I decided yesterday to shop for a trawler...

Hello,

I am a 53 year old healthy male with about 6 years before I retire.
I have had a 28ft Sloop for 8 years and have enjoyed her a bunch.
I am an aerospace Electrical engineer and do not mind the upkeep boats require. I have sailed the St. Augustine area up to Charleston area and have crewed on the ARC to West Indies aboard a 44 Catalina Morgan..great fun.

Problem is, it just seems to me that if most sailors eventually sell the sailboat and get a powerboat why wouldn't I "skip all that fussing" and just listen to the wisdom of them?

I often found myself just a fussin up a storm to my wife or whoever would listen, about "no wind" or wind in the "wrong direction" or cussing the dang tide currents.

My friends tell me to get the boat that best fits how you intend to use it. I agree..

Makes good sense so this past weekend I sorta made my mind up to go the Trawler direction....Something like a Mainship 39 or such.

We plan to travel up and down the coast, do the loop and the Bahamas.
I want to be comfortable and a good floorplan. Living area vs seaworthiness is a balance I am striving for.

Initial questions that I wonder are...

I have a sleep disorder and normally cannot share the bed with my wife, besides, she goes to bed early and I stay up late...so from what I see most floorplans have a fwd master with a center-line bed and a small twin bunk guest room. Can this be converted into a larger bed for me maybe?

Can a vessel such as the Mainship 39 go to the Bahamas and stay for a season?

Can it go further such as the BVI?

I see there are options such as twin Diesel or single...I am OK with a single for economic reasons..how much of a factor would this make in the decision?

Has anybody ever installed a SSB in a trawler?

Does anybody ever add Solar Panels to supplement the Genset?

Havent seen a trawler with a watermaker? I would like to install one....good idea?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff in Savannah.

We looked at a Mainship 390, but I am not an expert on them. I believe that the second cabin had an option to convert the two singles into one berth. Yes, you could live on one for extended times. Not sure what the water capacity is but adding a watermaker is certainly possible. They are great coastal cruisers. Not sure I would want to take one down deep into the Caribbean due to limited fuel capacity. I would prefer a single in that boat due to accessibility for maintenance. There are a lot of different trawlers out there. Power Boat Guide has hundreds of boats with line drawings and general specs but not limited to trawlers. Once you look at quite a few, you will get a good idea what will work for you. Yes adding solar panels is doable. Several recent threads on solar on TF. Good luck, have a lot of fun looking.

Welcome Jeff,


I moved from sail to power similar reasons and so far have never looked back (I do have a small sailing/rowing dinghy to help with the sailing withdrawals).



Our boat has a forward master centerline queen and a guest bunk room. I find that those bunks are incredibly comfortable to sleep in. I'm 6'2" and 200+ lbs.


Certainly water makers can be added. All it takes is money, power, and room. If you are going to be in an area where water is scarce of or questionable quality, I think it is a great idea.



Many of us have added solar to various degrees. It just depends on your purpose, provide all your electrical needs or simply to ensure battery health.


Lots of folks have installed SSB radios on their trawlers, I know there are a number here on TF that have done so.

Comodave, we had a about 30 ft sport fisher leave out of here, north of Miami, with 2 fuel bladders on board. They were going down into Mexico and do not trust the quality of the diesel and dont want to waste time stopping for fuel. Not sure if they thought far enough about food. SMIRK

As my cabinet maker and general maintenance people, if you have enough money, all things are possible.

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. Read this if you haven't already:


http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/boat-search-101-a-14905.html

Welcome aboard. Since you just decided yesterday to buy a trawler, I'd recommend taking some serious time to read up on the choices and options. It's all here and in several good books that are frequently recommended on this site.

Using the link below in my post, you can use the Google custom search feature for tailored searches of Trawler Forum. Your questions have all been asked and answered and we're available to clarify where needed. It's probably best to use the existing threads to continue the conversation so we don't mix solar recommendations, floor plans, SSB installs and watermaker specs in the same thread. It becomes hard to find these discussions for future posters with the same questions.

Sounds like you've made a great decision and come to the right place. Check out the wisdom that's been collected over the years from others in your "same boat."

Cheers!

Welcome,
In regards to SSB, are you really going to using it to communicate or only receive?
SSB is not necessary in the states. A digital SSB receiver and VHF will handle weather reports and such. A GPIRB for emergencies.

Yes, I understand about the SSB, I am a amateur radio geek and I just like to fiddle with them ...

I found a few charter outfits down south Florida way and they have a couple of trawlers for charter, not cheap but would be a good idea to go try it.

Jeff, welcome to the bright side.
SSB, get technical advice from the company who will install it. Somethings should not be "tried at home".
I have 2 solar panels on the pilot house roof for a total of about 260 watts. Not much but, it does maintain the charge on the battery. Every year I am gone from the boat for 2 months. It will support the 12vt fridge and the bilge pumps if someone unplugs shore power and they have, or if shore power goes out.
I opted for a 12vt water maker system. My thoughts were, why start the generator to make water when the ME alternator and batteries are available. Capacity of the water maker? Pick something that will refill your water tanks in a couple of hours. Bring extra filters for the water maker.
With properly planned fuel stops, you can make it as far as you wish, I guess. Going to the Bahamas, sure, pick your weather window. BVI, pretty much the same. Bring a case of fuel filter for your ME and your gen. Consider a fuel polishing system too. (more filters) If your fuel tanks are cross connected, split them. If one tank becomes contaminated, (refueling outside the US) you can put the fuel polish system on the contaminated tank and run on the other tank. Figure out your fuel return system too. It's a good way to transfer fuel to re-level the boat
Inverter? 2000 to 2500 watts. No need to start the generator to make coffee or heat up some food in the micro wave. Remember "load management". Keep an eye on the amp meter.
Batteries, have a stress test performed and if necessary, replace them. Not a good idea to replace one or two.... replace all the house batteries together.
Update all electronic charts. Have a complete and updated set of paper charts for your journey. Have your magnetic compass calibrated and get a compass card.
Get an inspection from the USCG aux. They find the obvious errors.

That's a start. Others will chime in I hope.

Does the the Mainship 39 come with a yanmar Diesel?

what is a compass card ?

Separate beds

For the separate twin / full beds in the same cabin, you might look at a Grand Banks 42 or a DeFever 41 trawler or Passagemaker (slightly different boats / hulls despite sharing nominal length).
For decent beds in separate cabins, I did not see them in my own searches in boats under 45-55'.
Welcome and good luck with your own search.

Benthic2 said:

what is a compass card ?

Click to expand...

When one employee someone to swing the compass, they write a card indicating +/- from the real readings. It will help one to steer a real course, manually. Yup and old fashion concept, manually but when everything goes 'down', an accurate magnetic compass and up to date charts will get you home every time.
1 degree off at 100 miles, it's a big error and you might never arrive at the desired destination.

Benthic2 said:

what is a compass card ?

Click to expand...

the spinning part of a compass with the directions printed on it.

A watermaker that will fill the tanks in a couple of hours is huge. You really just need one that replaces your daily water usage in an hour or so. 10-12 g/h is plenty unless you are particularly wasteful. A watermaker in the Bahamas is very useful, less so in the windward islands as they are volcanic and have more water available. Useless on the coast of the US. A watermaker is a very high maintenance device, they do not like to be left unused, require pickling, cleaning, filters, etc. so I would not get one unless you know you need it.

jefndeb said:

I have a sleep disorder and normally cannot share the bed with my wife, besides, she goes to bed early and I stay up late...so from what I see most floorplans have a fwd master with a center-line bed and a small twin bunk guest room. Can this be converted into a larger bed for me maybe?

Click to expand...

My understanding of the Mainship 350/390 is that the earlier ones (350) had a single, larger bunk in the guest stateroom, while the later ones (390) had small twins in there. They were basically the same boat, though.


Most (but not all) of the single engine 350/390's I see for sale have Caterpillar 3116 or 3126 engines, while most of the twins have smaller Yanmars, though I don't know what model. I too come from a keel boat background, with baby Yanmar auxiliaries, so I have no familiarity with the higher hp Yanmars.

stubones99 said:

the spinning part of a compass with the directions printed on it.

Click to expand...

Old Dan has it right. A compass card is a card that documents the compass errors or deviations on the various compass headings. e.g., compass face says 240 degrees, actual heading 243 degrees, deviation for 240=+3

One of the great benefits of chartering is it helps you in determining the size and type that works for you. For instance, many are looking for one comfortable stateroom and one that's just acceptable. You need two that are comfortable.

There's a phrased some use about buying your last trawler first. That is really a warning that a lot of people initially "settle" on something that's just not quite big enough and find themselves back buying a bigger boat not too much later.

1) Compass card: The circular, rotating card on a magnetic compass showing the principal bearings

2)Deviation Table: The card or sheet listing the degrees of deviation based on heading.

3) The Mainship 350 has a double bed in the guest cabin. The 390 has twins. There are no rails for an insert to convert the twins to a single on the 390, however that can be easily added.

4) The Mainship 34T has a better layout for two people. There is no guest cabin. The galley was moved down to where the guest cabin used to be. This leaves a larger solon since there are no counters, cabinets, fridge or stove in the solon.

5) The Mainship 350/390 came in single and twin options. The 350 single came with a Cat 3116. The 390 single came with a Cat 3126 You may have luck finding one repowered. My 350 has a single Yanmar 6 cylinder.

OldDan1943 said:

...
Update all electronic charts. Have a complete and updated set of paper charts for your journey. Have your magnetic compass calibrated and get a compass card.
Get an inspection from the USCG aux. They find the obvious errors.

That's a start. Others will chime in I hope.

Click to expand...

This is Old Dan's post referencing the compass deviation card that he called a compass card.

I would figure on 10 GPH. At 10knts. That's roughly 1 GPM. Just write that down and look at it. Figure how far you want to go and see if it is a comfortable number for you. Around here diesel is $350/gal. There are a lot of books on The Loop. Fuel could be in the $30 -40K range. The entire loop is 5600 miles. Perfect loop boat (Mainship). Going outside in the big big ocean, maybe not. Just a thought. I went from sail to a trawler. I love it. But, I'm not traveling great distances. Just local cruising. But hey! What the heck do I know? Have fun, searching is half the fun.

My forward guest cabin has a queen as does my aft quarters.

Of course they are sideways as usual! Ugh!

Thanks for all the info, very helpfull...What year did they start putting the single Yanmar Diesels in the 390 model?

OldDan1943 said:

When one employee someone to swing the compass, they write a card indicating +/- from the real readings. It will help one to steer a real course, manually. Yup and old fashion concept, manually but when everything goes 'down', an accurate magnetic compass and up to date charts will get you home every time.
1 degree off at 100 miles, it's a big error and you might never arrive at the desired destination.

Click to expand...

Wouldn’t your gps still be accurate? Why are you looking at your magnetic compass instead of your chart plotter anyway? If you lose electrical power, your battery handheld units will still be working as backup, I have 4 of them on board and lots of batteries in case of a major failure.

Woodland Hills said:

Wouldn’t your gps still be accurate? Why are you looking at your magnetic compass instead of your chart plotter anyway? If you lose electrical power, your battery handheld units will still be working as backup, I have 4 of them on board and lots of batteries in case of a major failure.

Click to expand...

I had what must have been a electrical disturbance, durning a storm, to my GPS antenna. Killed the antenna only.
Now, I have two GPS antenna, one SHOULD pick up when the first antenna goes down.
I also have two VHF with a display of Lat and Long on the screen plus a recently acquired Garmin GPSmap 78sc. I have not had the chance or need to use it.
I also have an old hand held Magellan MAP 330M. Bought it new in the mid 80s I think, cost a bundle but, brought my N46 down from Long Island to the Miami area both on the ICW and most of the time off shore even at night. Running 24 hrs a day especially at night off shore is a fantastic experience.

FlyWright said:

This is Old Dan's post referencing the compass deviation card that he called a compass card.

Click to expand...

It is also called the compass correction card.

FlyWright said:

Old Dan has it right. A compass card is a card that documents the compass errors or deviations on the various compass headings. e.g., compass face says 240 degrees, actual heading 243 degrees, deviation for 240=+3

Click to expand...

A compass card the the part of the compass that swings and shows the points of the compass. A "deviation table" is a table that shows the deviation between actual and what shows on the compass of each individual compass.

Jefndeb: What's your approx. budget? There may be lots of options in addition to the Mainship in case that boat doesn't
"check all the boxes for you".

You just decided yesterday?! I see many more long nights of research in your future (but that's good since you said you stay up late at night anyway! ). Lmao!

Welcome aboard.

My budget is from 100 to 150K, single Yanmar version...yes, lots of research ahead indeed. can anybody recommend a Trawler Bareboat outfit that has Mainship 39 or 400?