Would be interesting to see how many smaller trawlers have made the whole or part of the trip.
expense, other than the canal passage shouldn't be any more than those that have traveled that far cruising just doing multiple loops or continuous snowbird trips. Real rough guess of somewhere around 6000 miles is what I have done in the last 3 years just snowbird trips and not that much more than a loop. costs in some of those countries might offset some of the canal costs. That 6000 is from around Hatteras to San Francisco. I guess double it if going Maine to Alaska.
Other than some long Pacific legs beating to weather as FF pointed out in less than 50 foot stabilized trawlers might be uncomfortable, but many 36 or 40 something footers here could do it if you wanted to bad enough.
I could see doing the Caribbean side through the canal and up into Costa Rica. N ot sure I would want to slog in a 40 footer all the way to Puget Sound before finding shorter legs.
Time would also play in for smaller boats...but some even may be able to trade some range for speed if one wanted to and could afford the increase in fuel cost....just like a loop or any cruise.
We saw many smaller boats including in the Canal. The typical boat owned and used in those areas is smaller. We chartered fishing and typical was 30-35', often Bertram.
There are few long legs. We saw one Silverton going through the canal that I think was 28'. They had left Fort Myers three years earlier. They intended to sell it after they saw Alaska. Their plan though was just to go as far as health would allow, then fly home and sell it where it was. There were two couples aboard, both in their late 60's, early 70's. They had retired, done the loop, and now this.