Trawler Search/new to forum

Hello everyone. My name is Darren and along with my wife Lisa are crossing over to the "dark side" Yes, we currently have a sailboat but are looking for a trawler to liveaboard and workaboard.

We both work with Latitudes & Attitudes. I produce/direct the TV show and am Dir of Mktg, Lisa does sales for Lats & Atts and is the Ad Director for our sister publication Living Aboard. However, we live in Port Townsend, WA and have started our own business here called Pacific NW Boater. Thus the reason for moving aboard a trawler. We will be making video cruising guides of the entire area, as well as video stories on boats, products, people and companies. We want to travel the region and be able to do everything aboard our floating studio.

After nearly five months of searching, we have narrowed our target list of boats to two: a Cheoy Lee 46 LRC, and a custom William Garden 51 built by Willard in 1961. I know there is at least one CL 46 owner here (in Portland, OR, my home town), and have found quite a bit of info and comps on that model. The one-off Willard, though, not too much.

The name of the boat is "Silver Lady", and she presently lies in Petersburg, AK. If anyone here has any knowledge of this particular vessel, I'd love too hear it.

Otherwise, I'm glad I found this forum and look forward to interacting with everyone.

Thanks!

-Darren


-- Edited by Moonfish on Monday 12th of December 2011 01:43:49 PM

Hi Darren (& Lisa), welcome to TrawlerForum! I'm sure you will get a lot of feedback from this group on your trawler search. You might want to try searching the old posts as well.

We love L&A Magazine around here (SE Texas). We even had a chance to see Bob Bitchin down in Freeport, TX at last years Spring Fling boat gathering.

I'm also a fan of the 2 boats that you are looking at. Very good salty designs that should serve you well.

Thanks for joining!

I'm relatively new here but have enjoyed the opportunity so far.

You aren't crossing over to "the dark side"... you've just become smart enough to come in out of the cold and wet. *

Thanks for the welcome, Doug. I do like salty or "shippy" designs!

Scott, our current boat is a North Sea 33 pilothouse cutter. We sail all year 'round here, and one of my favorite things to do is wave "hello" from our warm, dry pilothouse helm to poor sailors dressed in foulies while sitting in their cockpit in the rain...

While we really do love to sail - the freedom, the harnessing of the wind, etc. - we can look back on the past 5 years (mostly in the San Juans while we lived in Friday Harbor) and calculate that we were motoring or motorsailing with at least the main up about 80% of the time.

We're looking forward to more room and averaging a knot or two more speed, but not looking forward so much to bigger fuel bills. Which is why we're not as interested in motoryachts, even though there are some really, really good deals out there right now. I like the idea of 2-3 gph as opposed to 8 or more...

Hello Darren and Lisa,

We share a few things in common; we both live in the PNW (I'm just across Admiralty Inlet on Whidbey Island), I too produced and directed television documentaries (PBS, Discovery Networks), my email address*has*nearly the*same name as your*new venture (nwboater)...and I own a Willard 40! But most interesting, before buying Northstar, I took a serious look at the Silver Lady,*moored at that time on Hood Canal. The boat was indeed built by Willard Marine in the 60's and designed by none other than the venerable Willian Garden.*The boat has gone through several owners over the years (I first admired her in the late 90's*on Lake Union.) She is a lot of boat for the money and will probably*make a good home/studio and*cruising boat for the Inside Passage.*As I recall, she is a low-profile, beamy boat with*the signature Garden*Portuguese bridge. The pilothouse/galley*was*spacious and comfy and aft*salon was*huge! When we toured the boat in 2007, she*was in fair condition and I recall the owner assuring me with confidence that she*could leave for Alaska that afternoon -- "with no worries" Maybe you and Lisa will bring her back to Puget Sound? Wish I could offer more useful info*about her machinery, hull, etc., I just recall that she was*too much boat for us, but certainly a handsome and sturdy*appearing*vessel indeed.*Welcome to the "Dark Side" and let us know*what you decide*for your new*floating studio -- Richard******

Richard, I like your avatar.

Welcome aboard indeed.

*A cruising guide of the PNW ..Marvelous.

I'll have to look into some of your stuff.

A welth of information to be had here. Some you may have to weed thru. As with any forum there in always a few differences of opinion.

single ve twin Galley up or down the list go's on and on.

Enjoy it's all about boats*

Moonfish wrote:
Hello everyone. My name is Darren and along with my wife Lisa are crossing over to the "dark side"

Rest assured, you will find it a much more comfortable life.* My wife and I refer to ourselves as "Reformed sailors"* Like a lot of trawler owners, we came from sailboats, but we haven't looked back since we discovered the joy of getting out of the weather while underway.* On those rare ocasions when I miss sailing, I simply spend some time on the flybridge in a rain and wind storm.*

*
After nearly five months of searching, we have narrowed our target list of boats to two: a Cheoy Lee 46 LRC, and a custom William Garden 51 built by Willard in 1961.

Click to expand...

I know little about either boat, but I would be quite concerned about a wooden boat built in the 60s, and even more concerned about a wooden boat kept in Alaska.* Our Defever is fiberglass, and it only took a couple winters to realize that the freeze thaw cycle that takes place can be a quick death to boats.* Full covers, or covered moorage can help, but the amount of rainfall in S/E Alaska assures there will be trapped water that will freeze, and cause damage.* There are plenty of wood boats in Alaska that are in good shape, but they take a huge amount of maintenance.* Hopefully the one your looking at has gotten that maintenance.

Click to expand...

As for fuel burn, sure a trawler will be more expensive to run, but the total number of engine hours a year is usually pretty low so it's not that bad.* Enjoy the process and keep us informed

Click to expand...

......Arctic Traveller

Click to expand...

Welcome aboard the good ship TF.

Good afternoon Darren I'm the duty hospitality officer and I will show you around the ship.Follow me please.

On the port side is the engine room, the crew in this area speak in a strange dialect not often understood by the rest of the crew, they tend to be highly skilled and are*not considered to be *dangerous, although occasionally there will be a dispute about how best to configure the centrifugal capacitor for the main shaft( the MK 1 not the MK2 ).

Next to the engine room on the starboard side, the extreme starboard,*is a door that you are not permitted to enter without a senior officer present.Take note of the sign on the door 'OTDE enter at your peril'Crew have been seen to enter and never be seen again.You will notice that the door is on a watertight bulkhead,this is to protect the rest of the crew. I don't know exactly what they do in there, but rumours have it that they are connected to the navigation of the ship. The charts show* stormy waters with the Obama shoals on the port side and with the neocon rip to starboard, it's full of icebergs, which some say are getting smaller.Sometime you will see this crew looking back over the stern of the ship, rumour has it they want us to turn around and go back.

At the*forward end of the ship is a small but dedicated crew waiting for the order to drop anchor. They are considered to be entirely harmless and you are free to spend some tiime with them. however, it's better not to mention too much about anchors, as this just encourages them. The only slight issues this crew has is which is the best anchor to use, although they seem to have every anchor known to man, and then some.

Please follow me to the galley and officers mess.Some say this is the true reason the ship was built in the first place. The members of the ward room are a jolly lot,and as long as supplies are in, it's a good place to congregate. There has only been one instance of unpleasantness recently, a member of the mess had a*picture of his empty fridge posted on our bulletin board, this caused great consternation through the normally placid crew.A board of enquiry may be convened.

The small group you see on the upper deck,sitting *with their feet on the rail and beer in hand are the Oz east coast crew.That lot are so laid back it's a wonder they don't fall overboard.They are by nature members of the officers mess.

Slightly astern of them are the wood craft and screwdriver brigade, they also incorporate the flush em' away crew. These tend to be ex boy scouts and girl guides who like things neat and tidy, and working properly. They are safe to mingle with and give you good advice just like your mother did.They are nominally led by the senior female officer of the ship.

*

Last but not least is the bridge.The captain and senior officers pretty much let the ship steam it's own course,dodging those melting icebergs,*with the occasional court of enquiry if required.They allow no flogging on board, despite hints from some of the OTDE crew. The good ship TF charts her course somewhere between Gilligan's Island and HMS Surprise(Mater & Commander)

Welcome aboard Midshipman Darren

*


-- Edited by Andy G on Monday 12th of December 2011 10:06:23 PM

Darren,
Welcome to trawlerforum!!!

Classic post, Andy G! Moonfish, you're in good hands! Enjoy the ride.* But on your journey, if you find yourself in OTDE and start to feel queasy, please move to the rail.*


-- Edited by FlyWright on Tuesday 13th of December 2011 10:52:43 AM

Auuundie, 'ave youze been on the turps again....?

Andy,

Great job turps or not.

Andy G wrote:
Welcome aboard the good ship TF.

Last but not least is the bridge.The captain and senior officers pretty much let the ship steam it's own course,dodging those melting icebergs,*with the occasional court of enquiry if required.They allow no flogging on board, despite hints from some of the OTDE crew. The good ship TF charts her course somewhere between Gilligan's Island and HMS Surprise(Mater & Commander)
Welcome aboard Midshipman Darren

Click to expand...

Well said. John and I never could figure out the autopilot on this thing. We can't find the manual. As long as we don't run aground we are going to leave it engaged.

By the way, who's on watch? We're going to need them to give 5 blasts if anyone gets in the way!*

Andy's post should be recommended reading for all newbies, kind of like the safety card on airliners. Things you need to know to get around and stay out of unwanted trouble.

Andy should be made the official hospitality officer.

I love Port Townsend especially the yard as its one for the few yards that is commercial and works on wood boats. So if you buy an older wood boat you are in the right town. The Seattle boat show and afloat show is January 21 thru 30th.* The afloat show has most of the brands/design/layouts of trawler, so you can go on and compare.* Also while in the Seattle area you can look at the used trawlers for sale.*
*
Since you presently own a sail boat you seem to be looking for a full displacement trawler that will ride/feel like a sail boat.* Since most of the trawlers are semi displacement they may not feel and ride as stable as a sail boat.* There are few full displacement trawlers.* Gardener and Willard are both well known and thought of in the PNW, and it sounds like the Willard has been maintained.* The only concern I would have is one of the engine has a lot of hours, 8000 hrs, and the other has low hours on it.* However, it might be worth the time to look at and have a preliminary survey done.
*
The Choy Lee seems to be a semi displacement hull, not very heavy, 46,000 lbs, and might require stabilization.* The Grand Banks 50 is similar in design/lay out so you might want to put the GB on your list. My wife and I have look at motor sailor, more motor than sail, when looking at boat.* There were a couple that with enclosed helms, large salon windows so you did not feel like you were on a sail boat, but it did have those big long poles on it that we could not figure out what we would do with, but we liked the design/layout. We saw several interesting motor sail in Port Townsend last summer.* *
*
As you probable already know not all trawler make good live a boards and/or PNW cruising trawlers, especially if you are going North.* Moat boats do not have the fuel/water/sanitation capacity and adequate heat required to make it through the cold/rainy freezing PNW winter.*
*
*


-- Edited by Phil Fill on Tuesday 13th of December 2011 04:57:25 PM

Peter B wrote:
Auuundie, 'ave youze been on the turps again....?

Click to expand...

*You should not describe a paricularly fine 1998 Margaret River Shiraz as Turps!

Moonstruck wrote:
Andy should be made the official hospitality officer.

Click to expand...

*Wasn't that Julie McCoy's job on the Love Boat? *Can or should we now call Andy "Julie" given his new, er, role??

*

Ok, well that's it then, turps or no turps, Andy is official senior sea steward. And remember to tell them all to not forget to only fully inflate their life jackets once out of the privy...ah head...or whatever...

Hi Darren,
Not many of the Cheoy Lee 46's built. Here is a blog for one doing the loop currently http://trawlerdriftaway.blogspot.com. You can also check out the Cheoy Lee owners site at http://www.cheoyleeassociation.com/a_entrance.html Hope this helps.

Moonstruck wrote:
Andy should be made the official hospitality officer.

Click to expand...

*And so it is!!!

*

And going from a sailboat to a motorboat is not going to the "darkside"....you are simply Evolving...intelligently! *It takes some long than others....

*

PS...Does Bob know about this????

Baker wrote:Moonstruck wrote:
Andy should be made the official hospitality officer.

Click to expand...

*And so it is!!!


Let's hold our next swearing in ceremony somewhere convenient for our east coast friends and our friends in NZ and down under.* What's in the middle?* The first place that comes to mind is San Diego.

...hey...wait a minute...don't we have a member that lives there...hmmm.* Maybe he could put us all up and let us use his boat.* :confuse:

In my new capacity I will need to speak to him about the state of his fridge.

FlyWright wrote:
...hey...wait a minute...don't we have a member that lives there...hmmm.* Maybe he could put us all up and let us use his boat.*

:confuse:

Click to expand...

Hey guys, Ancora lives here too and his boat is a hell of a lot bigger than mine! :cynic:

Darren,

If you'd like any information on the Cheoy Lee 46' LRC, I have owned one for five years now, and am very pleased.* This is the Portland boat that I believe you were referring to.* We just moved her to Oak Harbor, Washington, our new home.* Email address is with my profile.

Mark


-- Edited by Island Sunset on Wednesday 14th of December 2011 11:15:01 PM

Hey guys, let's give a big hand for those fellows who have tried to stay on thread topic while the rest of us hit the turps with Andy...our chief hossshhpitality stew'd, or whatever...

nwboater wrote:
Hello Darren and Lisa,

We share a few things in common; we both live in the PNW (I'm just across Admiralty Inlet on Whidbey Island), I too produced and directed television documentaries (PBS, Discovery Networks), my email address*has*nearly the*same name as your*new venture (nwboater)...and I own a Willard 40! But most interesting, before buying Northstar, I took a serious look at the Silver Lady,*moored at that time on Hood Canal. The boat was indeed built by Willard Marine in the 60's and designed by none other than the venerable Willian Garden.*The boat has gone through several owners over the years (I first admired her in the late 90's*on Lake Union.) She is a lot of boat for the money and will probably*make a good home/studio and*cruising boat for the Inside Passage.*As I recall, she is a low-profile, beamy boat with*the signature Garden*Portuguese bridge. The pilothouse/galley*was*spacious and comfy and aft*salon was*huge! When we toured the boat in 2007, she*was in fair condition and I recall the owner assuring me with confidence that she*could leave for Alaska that afternoon -- "with no worries" Maybe you and Lisa will bring her back to Puget Sound? Wish I could offer more useful info*about her machinery, hull, etc., I just recall that she was*too much boat for us, but certainly a handsome and sturdy*appearing*vessel indeed.*Welcome to the "Dark Side" and let us know*what you decide*for your new*floating studio -- Richard******

Click to expand...

*Hi Richard -

Wow, we do have a few things in common! Although you did work for PBS and Discovery Networks, so you played in a league a few above mine... Are you in Oak Harbor? Would love to meet you some time and see your Willard, too. Interesting you know about and have actually been aboard "Silver Lady". I'm communicating with the owner directly, and we'll see where everything goes. We aren't going to make any moves until we have our start up funds in place. We have our business plan in front of a few investors who are very interested. The vessel we'll purchase is part of the business, so hopefully we'll be funded soon.

We'll keep you posted!

- Darren

Arctic Traveller wrote:

Click to expand...

I know little about either boat, but I would be quite concerned about a wooden boat built in the 60s, and even more concerned about a wooden boat kept in Alaska.* Our Defever is fiberglass, and it only took a couple winters to realize that the freeze thaw cycle that takes place can be a quick death to boats.* Full covers, or covered moorage can help, but the amount of rainfall in S/E Alaska assures there will be trapped water that will freeze, and cause damage.* There are plenty of wood boats in Alaska that are in good shape, but they take a huge amount of maintenance.* Hopefully the one your looking at has gotten that maintenance.

Click to expand...

......Arctic Traveller

Click to expand...

*Thanks for the advice. Fortunately, the Garden/Wiilard has only been in Alaska since April. Though she was built in '61, the original owners spent heavily on materials to ensure a long life. She has old growth cypress planking over steam bent white oak frames. Wiilard was building Navy vessels at the time, so they were commissioned to build "Silver Lady" to the same specs. And we'll certainly employ a qualified surveyor who specializes in wood.

- Darren


-- Edited by Moonfish on Thursday 15th of December 2011 11:24:10 PM

chiropaul wrote:
Hi Darren,
Not many of the Cheoy Lee 46's built. Here is a blog for one doing the loop currently http://trawlerdriftaway.blogspot.com. You can also check out the Cheoy Lee owners site at http://www.cheoyleeassociation.com/a_entrance.html Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

*Hi Paul -

Cool! I hadn't found that particular blog. I had found another one, but it didn't have much to it. The one you shared will be fun to go through. And the owners assoc. is a great site. Been there before when I was looking at the Cheoy Lee 43 motorsailers. Nice boat, not quite what we want. Though I'd take one of those Cheoy Lee 52 motorsailers!

- Darren