living in a monohull is like living in the in a tube. Our curent trawler has three to four times the room of our 43 foot trawler. This Does not include our enclosed flybridge or covered sundeck whic is about 10 x 11 feet.

I think sailboats overall require much less maintenance. Sails and rigging dont require much work. We n a monohull, you only have one small engine. My current boat has five ACs, two generators, two vaccuflush heads, hydraulic stabilizers, bow thruster, two 330 hp engines, two icemakers, watchmaker, hydraulic hardtop, electronic throttles, trim tabs, just to tick off some of the equipment requiring routines maintenance. I don't know if routine maintenance is required on the satellite television or satellites telephone dishes.

Too many days with no wind or wind on the nose, living underground with only a tiny view of the world through little portlights, all day in a small cockpit in bright sun, or all day in cold rain, crawling to the foredeck with green water coming over the bow to take down the staysail...

Trawler? Huge living space, tons of storage, amazing view, out of the elements, get where we're going on our schedule. I do miss the solid stability of the sailboat and the knowledge it would go through any seas I was crazy enough to be in, I absolutely hate the engine noise when weather forces us to the lower helm, but I can't believe we waited this long to switch.

We also chose a trawler for the liveability (we are liveaboards); I hate the small portlights of the sailboat.
Why not a catamaran though? Then you get best of both worlds?

We miss sailing. But not enough to go back!

However, if we decided to cruise the South Pacific, I'd opt for a pilothouse sailboat or at least a motorsailer. Yes, sailing is a bit more work in terms of things to do underway (before and after, too), but the feeling of slicing through the water in relative silence is pretty darn nice!

We'll get our sailing fix in Tahiti this June, as my wife and I are captaining one of the nine catamarans on the Cruising Outpost Share the Sail. That should last us another couple of years...

Moonfish said:

We'll get our sailing fix in Tahiti this June, as my wife and I are captaining one of the nine catamarans on the Cruising Outpost Share the Sail. That should last us another couple of years...

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That’s going to be an awesome trip. Jealous.

Westiculo said:

Seems like half the people on here switch over from sailing.
Why??

I haven't done it, but sailing seems legit - you save on fuel, it's much quieter without the engines running, and you can still use them when you want.

The only downfall I can see is bridge clearance and a few extra things to maintain. What's the rub??

This Grand Banks is our first boat, but if we could have afforded it we probably would have bought a sweet Catamaran. All that to say, I am very happy with the GB, just trying to figure out what I'm missing.

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The comforts of a Trawler type of boat are obvious incl. ease of handling when under way, the speed to get somewhere does not hurt either. Unfortunately when one is doing coastal or local sailing, one motor - sails most of the time.
Trawlers esp. with two engines and their size, have more complex systems to maintain .... in my view.
Having sailed quite a bit, I miss the process BUT .... if I was going Off Shore and long distance, I would prefer to do it in a sailboat, it's cheaper and the sailboat is more sea kindly ......... fb

Why not a catamaran? Try making the beds. Depending on the beam a slip may be hard to find and a haul out may be troublesome as well.

I've got my nice & slow 10 ton trawler and my gal has a nice 26' Macgregor sailboat that will do 6 1/2 knots across the wind or 20+ knots on plane, if needed. My big flybridge vs. the shallow draft freedom of her boat. Our summer trips around the PNW on the trawler vs her trailerable boat that we racked up almost 3 weeks on in Sea of Cortez this winter.

Best of both worlds!

Westiculo said:

Seems like half the people on here switch over from sailing.
Why??

I haven't done it, but sailing seems legit - you save on fuel, it's much quieter without the engines running, and you can still use them when you want.

The only downfall I can see is bridge clearance and a few extra things to maintain. What's the rub??

This Grand Banks is our first boat, but if we could have afforded it we probably would have bought a sweet Catamaran. All that to say, I am very happy with the GB, just trying to figure out what I'm missing.

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Doug outlined much of the issues. I sailed for 50+ years before moving to power.

A lot of it is based on location. I hear there are places in the world where the weather is warm and the breeze is always blowing. Not sure that I believe it, but in those locations it would be hard to beat sail.

Here in the PNW the water is cold and the weather is cool. Most of the sailing is oriented roughly in the North/South direction, as is the wind. Another rule of thumb is that if the weather is nice, there is no wind. If the weather is foul, there is wind. There is a reason why most sailboat race series take place in the fall and spring, there isn't any wind in the summer.

So, if a sailor is going to actually "go someplace", more than half the time there is no wind. If there is wind it is coming from the wrong direction. So that means that only 25% of the time sailing is an option. If it is raining and the temps are in the 40s, sailing can be a "character building" exercise.

My own experience was that I was sailing only about 75% of the time. Often I would motorsail, I'd put up the main, gain .2-.5 knots of boat speed and have a much more stable ride and burn maybe 3/4 gal per hour at 6.5 knots.

Maintaining rigging is not expensive for a cruising sailboat. Not so for someone racing. The engine and supporting systems are generally much simpler and frankly easier to maintain than a larger engine, let alone twins.

For me the determining factor was back problems. I'm only 6'2" but still had to crouch a lot on the sailboat, even at the wheel to be able to see through the dodger. A bad knee made climbing up and down the companionway stairs a bit of a chore as well.

When it is warm and sunny, with a nice breeze blowing from the aft quarter, I miss the ability to shut off the engine and sail with main and my asymmetric spinnaker. Can't say that my sailboat was a lot quieter however. Wind and wave noise in the cockpit when sailing at 6 knots is likely a bit more than the noise inside my pilothouse motoring at 7 knots.

Ex Sailor said:

Having sailed quite a bit, I miss the process BUT .... if I was going Off Shore and long distance, I would prefer to do it in a sailboat, it's cheaper and the sailboat is more sea kindly ......... fb

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No question. If I was crossing oceans, I'd do it in a sailboat.

hmason said:

Why not a catamaran? Try making the beds. Depending on the beam a slip may be hard to find and a haul out may be troublesome as well.

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My dream boat, if I was actually using it a lot and didn’t have to rely on keeping it a slip most of the time, would be a sailing catamaran with walk-around beds, decent sized engine rooms and a direct drive setup (not sail drives). Wife wants a flybridge cat, but I would rather have the helm down near the cockpit so the captain could talk to folks in the salon and cockpit.

We lived and cruised on a sailboat for 10 years and over 40,000 miles. Our longest passage was 24 days and had many over 10 days. We had a 27’ ChistCraft and 34’ Mainship before we bought the Slocum 43, cutter rigged sailboat. We bought the sailboat to go cruising full time. For us it was a great fit. We had all the creature comforts that we have on Hobo; central heat, a serperate fridge/freezer, 24 gallon per hour watermaker, 5 Kw NL generator, etc. You get the idea, we weren’t camping.

We’ve had Hobo now for 11 years and at times I do miss having the ability to shut off the engine and have the quite. There’s nothing like being on watch at 2 am, with horizon to horizon stars with just the sound of the wind and water passing by over the hull.

That being said, if I want to go sailing, I have a brother who has sailboat on the Chesapeake. They use it extensively to go day sailing not cruising. They love it and wouldn’t consider a power boat.

Using a boat as a condo or for coastal cruising, give me a power boat. For crossing oceans give me sail.

I actually enjoy sailing. I seldom do it and only for a day. It's lots of fun to play with a sailboat for a day, and go nowhere. Cruising somewhere or living on one, not so much. Cruising on a sailboat is like my brother doing cross country motorcycle trips. You may start on a nice sunny day, but sooner or later you'll look like a drowned rat from a bad weather forecast.

Ted

Larry M said:

We lived and cruised on a sailboat for 10 years and over 40,000 miles. Our longest passage was 24 days and had many over 10 days. We had a 27’ ChistCraft and 34’ Mainship before we bought the Slocum 43, cutter rigged sailboat. We bought the sailboat to go cruising full time. For us it was a great fit. We had all the creature comforts that we have on Hobo; central heat, a serperate fridge/freezer, 24 gallon per hour watermaker, 5 Kw NL generator, etc. You get the idea, we weren’t camping.

We’ve had Hobo now for 11 years and at times I do miss having the ability to shut off the engine and have the quite. There’s nothing like being on watch at 2 am, with horizon to horizon stars with just the sound of the wind and water passing by over the hull.

That being said, if I want to go sailing, I have a brother who has sailboat on the Chesapeake. They use it extensively to go day sailing not cruising. They love it and wouldn’t consider a power boat.

Using a boat as a condo or for coastal cruising, give me a power boat. For crossing oceans give me sail.

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Larry,

I’ve been watching the Sailing LaVagabond YouTube channel for awhile now, and they are are currently sailing across the Atlantic headed towards Florida. Their new boat is a 45’ Outremer catamaran, and it sure seems fast and stable. On the last video they talk about surfing down waves at 19 knots. Is that safe? Would you be comfortable ocean cruising on a cat? Is reefing early and often even more important on a cat because of all the stress on the rig?

Surfing down waves at 19 knots? Not me. I’d be afraid I’d bury a hull. There’s no reason for me to go that fast in the open ocean. You have to pay way too much attention to what’s going on. I like to relax, set the AP, read a book and try to catch some fish.

I would feel comfortable in an open ocean capable cat. We have several friends cruising on them. I think they are like any other boat, they all have limitations. Usally though, the boat can take more than the people.

Westiculo said:

Seems like half the people on here switch over from sailing.
Why??

The only downfall I can see is bridge clearance and a few extra things to maintain. What's the rub??

All that to say, I am very happy with the GB, just trying to figure out what I'm missing.

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There are a few different reasons why people give up sailing.


I'm lucky enough to be still fit enough to get around on a sailboat, and live in a place with lots of wind and no bridges over the water.
A pilot house sailboat offers the same outlook as a trawler style boat, plus the option of quietly gliding across the water. The big bonus of having sails is the added stability in rough water.

Depending on conditions - Sometimes I motor, sometimes I sail, but usually I motorsail.

Below is a copy of a post I did the day I saw my old sailboat out sailing

Last weekend. Sunny and lots of wind. Small craft warnings are up as we head to Port Townsend.
My Catalina 30 sailboat is just flying! Waves are breaking and the spray in flying. You kinda get into this rhythm. Bounce, crash, splash, take off glasses and wipe clean, put glasses back on. Repeat.

Even through its on the warm side the whole crew is wearing foulies, but hey, that’s boating up here in the Pacific North West.

I am so thankful that I sold my Catalina 30 to my buddy Mike.

As I pass him in my trawler I give him a wave with my coffee cup. I don’t think he saw me, he was dodging another wave and his glasses were covered in salt spray.

I think, “Oh well, I'll see him back at the marina” as I walk back to the stove in my stocking feet to pour another cup of coffee.

Great day on the water


http://www.tugnuts.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6466#wrap

I like being cold and wet, living in cramped, dark quarters, not having enough water or electricity, moving slowly or in a direction other than my destination, and not carrying enough fuel. What's not to like?

cardude01 said:

Is reefing early and often even more important on a cat because of all the stress on the rig?

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A monohull has a built-in safety release; it heels over and spills the wind out the top of the sail when hit by and unexpected big gust.

Because a cat heels very little, the rigging has to handle the full force of the gust. An early reef is always wise to avoid blowing out sails, or breaking rigging.

I thought this was very telling

AKDoug said:

The view out the windows of a trawler is much better than the view out of most sailboats.

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Sailors want to be right out in nature, no windows in between.

Giving up the creature comforts is often most of the point for them.

Sitting inside motor sailing. Not a huge pilothouse by any stretch compared to most of the trawlers here, but it beats sitting outside!

If I want to sit out in the weather I can motorsail from the hot tub using the remote.



If I want to act like a real sailor I sit on this pink padded rail in the cockpit and watch the sails. Not a great spot when super rough however. [emoji41]

AusCan said:

A monohull has a built-in safety release; it heels over and spills the wind out the top of the sail when hit by and unexpected big gust.

Because a cat heels very little, the rigging has to handle the full force of the gust. An early reef is always wise to avoid blowing out sails, or breaking rigging.

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Reef before grief was our mantra on a fast cat
More often than not high speed can still be maintained with reduced sail.

At night to keep speed down if wind was up we'd just jog along under heady and still get in the teens on occasion.

CD: I like your smiling copilot. Larry, aka, Healhustler, craftsmen extraordinaire, on Bucky? Sorry we missed you guys on our way by.