New to Trawlers - Just Retired

Hello,
We are interested in purchasing a Trawler, and are currently looking at a single engine Mainship 40, and really know nothing about them.
Any advise would be helpful. We have always had a dream to do the American Loop. ICW, and cruise from Florida to the Bahamas. We would like to spend most of the summers, after all our major adventures in New England.
The boat is a 2008, and brand new.
The only negative we have heard is that it rolls.
We are loving retirement but would love it even more if we could realize our dream.
We are also counting our pennies and looking for the most bang and the buck. We know there are more expensive boats, but also have to manage our expectations.
Huge Thanks,
John and Lois

Hey Lois and John:

Mainship is a great boat. The 40 is an excellent compromise over all the things we boaters must compromise, and you'll learn here that every boat is a compromise. My advice is to get aboard everything you can. Visit marinas and engage boaters in conversation about their boats. Study Yachtworld and decide about some of the features you would prefer on your boat.....pilothouse, fly-bridge, single engine vs. twins, aft. cabin, one head or two, separate shower(s), ease of access, monohull or catamaran, and on and on. Most of all, have fun doing it because the search is sometimes more fun than the owning.

Trawler + retirement = good times.



All boats roll and pitch with the waves. Some more than others, I suppose.

Congrats on your retirement.
Sounds like good times ahead

Welcome, both to TF and the world of retirement. I am also retired and find the hours are great but the pay sucks. The MS has great room onboard for a 40. We made an offer on a 2005 and missed it. You can't really go wrong on the newer ones as far as bang for the buck.

I think it is an excellent boat for the intended mission and a great boat for a couple with occasional guests.

Take your time, ask a lot of questions. Walk the docks and stop and talk with folks. You will get lots of opinions. Then make up your own mind. Single screw with bow and possible stern thruster makes life easy. AC and heat systems are important. Storage is always Not enough. Clean fuel, clean air, clean oil and your diesel will run longer then you. I wish you long life and a great cruise.

loisgraydon said:

The only negative we have heard is that it rolls.

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Boats roll. When of the same configuration. most roll sorta similarly. Sea states affect that... as does the way your drive it. You often have some control over when you travel, and you have some control over how you handle seaway.

-Chris

Oh yeah, congrats on your retirement. We also retired a little over three months ago. I can tell you, I haven't noticed it yet. Between moving, organizing, and boat projects, not much time.

Welcome Lois and John,
I too retired in July, the time is racing by, I found my "perfect" boat after 6 months of search and research, so take your time and start wading through the mountain of priceless information that's available here on TF, you will probably modify your ideas of what type of boat you should buy, I know I did!!.

I'd be interested in hearing what you end up with?

loisgraydon said:

Hello,
We have always had a dream to do the American Loop. ICW, and cruise from Florida to the Bahamas. We would like to spend most of the summers, after all our major adventures in New England.

John and Lois

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Welcome aboard. Also welcome to a new life. Rather than addressing the boat you mentioned I would like to comment on things to look for in a boat in terms of where you are intending to travel.

Your New England plans call out for radar on the boat. Spent many a wonderful day looking at the radar screen in fog. Doesn't have to be a great radar unit, but it would be useful up there.

Also with New England in mind try and determine with each boat the visibility from the helm (inside or out) as to something like a lobster or crab pot almost directly in front of your bow. If you cruise Maine you will weave between the lobster pots and you need to be able to see them.

Heat in New England is in my opinion more important than air conditioning. Thus the boat's air conditioning units should provide for heat as well. At anchor you will need either a generator or a diesel furnace. Cool nights are frequent in New England at the beginning and end of the seasons.

Dinghy storage. Some boats allow for dinghy storage on a top deck or aft deck. Davits are OK. In the open ocean RI and north or the Bahamas it is more difficult to tow a dinghy. In many cases a towed dinghy is not covered by insurance.

If you are doing the Great Loop and you have a single engine you might find it easier to dock if you have a bow thruster. Not anywhere as important with a twin engine boat.

Doing the Great Loop involves a large number of locks. A walk around deck may be easier than a deck without side access on one or both sides.

Good luck and enjoy the life.

Marty

loisgraydon said:

Hello,
We are interested in purchasing a Trawler, and are currently looking at a single engine Mainship 40, and really know nothing about them.
Any advise would be helpful. We have always had a dream to do the American Loop. ICW, and cruise from Florida to the Bahamas. We would like to spend most of the summers, after all our major adventures in New England.
John and Lois

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You might find this book interesting

Seven Miles an Hour: Retiring on a Trawler, With Cats: Don Wallace: 9780972750165: Amazon.com: Books

Bay Pelican said:

If you are doing the Great Loop and you have a single engine you might find it easier to dock if you have a bow thruster. Not anywhere as important with a twin engine boat.

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While never having maneuvered a twin-engined boat, from observations I say they are easier to maneuver than a single with a bow thruster, backing up. Have a single and thruster, and love the thruster. (My pals' boats on both sides of the Coot on post three are twins without thrusters.)

Sleep two, feed six, entertain 10:

My first advice would be to buy your second boat first and save yourselves a lot of money and hassle. By that I mean take your time, do your homework, walk on a lot of boats and decide what is important to the two of you to have.

My second piece of advice would be that the wrong boat, at the best price in the world, is still the wrong boat. Don't jump on a deal just because the price is low. If it's not the "right" boat for you, you'll be selling it in a couple of years and that takes a lot of time, effort and energy.

All good advice. We too just purchased our Trawler this year after over a year researching, going to boat shows, climbing on boats and first deciding what was important to us. When we started out we didn't even know what was important. We then ended up with what we thought was right, but then we amended what we were looking for. Coming from a twin planning hull environment it was a big jump from that to a trawler so we were looking at semi-displacement hulls. Then we started looking at the economics in retirement. We concentrated on fuel consumption of the boat we were looking at. We didn't want to be limited to where we could travel because we couldn't afford fuel one month. So we ended up in the single engine, trawler configuration. Now we started over,, looking for what we thought we needed but at least we knew what configuration we were looking. I think everyone will admit if you are looking for economy a single engine trawler in the 35 to 45 foot length is the most economical to operate. big enough to live on and economical enough to travel on a fixed income. We started dreaming big, making offers on boats that were priced out of our range hoping we could get one to come down to our offer. FINALLY! it happened, we made an offer on a 48' Kadey Krogen NS we couldn't afford, but the boat had been on the market for over a year and they accepted our offer...HAPPY DAYS! We love her and she is the boat of our dreams. Good hunting! Enjoy the hunt, it is worth it. Dream a little and make offers on boats you can't afford. You will come up with the boat of your dreams. We did.

John and Lois.... I'm biased toward Mainship... I have a 2005 34 Mainship trawler that met most of my criteria. Purchased Aug 12. I looked for over a year - boat shows, web sites, trial rides, owners, etc and the MS always came out on top. Mine has the single 370 Yanmar, bow thruster, 8kw Kohler gen, radar, C80 Raymarine plotter/GPS, dual helm, and of course flybridge with isinglass 360 views. Other standard MS equip too much to list. For 2 people (w/occasional guests) ICW cruising and possible Bahamas is very doable. I live near Daytona Beach. Single engine is economical - 370HP if needed, would like to have stern thruster. That's my only con - rest are pros. Maybe someone else will chime in with cons... BTW - exceptional Yanmar service out of Cocoa, FL.

Welcome to retirement... like the rest of us, you'll ask why you didn't do this sooner.

Baker said:

I think it is an excellent boat for the intended mission and a great boat for a couple with occasional guests.

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Baker,

I haven't been on this forum long but somehow I knew you would say that...LOL...

An issue to check very carefully on Mainships in the size range you are considering is insufficient height on the exhaust elbow to allow cooling water to properly flow downhill. The result is salt water into number 6 cylinder.

John and Lois, there you go, when you have settled on a Trawler there are Trawlers that are considered "blue water" boats and some are considered "coastal cruisers". Mainship is considered a coastal cruiser not a "blue water" boat. That does not say it still may do what you want it to do. So even when you settle on a Trawler you then still have choices. Everyone has their favorite of course, what might be good for them may not be good for you. So now you have more to think about, coastal cruiser like Mainship or a Blue water boat like Nordhaven or Kadey Krogen and others. Do your research... Fun huh? Oh and one thing you will find now days....the term "Trawler" is loosely used by boat manufactures....a true trawler used to be a true full displacement hull nowadays not so much. The speed of a true full displacement hull Trawler is an equation: 1.34 x the square root of LWL or the water line length. No matter how much power you have the hull will only go through the water as fast as the equation states. Also when people selling their boats say it "economical" what does that mean? Compared to what? What do you think economical is? My Kadey Krogen at 8kts in calm water burns 1 1/2 gal an hour. I was looking at semi displacement boats that the salesman said "you could throttle back" and get 10 to 12 gal an hour. Well do the math. What would it take to do a 750 mile jaunt? Fine if you are going from point A to point B for the afternoon but doing any traveling that was out of the question for me. good luck

The only down I have heard on the MS 40 is some lack a midship cleat .

For the locks in the loop this is to me the most important and useful item required.

Install a 16 or 18 inch cleat midship on both sides. Use a great backing plate and ride the pole up or down 10 seconds after coming alongside.

You will be ready to go before they can close the lock doors 1/10 of the way.

FF said:

The only down I have heard on the MS 40 is some lack a midship cleat .

For the locks in the loop this is to me the most important and useful item required.

Install a 16 or 18 inch cleat midship on both sides. Use a great backing plate and ride the pole up or down 10 seconds after coming alongside.

You will be ready to go before they can close the lock doors 1/10 of the way.

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I still think your info is dated, Fred. Because you have been saying this for years, the first thing I do when I board a MS is to look for a midship cleat. They have all had them. It might have been something on the older boats(ie 1980s MS Pilothouse 40) but I have yet to find one without a midship cleat.

Irdiverdan said:

Baker,

I haven't been on this forum long but somehow I knew you would say that...LOL...

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Hey, we always have a tendency to over analyze on here. I think a MS40 is damn near perfect for the loop. It has enough space. It is small enough to be easily handled by a couple. It is one level(sedan) so line handling and just getting around deck is easy. You can opt for single or twins...whatever you like in that department. 2 steering stations so you can drive inside or out. No exterior wood and they clean up like a teflon pan. They usually have an excellent rub rail. And Yanmar power(sometimes Cummins Q power) is hard to beat. At a price that cannot be beaten.

There is little I can find wrong with this boat for the loop!!!

Was about 10 years ago and the folks we met on the right loop Richeau and Rideau were an elderly couple and were returning their almost new boat to sell.

And no midship cleat was the cause for their dismay.

Perhaps MS listened to its customers , on rare occasions it has happened before!

Mid-ship cleats are so handy I had the Coot's builder install a second set.

markpierce said:

Mid-ship cleats are so handy I had the Coot's builder install a second set.

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Coincidently, my Carver has a second set of "midship" cleats as well. Stock...from the factory. About halfway between the "real midship" cleats and the bow cleats. Agreed....VERY handy!!! Maybe it is because it rolls so much...or maybe to support it if it sinks in the slip.... I envy it from my lofty perch in the "oxygen tent"!!!!

Just having a little fun!!!

John and Lois,

The Mainship 40 would be the boat I buy if I had another 50K to spend. Im limited to 150k or less and my wife and I have been looking for almost a year now taking in the advice here on TF. We have been to all the shows, Trawler Fest you name it! We have looked at the old stuff, DeFever, Monk, Ocean Alexander, GB and the newer stuff, Mainship and Albin. We keep coming back to the Mainships just as a personal choice, all those other Trawlers are awesome and there are advantages and dis-advantages to both. We are preparing to make offers on the Mainship 390s soon, which is the same hull as the 40 Fyi! There is obviously a lot of experience on this forum, and you just cant replace that. I would like the "Baker" team to comment on "Sunchaser" post about the exhaust elbow issue as I have not heard of that. I have heard of the CAT3126 soft block issue from more than one source now..........Good luck...................... and keep us posted...........................................Brad & Michelle

Swabby said:

John and Lois, The Mainship 40 would be the boat I buy if I had another 50K to spend. Im limited to 150k or less and my wife and I have been looking for almost a year now taking in the advice here on TF. We have been to all the shows, Trawler Fest you name it! We have looked at the old stuff, DeFever, Monk, Ocean Alexander, GB and the newer stuff, Mainship and Albin. We keep coming back to the Mainships just as a personal choice, all those other Trawlers are awesome and there are advantages and dis-advantages to both. We are preparing to make offers on the Mainship 390s soon, which is the same hull as the 40 Fyi! There is obviously a lot of experience on this forum, and you just cant replace that. I would like the "Baker" team to comment on "Sunchaser" post about the exhaust elbow issue as I have not heard of that. I have heard of the CAT3126 soft block issue from more than one source now..........Good luck...................... and keep us posted...........................................Brad & Michelle

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I am just seeing this. But one of the issues on some engines, mostly Cummins, was that they do not have enough elevation in the engine room to allow a properly engineered exhaust elbow. His can allow saltwater to back flow into the engine. I have not heard this occurring on the Yanmars or Cats. Just the Cummins. Luckily there are not many Cummins powered Mainships.