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A night aboard

So much for a weeks vacation and boating. This past week flew by as we spent it moving into our new home in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. For anyone interested in exploring different towns you may find this place a little interesting. Only 20 miles north of downtown San Diego but a world apart. One interesting aspect of living here is that there are no street mail boxes, everyone must get a PO box.

One of the nice things about this location is that we are only 30 minutes from the boat. Not as close as the unit downtown but something we can handle to once again be in a house.

Back to boating, we are spending the night aboard and hopefully take the boat out tomorrow for a few hours. The seas are little rough outside so we will likely stay inside. I'm planning to have Cummins perform the first oil and fuel filter change next week and perform a few engine checks. Despite the manufacturer recommending the first oil change at 250 hours and we are only half way there the boat is about 18 months old and I feel better changing the oil. That's about all this week.
 
First Oil Change

Despite not being able to use the boat as planned due to the move, we are still taking great care of her. Yesterday we had Cummins out to change the oil and all fuel filters as well as check the impeller for replacement. The technician really appreciated the Reverso oil change system reducing his time and saving me a little money (I hope).

We plan to spend Saturday night aboard and take the boat out Sunday. Last Sunday we were able to find a couple of hours to spend out on the water and it was great. Looking forward to a nice long weekend cruise somewhere soon.

John
 
Low Center of Gravity

While the following shouldn't be of a surprise to anyone but today was another one of those cruises where I was reminded the importance of having a boat with a low CG. We were fortunate this past week to enjoy what I call Miami weather on the water. Temperatures in the upper 80's with a little humidity and minimal breeze. While this weather can quickly make us wish for San Diego normal it is fun a short while. Today we took the boat out for a bay cruise and found ourselves up top for the ride ride home. Being able to feel the boats movement (both forward and to beam / starboard) was interesting. When in the PH I feel basically no forward movement and some roll depending on sea state. Up top it was amazing how the feeling was emphasized and we are only talk about 8'. This reminds me of the difference between our Nordhavn and this boat. Not sure the what the exact difference in height above waterline but I know there is a difference in feel. Again this is nothing new and not rocket science but something I enjoy evaluating.

Finding the right balance between being high enough above the waterline for safe ocean coastal cruising yet low enough for best stability will always be quest but something I feel we have met with the H38E.
 
Mid summer night

Wow, after looking at the calendar aboard the boat we realized its been three weeks since we spent the night aboard. This is one summer that is flying by without using the boat as we planned and happens when life changes occur. For us this time around it was moving from Riverside to downtown to Rancho Santa Fe, Ca all within nine months. As I stated in another post the best plans a boater can make are best made in sand at low tide, accept the fact they will change.

After a great dinner and margarita we took Sailor Blue for a walk along the bay as we did a hundred times over the years with Daisy who we lost two years ago this month. Just doing a few boating chores like filling the fresh water tank brought enjoyment and made me realize (again) how much I enjoy being aboard. It's finally a cool night where we can sleep without the AC. It's grew being aboard.

JT
 
N4061 said:
Wow, after looking at the calendar aboard the boat we realized its been three weeks since we spent the night aboard. This is one summer that is flying by without using the boat as we planned and happens when life changes occur. For us this time around it was moving from Riverside to downtown to Rancho Santa Fe, Ca all within nine months. As I stated in another post the best plans a boater can make are best made in sand at low tide, accept the fact they will change.
Click to expand...


I know how you feel. I’ve not been able to get as much time on the boat this summer as I had hoped. Too many things come up that take up weekends and work takes the rest of the week.

We will spend 2 weeks on the boat in September. Looking forward to it.
 
I don't usually chime in to this thread. Just read posts... enjoying them in general.


This time feel I need to concur. Some how this summer slipped away with too much too do to be able to have much pleasure boat fun.

Labor day we plan to at least spend several days out and at anchor. But, we shall see; many items of importance on our table of life.


Happy Pleasure-Boating Daze! - Art :speed boat:
 
Hi John. I hope you Mary and Sailor Blue get some more time on the water soon. Are you still thinking of bringing the boat east to cruise the ICW one day? Cristina and I are having the opposite problem. We need to slow down. We ran 796 hours last year. This summer we spent most of June and July in the freshwater lakes and canals of US and Canada. Hope you get out here to see the east coast one day.
 
Time Aboard

Last week had the opportunity to take the boat outside and cruise the coastline for a couple of hours. I don't have to tell you all how great it is to spend a little time aboard with no boats around. The water was relatively calm and the boat ran great. We did hit our largest wave to date. It was in the bay and caused by a large sportfish moving fast (burning a ton of gas) creating a large wake. I told Mary to hold on as we took a solid 5'-6' wave followed by a second wave at 4'. The boat cut the wave nicely before handling the second wave with ease. To be honest I was a little surprised and expected a little more of a rough ride but it was like running over a one foot wave. Granted the spacing of the waves was perfect for our speed and waterline but wow. I believe part of reasoning for lack of excitement is due greatly to hull shape. Just like the larger steel crab fishing boats on deadly catch these boats share a "similar" design. A sharp relatively deep entry that quickly tapers out into a wide hull leading aft with alot of hull below the waterline. Watch the crab fishing boats on TV. While they will role in beam sea they are very safe and can handle the worst of sea conditions. They handle head seas amazing and cut into even 30 footers.

While I have no desire to ever get into 30' seas its good to know we have a hull design that can handle most coastal conditions.

Jihn
 
Weekend Aboard

It's been awhile since we spent a weekend aboard so I was looking forward to this weekend. We arrived Saturday afternoon but it was a little late to take the boat out so we settled in with a few margaritas on the aft deck while the swordfish steaks marinated in the refrigerator. From the back of our boat we can see the new H43 and started discussing all the great things this boat offers. A few minutes later I received an email from Scott showing the new H46 brochure. Wow, what a boat. This is the boat we have been discussing for a while and it is turning out to be a great ocean going coastal vessel. Big and beamy with large capacity tanks and of course proper engine room access. Based on these preliminary drawings and specifications I can not think of another boat in this market and size today that matches the "value" of this new boat. I'm looking forward to seeing more information published soon.

So after a great night aboard its time to go cruising.
 
N4061 said:
It's been awhile since we spent a weekend aboard so I was looking forward to this weekend. We arrived Saturday afternoon but it was a little late to take the boat out so we settled in with a few margaritas on the aft deck while the swordfish steaks marinated in the refrigerator. From the back of our boat we can see the new H43 and started discussing all the great things this boat offers. A few minutes later I received an email from Scott showing the new H46 brochure. Wow, what a boat. This is the boat we have been discussing for a while and it is turning out to be a great ocean going coastal vessel. Big and beamy with large capacity tanks and of course proper engine room access. Based on these preliminary drawings and specifications I can not think of another boat in this market and size today that matches the "value" of this new boat. I'm looking forward to seeing more information published soon.

So after a great night aboard its time to go cruising.
Click to expand...

Take a gander! https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/20...United-States?refSource=enhanced#.W57EOGeWz2s
 
A good day

Today we left house around 11:00am for the short 30minute drive to the boat. While for many boaters this may not be a big deal but after 30 plus years of living a minimum of one hour to the nearest beach and 100 miles to SD we are appreciating living so close to the boat. Within no time we were relaxing on the aft deck enjoying the weather and view. It was a perfect day so we decided to launch the Gig Harbour and cruise the marina. It would be the first time we used it in months and I was concerned if the engine battery would have enough charge. I was pleasantly surprised to see it at 100%. We took our little speaker and listened to some soothing Bolsa Nova as we quietly cruised for an hour. After returning we made dinner consisting of bar-b-q shrimp on a skewer. What a great dinner up in the PH.
After lifting the boat back onto the upper aft deck we packed up and left for home. Again the short drive was a breeze and we decided to head back to the boat Tuesday for a cruise. Today was a good day.
 
I have read through most of this thread (to be honest after a while I jumped ahead to see the pictures of the boat as it was progressing) and will be interested to see the Helmsman 38 this weekend at Trawlerfest in Baltimore. I also see they have a couple of KKs, a N47, and a NP49, I believe. All of these have been mentioned along the way in this thread and it will be nice to see them all together.
We are early in our process of looking at a boat that would be a good choice for cruising, and this thread and all the comments of the many experienced owners have helped provide much for thought. Jumping from a 21 foot BW to a larger trawler is a big decision, and I will be very interested to meet lots of people at the show with experience to share.

Mark
 
Maria Elena For Sale

Well its official, we are going to list Maria Elena for sale as we work with Scott on the next boat. Which boat we build will decide on many factors including retirement plans and where we use the boat. It's no surprise that I enjoy building boats so while this one should be our last project but i will never say never. More to follow soon.......

John T
 
For some reason, the thread brings to mind the late Aussie yachtsman Peter Kurts and his series of bluewater racing sailboats, several of which have outlived him. One was called "Once More Dear Friends", commonly shortened to OMDF.
 
N4061 said:
Hello fellow trawler owners / dreamers. I'm excited to share the news that Mary and I have commenced another new build trawler. While our last three boats where Nordhavn's (two new N40's and one used N35) we decided to set a different course this time around.



After a long search which included full-displacement to downeast style boats we decided on proven semi-displacement hull / boat that we plan to use for west coast coastal cruising from the northern Mexico to the San Francisco Bay area until we move the boat to Texas or Florida and experience the ICW up to Maine (a life long dream). Needless to say finding the right boat for this mixed journey required many compromises and I'll be straight forward and say "no boat is perfect". I think it was this thinking that allowed us to explore all the builders, makes and models out there before making our selection.



Over the next few months I plan to share our thought process and why we selected the boat we did, the options and Pro's & Con's in hopes it may help others starting out on their own journey. For now I will confirm the top three items on our list which we found were; quality, safety and surprisingly greatest value. I will go into detail on these plus many other aspects of the boat during future posts and look forward to sharing thoughts with other.



In closing I will admit that leaving Nordhavn was not an easy decision but since they didn't offer the size / type of boat we needed we knew it was time to move on and find a builder that could meet or exceed our very high standards. We found this builder and boat at Waterline Boats (Seattle) and the boat is called Helmsman 38PH.



One last note is that Scott at Waterline is allowing us to customize the boat the way we want it and plans to incorporate many of our ideas / enhancements into future builds. We couldn't be more excited about builder our next boat. Did I mention the boat offers (standard) a real engine room access door? To me this is a sign of well thought out and true medium range cruising boat.



John & Maria
Click to expand...



Please do tell a little about the Nordhaven 35. BobnDoc
 
How many hours on Maria Elena now? I would guess less than 100 or so. Virtually a new boat. Good luck with sale and new build
 
Hours

Sailor of Fortune said:
How many hours on Maria Elena now? I would guess less than 100 or so. Virtually a new boat. Good luck with sale and new build
Click to expand...

Yesterday we took her out for a cruise and I noticed 146hrs on the Cummins. As you mentioned above she I virtually a new boat with a yacht level finish inside and out. We are debating what to do with the custom dingy, keep it or let it go with boat. I don't want to leave it in the water full time and have no means of lifting it up onto the dock (storage) without the davit so ill likely need to let her go and build another. The Gig Harbor is one great looking and efficient boat to row, sail or just cruise with the electric motor.
 
Here we go again! I’ve read all the posts from the build. What are you going to call the new post, 38E, 43 special, 46 special......
 
John,


Curious as to why you think your 38E was the right boat for the east coast but not the west coast? Does it have something to do with the ICW?
 
It’s a sickness...
I’m infected as well..
So many boats..... so little time......
 
Durant F said:
It’s a sickness...
I’m infected as well..
So many boats..... so little time......
Click to expand...

But you don't profess it's the last one like he does do you? I've never used those words as I know there's always another one in the future, as long as I can boat.
 
Icw

Jim Cooper said:
John,


Curious as to why you think your 38E was the right boat for the east coast but not the west coast? Does it have something to do with the ICW?
Click to expand...

The boat is actually good for both coasts (best hull design we could find) but its how we planned on using it. On the east coast one can normally find a marina or place to hide when the weather kicks up so stabilizers are not required (my opinion). On the west coast a normal weekend trip consists of 60 plus mile runs in open ocean with no place to hide when swells start picking up. Since we are planning to stay on the west coast we want to make the run to Cabo which is 1,000 miles and we would need stabilizers and a larger / heavier boat for comfort. Could the 38E make it, yes. But for that run bigger is better.
 
John, I can see the logic in that. The Pacific coast gets a definite swell. I am rarely exposed to it so stabilization is not an issue. But anytime you leave the dock, you are in the Pacific, open to its swell.
 
Great Time Aboard

A last minute decision to meet at the boat turned out be a great night. We decided to leave SB aboard after getting her new shoes (she hates the the vet) and drive down town to Seasons 52 for dinner. A great place for fresh seasonal dishes. After dinner we enjoyed a little TV and it started to rain which is unusual for October. Saturday morning we decided to take the boat up a few miles to Mission Bay. It was fun traveling in a little weather including light rain. When we reached Marinas Cove we dropped anchor were welcomed to partly sunny skies and a great lunch aboard. We are now sitting out on the aft deck while dingy's pass close by checking out the boat. Soon we will lift anchor and cruise back home. Seas are confused but spaced far enough apart the ride isn't bad. Today was a good day.
 

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That's a pretty good run in a day, John. Nice to have a boat with a lick of speed. What's your cruise speed in the confused chop?

Love the last shot....your boat's face. We could start a new thread of those! I bet it'd be interesting...
 
FlyWright said:
That's a pretty good run in a day, John. Nice to have a boat with a lick of speed. What's your cruise speed in the confused chop?

Love the last shot....your boat's face. We could start a new thread of those! I bet it'd be interesting...
Click to expand...

Great question about speed. A little details first, the seas were confused but nothing big except when we reached the tip of Point Loma where we hit a few large 6' swells spaced apart then things settled in with wind waves 2', South swell at 3' and west swell 2' at different periods which reminded me of days back on the Great South Bay, Long Island, N.Y.. We still cruised along around 7.5 knots. It is nice to have a wider speed range to play with and I used it to find the sweet spot that worked best with the sea conditions. Fun stuff.
 
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