New Member Intro

[Scubaguy10]

Greetings from Ohio. My wife and I have a history of pleasure boating in the Midwest, although we have not used our boat for the last few years. It's a 1965 Chris craft custom skier, mahogany ski boat that has just been taking up space in our garage for some time. My immediate plan is to fix the boat up and sell it to add to our cruiser fund.

Our long-term interest is to buy a trawler style cruiser with which to cruise the East Coast, Florida, and the Bahamas. This plan probably won't take place for about five years, as we are both working full-time currently.

My thoughts are that the appropriate boat for us is going to be a trawler style cruiser in the 34 to 36 foot range. A Grand Banks 36 would be perfect.

Other than generating the money to buy such boat, what should I be doing over the next few years to prepare myself for the cruising lifestyle? Should I rent cruisers in Florida a few times? I would intend on taking some Coast Guard classes on boat handling and navigation at some point, not sure what is available in my area.

Anyone's thoughts on the first steps toward owning and living (at least part-time) by cruiser would be greatly appreciated.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by Scubaguy10

Greetings from Ohio. My wife and I have a history of pleasure boating in the Midwest, although we have not used our boat for the last few years. It's a 1965 Chris craft custom skier, mahogany ski boat that has just been taking up space in our garage for some time. My immediate plan is to fix the boat up and sell it to add to our cruiser fund.

Our long-term interest is to buy a trawler style cruiser with which to cruise the East Coast, Florida, and the Bahamas. This plan probably won't take place for about five years, as we are both working full-time currently.

My thoughts are that the appropriate boat for us is going to be a trawler style cruiser in the 34 to 36 foot range. A Grand Banks 36 would be perfect.

Other than generating the money to buy such boat, what should I be doing over the next few years to prepare myself for the cruising lifestyle? Should I rent cruisers in Florida a few times? I would intend on taking some Coast Guard classes on boat handling and navigation at some point, not sure what is available in my area.

Anyone's thoughts on the first steps toward owning and living (at least part-time) by cruiser would be greatly appreciated.

I'd suggest two things. One is chartering as you mention in FL.

The other is to purchase the boat in advance if possible. You could gain a lot of experience using it on the Great Lakes on weekends and vacations. You could also get any refurbishing and upgrades done. If you picked up two weeks plus 20 weekend days per year for two years in advance, that's 70 days of boating experience before you head off for new lands. If you purchased the boat and it was located elsewhere, then use those brief periods to fly to it and/or move it to where you want it. You may have schedules too busy to allow even this but offering it as a thought in case you could do it. Plus it can take you a long time to find your perfect boat.

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. Yup, buy it sooner rather than later.

[Len]

Hello, We are interested in a Mainship 43 Pilot or similar boat. We would like to travel from Florida up the East Coast. I just finished "Honey let's buy a boat". What a great story! No fly bridge for me. Thanks. Len

[O C Diver]

Welcome to the forum! Happy boat hunting.

Ted

[jerryatideason]

Hi folks, I'm new to the forum and have been lurking for a few days now. We live in St Augustine, FL and are considering spending a significant amount of time living aboard a trawler in the near future. We also think it would be a great experience to make the great loop in the next few years.

We are scheduled with a trawler charter captain for a few days living aboard and learning more about choosing and operating the right vessel for us. We have lots of on the water experience in smaller coastal fishing boats and are certified bareboat on sailboats, but think at this stage in our lives we would be more comfortable on a power boat. I look forward to learning a lot from reading posts on the forum.

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the hunt.

[THEJEALOUSSKY]

Happy to be a new member of the Forum. We are now the proud owners of an Albin 36 and we have most assuredly fallen in love with it. We are psyched to bring her to a summer locations in a few more weeks on the ICW.

C.C.

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
welcome aboard.

[Mermaid]

Greetings from Miami! I am looking to downsize and simplify my boating experience and lifestyle, so I'm on the hunt for a quality trawler, and thought this might be a good place to start learning about the various brands and models, and in particular what's quality and what's not so much. I've been living aboard a 58' motoryacht already for about 11 years, so I'm pretty well seasoned in most things Hatteras and Detroit Diesel. I will, no doubt, have a lot of questions for what lies beyond Hatteras.

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by Mermaid

Greetings from Miami! I am looking to downsize and simplify my boating experience and lifestyle, so I'm on the hunt for a quality trawler, and thought this might be a good place to start learning about the various brands and models, and in particular what's quality and what's not so much. I've been living aboard a 58' motoryacht already for about 11 years, so I'm pretty well seasoned in most things Hatteras and Detroit Diesel. I will, no doubt, have a lot of questions for what lies beyond Hatteras.

I'd suggest you start a new thread just for your topic in the General Discussion area. I'm sure you'll get a lot of opinions if you do so.

[Mermaid]

Originally Posted by BandB

I'd suggest you start a new thread just for your topic in the General Discussion area. I'm sure you'll get a lot of opinions if you do so.

Thanks. I want to read a lot first, and ask questions after digesting some info that's already out here.

[dhays]

Originally Posted by Mermaid

Thanks. I want to read a lot first, and ask questions after digesting some info that's already out here.

Wait... you mean you will read and then about what you have read before you start posting about it?

Sorry, that just isn't how its done around here.

Welcome. Sounds like you will have lots to offer us.

[THEJEALOUSSKY]

Hello Mermaid,
We fell in love with our Trawler and will be taking it home on the ICW in about 6 days and plan to jump off the ICW at times into Ocean. It will take a few weeks to get to set location from Florida to the Northeast and we will return back each year to the Florida area. Hope we can find time to take some other trips as well. Happy hunting for your new Trawler!

[merman64]

Happy to be part of this forum!!

[KRedmann]

Hello: We are new to "a more active participation" in this forum as we contemplate purchasing our first Trawler in the next few months. we have dreamed of this for years and finally appear to have the time to devote to this.
We will start reading before asking specific questions as we "search"...but feel a little overwhelmed at times. We are looking at some 36-42 GB for ICW cruising in the Gulf Coast are, but are certainly open to several other Trawler type yachts.We are mindful that this is what we know "now"...and who knows what the future holds!! We are weighing shared ownership as a possibility for many reasons, but not sure if that really works.we Thanks in advance for all the great advice and direction...Kris/Grace

[BandB]

Originally Posted by KRedmann

We are weighing shared ownership as a possibility for many reasons, but not sure if that really works.we Thanks in advance for all the great advice and direction...Kris/Grace

Shared ownership is an interesting concept. I know some who did that for years. They were and are still best friends. I also know that most partnerships end in divorce and it can be ugly. Also, when you're 50/50 partners, any disagreement has no way of being resolved as it ends in a tie vote. If I was going to do shared ownership, I'd be very careful to put as much as possible into an agreement both can agree to and sign.

[ChadAdventures]

This helps a lot, thank you

Chad

[trawler40]

Thanks for the introduction, new to the trawler world but over 60 years on all types of vessels. Looking forward to new lifestyle.