Sailor moving to trawler

[hans75]

Joined this forum to become acquainted with trawlers. Planning to turn in sail boat 35Ft for Trawler 30ft probably Mainship or Albin.

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

[BobH]

Been there, done that. Can't wait to get back into a sailboat. Charter one if you can and sit on the back deck and compare it to lounging in the cockpit of a sailboat. Take one out a few times and fill the tanks. Think of some of the places you have gone with the sailboat or passages you have made. Would you be comfortable doing that in a power boat? No fuel no go.

Just someghing to think about, which we had done more before committing,

Bob

[eyschulman]

Originally Posted by BobH

Been there, done that. Can't wait to get back into a sailboat. Charter one if you can and sit on the back deck and compare it to lounging in the cockpit of a sailboat. Take one out a few times and fill the tanks. Think of some of the places you have gone with the sailboat or passages you have made. Would you be comfortable doing that in a power boat? No fuel no go.

Just someghing to think about, which we had done more before committing,

Bob

Bob and all others; I am an avid sailor and my wife leans toward power. We cruised for many years on sail boats. We also cruised on power boats. Each has their place and then there is the motor sailor. What it comes down to is doing an honest thorough pre-evaluation before jumping into a boat. The key is trying to know ahead of time how you will use it and what about it you will like or dislike,not always an easy task. I am unwilling to give up sailing. My solution to this conflict is two boats and I know that won't work for everybody. Back in the 70s and 80s we used to keep logs on our summer cruises and discovered we were powering at least 80% of the time. When we got the opportunity to spend 6 months out of the year on a boat we concluded a fuel efficient trawler type (Pilgrim 40) was the answer for inter-coastal use. The conversion of long time sailors to power and in particular to trawler type power is an ongoing phenomena fueling this segment of the boat market. In this conversion from sail to power stability and fuel burn should be considered high on the priority list for the sailor doing the switch.

[O C Diver]

Welcome to the forum!

Ted

[markpierce]

I'm a former sailor and won't return to sailboats. I'm too old for that, and my sweetheart wouldn't be comfortable on a sailboat.

Not being a long-distance boater, fuel cost is hardly a financial consideration as it represents less than 10 percent of boating costs, exclusive of the cost of trawler itself.

Besides, I have steadying sails to more than satisfy any urge to play with sails.

[Portuguese]

Another wise man.

Congratulations and welcome

[DavidM]

I second the comments by eyschulman and others. You switch to a trawler after you have done the blue water stuff where the reliability of sails are critical and want something easier to deal with on coastal cruises where reliability isn't so important.

As Mark noted, fuel consumption isn't a big part of owning a trawler. But there are a couple of things to look for that will help that. A true displacement hull will be almost twice as efficient as a semi-displacement hull at the same speed. Also true displacement hull boats tend to have smaller engines which are more fuel efficient at low power settings than a big engine that is often fitted in a semi-displacement hull.

Full displacement trawler hulls are certainly in the minority- Pilgrim, Willard and Lord Nelson are three. A 35-37'er should use less than 2 gph at 6 kts on one of these.

But consider something bigger than a 30' trawler. You need at least 35' to get decent water capacity, fridge size, storage, etc for more than a few days on board at a time.

David

[Doug Oliver]

Have you made the switch yet?? Wondering what you came up with.