New guy here !

[Swfla]

Excellent knowledge and insight.

[Todd U]

RGano
Thank you for taking time to share your experience! Is very helpful

[Lavmaul]

Hi Todd,
We’re pretty new also just shopping for our boat
Welcome, Barb & Don
We’re on the east coast central Fl.
We are enrolled and paid to take a 6 day, three days back to back course on a mainship 400 the end of Aug in Cape Coral Fl. Excited about the adventure and learning.

[Todd U]

Lavmaul
How exciting that you guys have reached this stage of your search. May I ask how much the course costs? Is this the "Burnt Store Marina"? Can you provide the company name or a link? Are you using your own boat? Do they take you out to open waters? Sorry so many questions. Thank You!

[Swfla]

That's just perfect for you Todd. Very excited and hopeful you and wife can go there.

[Pathfinder]

Proud owner of Pathfinder, Mainship 400 single engine. We love our boat and cruised her from Newport RI to Florida & Bahamas (Pathfinder's Log - Trawler Cruising Blog)

Don't worry about buying a single vs. twin -- most problems are fuel related which affect both engines, single has easy access in the engine room to both sides of the engine, and speed differential isn't large. She handles well with single and bow thruster.

I took the diesel engine glass at Max Boring (Training – Mack Boring & Parts Company) before our long voyage but never had any engine problems.

Pull the trigger and start your voyage!

[Bryant]

Originally Posted by Todd U

Hello everyone, my name is Todd. My wife and I are soon to be retired and are doing careful and relentless research before purchasing our new liveaboard home.

We wish to cruise from Florida to the Bahamas frequently and seem to have settled on a Mainship 400. I have concerns over the models that have the single engine as opposed to two. Any helpful advice on the 400 or the liveaboard lifestyle in general would be greatly appreciated.

Look forward to learning from all of the experience you guys can share. Thank You!

One engine or two? What kind of anchor is best? Blondes or Brunettes?
I'm kidding because all of those questions will get you more advice than you bargained for.

Here's my two cents worth:

When I was searching for my boat one of my main criteria was 1 engine. With diesel engines, the vast majority of the time, a failure of one engine is due to fuel issues. If that's the case then if one engine quits, the other is probably not far behind. I think the redundancy and safety issues of two (diesel) engines is overblown. Not saying that people with two engines haven't been saved by having an extra, I'm just saying the odds are that if you lose one you will likely lose the other. The cost of buying a boat with two is generally higher and whether you are talking about annual maintenance or large repairs, two engines are twice as expensive as one. (Two engines, two heat exchangers, two transmissions, two shafts, two stuffing boxes, two cutlass bearings, two props, etc). Then there is the issue of room and convenience. I can walk (crawl) 360 degrees around my one Ford Lehman 120 and I have easy access to every part on it, my transmission and everything in the engine room.
That means a lot.
The down side is that I don't have thrusters and backing, particularly if it's windy, is a bear. Practice will overcome that. I've had people tell me that it's nice to have thrusters after watching me back into a slip and they are surprised when I tell them that I don't have any. I'm not bragging here, I'm saying that you shouldn't avoid a single engine powered boat because of maneuverability issues. It's a painful but learnable skill.

If you are looking at gas powered boats, that's a horse of a different color.

[Caphenning]

Originally Posted by Todd U

Hello everyone, my name is Todd. My wife and I are soon to be retired and are doing careful and relentless research before purchasing our new liveaboard home.

We wish to cruise from Florida to the Bahamas frequently and seem to have settled on a Mainship 400. I have concerns over the models that have the single engine as opposed to two. Any helpful advice on the 400 or the liveaboard lifestyle in general would be greatly appreciated.

Look forward to learning from all of the experience you guys can share. Thank You!

It depends, and today we have electric options for ‘limp to port’ capabilities. There is also handling to consider. You can put a single screw boat anywhere you can put a twin screw boat, the difference is the twin screw boat gives you 2 options of how to get it there. As the single screw operator it’s up to you to understand which is available to you, and which will screw you over, and then execute the one the boat will accomplish.

Personally I would prefer a single screw with electric hybrid drive that feeds off battery and genset. That way electric or mechanical drive gives the same propulsion/full handling, and I get the option for limited full silent for ghosting around a Harbor for a 2 hr tour.

As for live aboard, the combo washer/dryer units are nice if you don’t already have laundry aboard. They’re slow, but you can start it and forget it, and when you open it the stuff is dry.

[Lavmaul]

Originally Posted by Todd U

Lavmaul
How exciting that you guys have reached this stage of your search. May I ask how much the course costs? Is this the "Burnt Store Marina"? Can you provide the company name or a link? Are you using your own boat? Do they take you out to open waters? Sorry so many questions. Thank You!

The three day back to back courses are approximately 5600.00 we stay on the boat for six nights, move right in ! But weighting what the boat will cost when we purchase one plus really needing a vacation, like everyone else we canceled all our trip plans. Hopefully a good investment and Totally looking forward to the experience

[Lavmaul]

Three days on open water one night on the hook. You can do two nights on the hook if you choose. Class is 9 am to 5 pm the Capt spends two of those days 24/7 with you. Happy it’s a mainship 400, good deck plan

[jbloyd]

The only place I have heard of "outrun the weather" is from sales reps and a few newbies who believed them. I think you will find on this forum that "outrun the weather" is way down on the list for preferring twin engines. What if the twins are FL 120's? I don't think you are going to outrun any weather with those in any of the the boats that have them. There are many great discussions and opinions about single/twin in several threads (one is pretty recent). Enjoy the discoveries.

[NCheaven]

Have your fuel tanks Professionally inspected and fuel polished. After that, run the boat a few hours and replace all fuel filters. Use the best fuel source that experienced boaters in your area recommend, and in the south use a biocide. Consider installing a fuel pressure gauge if you don’t already have one. Those steps will reduce the biggest single engine risk.

[Medic]

Caphenning said "As for live aboard, the combo washer/dryer units are nice if you don’t already have laundry aboard. They’re slow, but you can start it and forget it, and when you open it the stuff is dry."

The combo washer/dryers can be amazing. I have a Splendide on a boat I own, but is for sale, and it has proven itself.

Don't be confused by the term "combo washer/dryer". It does NOT mean a stack washer/dryer, which is a small washing machine with a seperate small dryer "stacked" on top of it (or below it). A "combo washe/dryer" is a single unit. You put laundry into it, add detergent, set the controls and turn it on. After it washes your clothes or whatever, it then proceeds to dry them. With the Splendide it takes about between 90 minutes and two hours. I was astounded that it even worked. But it did, and beautifully.

The term "combo washer/dryer" is frequently mis-used, so be sure you know what the person using the term really means.

[Swfla]

In many european countries, these combo machines are in apartments and homes. Perfect where space is limited and 1-2 persons as it is a 2-3 hour cycle.

[RLKramer]

I am from Lake Superior where there historically has not been a tow service (just recently one arrived in the area) and you needed to be self-sufficient if you wanted to get home alive. So, you either had twin engines or you had a "get home" engine. Over the years in the north we have had both solutions.

In our Florida/Bahamas boat we would only consider twin engines. I understand that a single can be just as reliable but while one engine is out, you still have the ability to power your way through the situation.

I was crossing between Chub Cay and Nassau and the weather turned the waves into 5'-6' waves. The boat was rocking wand rolling even with stabilizers. I was glad that we had no engine problems but had we had one engine go out, the other would have kept us going forward with steerage.

So I vote for two engines.

As for the class at SWFY in Cape Coral, we had our boat in their charter fleet. We saw them take very good care of the paying charterers, took very good care of the owner of the company, but the people that actually owned the boats-- the boat owners in the fleet were the last to be taken care of.

Their teacher (s) are all contract captains not staff teachers. The boats are all getting chartered for the class with some revenue going to the boat owner but the majority goes to the company owner.

I think you will have good training there, but please consider carefully before you put your own boat in their fleet. You wont see much revenue sharing.

As for the combo washer and dryer, you can only do VERY small loads and they will take 2-3 hours. They are good to have but you need to have lots of time.

[Recb]

Originally Posted by Todd U

Hello everyone, my name is Todd. My wife and I are soon to be retired and are doing careful and relentless research before purchasing our new liveaboard home.

We wish to cruise from Florida to the Bahamas frequently and seem to have settled on a Mainship 400. I have concerns over the models that have the single engine as opposed to two. Any helpful advice on the 400 or the liveaboard lifestyle in general would be greatly appreciated.

Look forward to learning from all of the experience you guys can share. Thank You!

Regarding single or twins in the Mainship 400, I think a single with bow and stern thrusters is easily manoeuvred and piloted and has the advantage of more space in the engine room with all around engine access. A comfortable cruising speed is @8 knots.

[boatpoker]

over 22,000hrs in single engines. Had one tow (2yrs ago)
A good handler with a single can do anything a twin can do.

Hundreds of thousands of deep water fishing vessels for the last 100yrs have been singles.

My Great grandfather ran a single engine single cylinder make/break diesel 40 footer between Fraserburgh (Scotland) and Iceland in the early 1900's. The family story is he was running whiskey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5b3Q7hDV3A

[boatpoker]

over 22,000hrs in single engines. Had one tow (2yrs ago)
A good handler with a single can do anything a twin can do.

Hundreds of thousands of deep water fishing vessels for the last 100yrs have been singles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5b3Q7hDV3A

[catalinajack]

Yup, boatpoker is absolutely correct, a good handler with a single can do anything a twin guy can do. Except, boatpoker doesn't say how many more hundreds of hours and botched landings it takes to acquire these skills. New boaters should take this into consideration.

Originally Posted by boatpoker

over 22,000hrs in single engines. Had one tow (2yrs ago)
A good handler with a single can do anything a twin can do.

Hundreds of thousands of deep water fishing vessels for the last 100yrs have been singles.

My Great grandfather ran a single engine single cylinder make/break diesel 40 footer between Fraserburgh (Scotland) and Iceland in the early 1900's. The family story is he was running whiskey.