Sorry if this seems fundamental, but could you explain this? This is a very important point for me. I have never cruised on a trawler, only outboards, which I find to be very noisy. My sailboat is noisy if below when motoring, not bad in the cockpit, so I am curious about the differences motoring between a trawler and sailboat.
This is an excellent question.. One that I could not answer before switching to a Trawler.
That said, lets start with the reason I switched. I switched to trawler because my wife developed mobility issues. Sailboats have large distances to step up or down to access things including getting on and off the boat. In addition, sailboats heel. You add those two things together and you need a fair amount of mobility and agility to safely maneuver around a sailboat.
Comfort is a collection of many things added together to form a package and there is usually not one single issue that does it. The fact that you are heeled and have a lot of high steps adds up to a tiering factor.
Beyond that it seemed all factors considering a sailboat should not have been much different when motoring but, I was wrong. I have always owned towards the sailboat end of the trawlering market. I have never owned anything but a ballasted full displacement trawler so, the jump in comfort should not have been drastic but it was. We also need to put into context that we are talking about going from point A to point B, not out and back to the same port for a day sail because that is where a sailboat excels.
There are a number of reasons that come to mind in comfort differences.
The first comfort factor is that you are seeking less wind with a trawler. Less wind conditions are far more prevalent than ideal sailing conditions or you would not motor so much in a sailboat. Wind is tiring.
Second is dispatch meaning, known time from point A to B. First off in a sailboat you almost always expect wind at some point and seek it. We all know that tacking can add considerable amount of time so we will not count that. We will restrict this comparison to motoring. A sailboat has one issue that can drastically reduce comfort and add considerable time without most people being aware of it. Sailboats have mass centered around the mast and a lack of fullness in the ends of the boat. This induces hobby horsing or, pitching. Pitching can reduce speed drastically at the wave crest, exactly the point of survival so, no one ever looks at the boat speed at that point er, the slower speed is missed. That is what I was referring to as sailboater math. You can count better on how long it will take in a trawler because you don't get knocked back as much. All boats can hobby horse at some point but that is where the trawler stays in port not seeking the wind.
Adding to the stack, Pitch also has a fatigue component because humans do not balance as well fore/aft as they do laterally so you hang on more. Face it, a compromised balance tightens every muscle in your body inducing fatigue.
Trawlers also have you eyes higher above the water. Depth perception is better and reflected sunlight is weaker creating less fatigue and better sense of comfort. The view from a flying bridge often gets your line of sight higher that the surrounding terrain increasing your sense of adventure.
Finally, you can operate the boat in bedroom slippers having more room and the comforts of home.
When you add everything together, your overall experience when traveling is greatly enhanced by the little things that add up to something much larger than any single item. The cognitive mind misses this focus for an evaluation of sail vs trawler because the cognitive mine only focuses on facts and figures around a single issue at a time. The overall addition of factors for your pre trawler evaluation is missed. Comfort is all about perception and less about facts and figures. Especially when it comes to spouses.
A week out of rotator cuff surgery has me bored but also not typing well. I sense I have introduced some confusion here that will open me up to getting hammered but such is life.
