who has the best trawler???

[northwind II]

Wow... Thanks for all the interest... Band B lots of smart questions. Great... thank you. Ben.. will do about lake park this month. Will you be there ? . and the second post is another great question. Healhustler... I think you've been there before.. so this advice is of great value.
Manyboats.... my friend says she won't row...lazy bitch...I love that boat.

[northwind II]

Alormaeia, going to research that the Marine 34 right now. Bay Pelican ... will you accept a passenger..? And you are very correct... 2000 and 6000 are very different.

[Ben]

Originally Posted by sunchaser

For the OP, go to the inland water boat shows too for a completely different view of water travel.

Hey for me, I am curious about the differences. Any boat shows you'd recommend east of the Mississippi?

[Ben]

Originally Posted by northwind II

Alormaeia, going to research that the Marine 34 right now. Bay Pelican ... will you accept a passenger..? And you are very correct... 2000 and 6000 are very different.

Marine Trader 34?

If so, google "trawler beach house". Chuck used to post on here, but pretty much he and his wife live aboard and take great pictures of cabin and mechanical work on their Marine Trader 34 as they write boating publications. Their blog is extensive! Lots of mechanical tips with photos. They've taken that boat deep into the Bahamas, my dream destination of the future.

[Jeffrey S]

Whatever you do and whatever boat you get, don't just move in and do the loop right away. Take a couple of years (yes, years) to learn all aspects of cruising. Learn how to anchor, dock, and handle the things that will go wrong. Take your time and become a full part of the cruising community. Do the things your wife wants to do - driving hard along the inland rivers with commercial traffic all around probably isn't on her list.

There are way too many people who jump onto their new-to-them boat, do the loop, and immediate sell it because they didn't really know how to operate the boat and it ended up scaring them or they found that moving so hard over the 5,000 miles wasn't for them. That's the biggest shame because doing the loop is not the slow, comfortable, and livelong pleasure of the cruising lifestyle. It's more often than not a "bucket list" checkoff item when done right away - it ends up costing much more than anticipated followed by the sale of the boat at a reduced price.

Go up and down the coastline a few times. Head off to the Bahamas and the Keys a few times. After that, you'd be ready to tackle the long loop if it still interested you.

[Tom.B]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

Whatever you do and whatever boat you get, don't just move in and do the loop right away. Take a couple of years (yes, years) to learn all aspects of cruising. Learn how to anchor, dock, and handle the things that will go wrong. Take your time and become a full part of the cruising community. Do the things your wife wants to do - driving hard along the inland rivers with commercial traffic all around probably isn't on her list.

There are way too many people who jump onto their new-to-them boat, do the loop, and immediate sell it because they didn't really know how to operate the boat and it ended up scaring them or they found that moving so hard over the 5,000 miles wasn't for them. That's the biggest shame because doing the loop is not the slow, comfortable, and livelong pleasure of the cruising lifestyle. It's more often than not a "bucket list" checkoff item when done right away - it ends up costing much more than anticipated followed by the sale of the boat at a reduced price.

Go up and down the coastline a few times. Head off to the Bahamas and the Keys a few times. After that, you'd be ready to tackle the long loop if it still interested you.

That's the best advice one can get about this. I will add that you also must have intimate knowledge of the workings of one's boat. Things break always at the wrong time. You need to know what to do.

[Ghostrider42]

For two weeks? I'd rent a boat!