I see a wide variety of boats here, so what exactly makes a boat a trawler?

Grand Banks come in planing and non planing. The difference is not weight but power.

ksanders said:

The word "trawler" is in my opinion a marketing term with little or no meaning in todays world.

I prefer to call boats:

Passagemaker A boat that is designed to cross oceans and all that encompasses.

Coastal Cruiser A boat that is designed to be operated along a coast line.

The vast majority of boats owned by folks here are Coastal Cruisers.

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Yup.

bayview,
But they're both heavy. Re #31.
How old is that quote? I think it still applies.
Most are overpowered IMO. Re #25.

Kevin,
Heavy Cruiser is what I've been say'in for years it should be instead of "trawler". So if you can convince everybody to switch I'll definitely be onboard. Coastal Cruiser works too but it does not translate directly into ... trawler. They can lack the primary essence ...... heavy. Comes right back to "Heavy Cruiser".

manyboats said:

OC Diver,
What do you suppose makes a boat non-planing? For 95% of trawlers that would be weight.

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To expand on my definition, when the engine (s) and fuel tanks size and placement become critical to the desired planning hull speed, it's probably not a trawler anymore. The original version of my boat had a single 120 or 135 Ford Lehman. It was displacement speed only and anywhere from 80 to 300 HP wouldn't change it significantly. Mine was intended to sort of plane, so Hp and size of fuel tanks were critical. Repowering to displacement speed allowed me to make changes that have no bearing on hull speed but would be bad for a planning hull. Otherwise the boats were basically the same. So to answer your question Eric, it's based partly on how much space and weight capacity you have to dedicate to the drive train (s) and required fuel to feed them.

Ted

I have NEVER heard or read where the owner of a KK42 or similar asked "what is a trawler ?" They already know. And, we probably wouldnt have as much participation here if this was called HeavyCruiserForum. Seems like everybody wants to be a trawler, or at least to associate with trawler folks. Prestige by association ? I looks to me like the natural progression of boat people is toward trawlers, eventually, and assuming they keep boating long enough. Why else are all these fine folks here ?

Welcome to The-Heavy-Cruiser-With-Falsely-Rugged-Attributes Forum

(doesn't quite have the same ring to it)

Where I come from....that includes the Northeast, Southeast, Gulf Coast and Kodiak, AK....plus the dozens of cool boaters that I have met along most miles of the US and Canadian coatline in many marinas...most experienced boaters can easily point out the trawlers that may or may not be present.

It's not rocket science or is 100 percent accurate...but they for the most part get it without this "let's not agree with the last 40+ years of marketing".

Why is it so hard for members of the "Trawler Forums"?

Can I spell ***? Better not to get kicked off otherwise people would only hear one small variation of reality.

bayview said:

Low powered is more common to trawlers than weight. You have 25 to 50' trawlers of vastly different weights but most are low powered.

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I guess I'm disqualified...8500 lbs, 200 hp.
Yes it will plane if pushed..

Cape Dory originally referred to it as a "power Cruiser"...

(but it does have those beautiful DownEast lines...

If women knew how successful simply naming a boat trawler has become they would call themselves models on dating websites

TDunn said:

Totally different boats used for the same purpose.

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As a writer by profession I guess I put more stock in the value of definition than most people who are willing to go along with whatever blanket the marketing department pulls over their eyes. A trawler is NOT a physical description of a boat. It is an OCCUPATION of a boat. As long as a boat is using trawl gear, it's a trawler. It can be a planing lobsterboat, a displacement South Carolina shrimp boat, a pontoon boat, or the USS Missouri, it doesn't matter. If its using trawl gear to fish with, it's a trawler.

Recreational boats tend not to use trawl gear for fishing. It's big, it's heavy, it requires a lot hydraulic power, and it gets in the way of happy hour. So by definition, they are not trawlers. Applying the term "trawler" to a recreational boat is a totally bogus branding idea hatched up by marketing guys in, I'm guessing, the 1970s to try to generate a rugged, tough image for their cabin cruisers. Obviously, everybody fell for it so we have the plethora of toy "trawlers" that we have today.

There is no such thing as a "recreational trawler" unless someone is using trawl gear on some sort of boat to fish just for fun.

I am well aware the term is here to stay and I'm smart enough to know that most people are passive enough not to change. I just think the people who use it are ignorant, at least of the English language, as they've fallen for the marketing scam which most likely has the folks who dreamed it up (if they're even still alive) laughing all the way to the bank.

A good car analogy is the Hummer which is nothing more than a Chevy Tahoe with a body styled after the military vehicle. It's all about image, which, for the most part, is simply empty fluff. When I meet people with a Bayliner or a Grand Banks or a Krogen or whatever and they say they have a "trawler," I call them on it (after laughing). Doesn't make me popular but it does make me right. Even American Marine had the common sense not to call their new Grand Banks line of boats fishing boats. For many years their slogan was "Dependable Diesel Cruisers."

The same thing applies to trollers. Trolling is also a definition of a fishing technique, not a definition of a boat style or configuration. In fact...... we have in Bellingham what appears to be a very nice Grand Banks 42 that has been modified for commercial trolling. It has outriggers, gurdies, a fish well in a stern extension of some sort, a commercial license number on the side, and it moors in the commercial basin along with the big Alaska limit seiners, gillnetters, and crab boats. So in this case, that GB42 is, in fact, a genuine, legitimate troller and that's what I call it when I refer to it.

BTW, I wasn't kidding about the kayaker and his "paddle trawler."

I think the old fable applies here, "sour grapes". I dont have it therefor its not that big of a deal,,, only semantics,,, no real definition,,, etc. Krogenites still know, they dont need to ask. If you own a trawler there is no need to ask anyone what it is. If you own a new Benetue "fast trawler" you can ask !

kulas44 said:

If you own a trawler there is no need to ask anyone what it is.

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Very true. But since virtually everyone on this forum doesn't own a trawler, asking what one is seems a legitimate question. Particularly if one keeps their boats in one of those fancy upmarket marinas where working boats are not allowed within 100 miles and so may have never even seen a trawler before.

Webster would define Trawler-any which boat you may happen to sit or stand upon and declare, what a wonderful trawler you have!
Webster the TV caracter.

Some boats are trawlers just because they look like trawlers. Camano 31 is such an example. Nothing trawler about it except the bridge windows. But they are visually so profound that the Camano easily slips in behind the rest to join the parade.

I have seen ads for C Dory's w the caption " the trailerable trawler" what a hoot. Not even powered by a diesel engine ... or even an inboard for that matter.

Marin has a point and dosen't even know it. The occupation of the skipper, his crew and friends to some degree make a trawler. Not what they do at work but what they do on the boat. What one does w a boat probably has something to do w it. There are quite a few here that operate as a trawler but have cruisers. Some even w gas engines.

The problem talk'in about this is that there are so many variables that drawing a line in the sand is hopeless. Can't be done. Too many "tweeners". Too big of a grey area. But I think that the most significant element of what makes a trawler a trawler is weight.

Larry M you may be right.

Ted (OC Diver) ,
I think it has more to do w the weight of the hull and less to do w engines and fuel. Range is of course mostly to do w passagemakers but somewhat to do w trawlers. However most trawlers don't venture far. But a very heavy boat that looks a tad bit like a North Sea Trawler almost can't be anything else but a recreational trawler. Again weight.

I enjoy the debate immensely, and Marin is correct, we have few trawler owners. Even that statement expresses to me that "he knows it when he sees it". I would like to know if any KK42 owner has EVER felt the need to ask "is this a trawler?". Its kinda like the gay debate, if you gotta ask, your probly not However, apparently gay is way cool and lots of folks are pretenders.

manyboats said:

Marin has a point and dosen't even know it. The occupation of the skipper, his crew and friends to some degree make a trawler. Not what they do at work but what they do on the boat. What one does w a boat probably has something to do w it..

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Well duh, Eric, that's the whole bloody POINT. A TRAWLER is defined by what one does with the boat. If you fish with trawl gear on a boat you have a frickin' TRAWLER. If you DON'T fish with trawl gear on a boat, it's not a trawler. The type of boat is totally irrelevant.

I don't think I can make it any more See-Spot-Run than that.

I've noted that language/definitions change/evolve. Definitions can expand and even have completely different meanings than originally.


I'm guided by Chapman's book which includes a section on nautical terms. It includes "recreational trawler": a motor-cruiser not having sufficient horsepower to get into planing mode.

kulas44 said:

...I would like to know if any KK42 owner has EVER felt the need to ask "is this a trawler?"...

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Nope. But we get asked more than not about our trawler. Their words not mine.


I think a lot of it is a regional thing. Your boat type questions change on geographic regions.

markpierce said:

I've noted that language/definitions change/evolve. Definitions can expand and even have completely different meanings than originally.

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Yeah, you're right and I know this. Language is an ever-evolving thing and that's okay. I use words today that didn't even exist 30 years ago.

But there is a limit to my tolerance and it pisses me off to see the language perverted by marketing bozos (of which I am one) purely for the purpose of scamming gullible customers into buying their product. "Trawler" applied to recreational cruising boats is an example of this. Equally annoying is the fact that so many people fall for it to the point we're at today.

So Mark, I know I'm tilting at a windmill but it's a windmill that happens to really piss me off.

Marin said:

purely for the purpose of scamming gullible customers into buying their product. "Trawler" applied to recreational cruising boats is an example of this. Equally annoying is the fact that so many people fall for it to the point we're at today.

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Hello Don Quixote. Tilt away at windmills. That's fine. But I don't see that there is any falling for the labeling or terminology nor people are gullible in this regard. The boat they buy is what it is and doesn't really matter what it's called.

BandB said:

. The boat they buy is what it is and doesn't really matter what it's called.

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To people who don't know any better, no it doesn't.

To me, how people use terms like 'trawler" is a effective delineator.

Marin said:

Not to people who don't know any better, no it doesn't.

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If they like the boat what does it matter what the manufacturer calls it?

My boat is sometimes called a "Tug Trawler" now that makes me chuckle. It's of course neither, and no such creature exist to my knowlege.

I have a FD river and coastal cruser that makes me and my better half happy, and provides many smiles per gallon.

That's all that matters, oh and the anchor and shotgun, they matter.

This place is a zoo, you folks know that right?! lol

I love you guys.

Hmmmm............maybe because I`m hanging upside down on the bottom half of the earth my perspective is a little odd, but I cannot for the life of me see why we cling so desperately to the idea that our boats have a resemblance, either physically of performance wise to a working boat so beautifully described by Marin.

As I said in another thread "trawlers" are commercial fishing boats - normally with a high bow and minimal deck house situated well forward and huge aft working deck. Our IG 36 has a high bow but that's the only characteristic we share. I value this forum and check it daily but I`m afraid to say that our boat is and will always be a .....displacement cruiser. Sorry.

I also accept that the "Displacement Cruiser Forum" doesn`t have the same ring...

cheers

Greetings,
Our vessel is described as a Long Range Cruiser (LRC). (Displacement hull). Never seen it in any company literature described as a trawler. Just checked YW where the same model is being marketed as a trawler.

Marin......do you really think that builders are trying to scam gullible customers? I find that most people I talk to are quite well informed about the type of boat they are calling or writing me about. Most are very conversant in "trawler talk" having been either members of this site or the myriad of other sites out there. Trawler folk (a new term???) are usually very "hands on", "self reliant", single minded, and verrrry opinionated.

We did, however, read, absorb, and take action once I read an earlier post by you (Marin). We don't actually call our boats "trawlers" any more. We call them Trawler Style Motor Vessels. Or, Motor Vessels with a Trawler Pedigree. The latter statement I feel justified in because my first production manager, who had a lot to do with the original design, was Paolo Jurkovich, who, with his father, Branko Jurkovich, built over 50 Branko Boats. Paolo, himself,runs a fleet of about 8 Branko fishboats in Bristol Bay. This is their latest, launched in 2012.

Also, our designer, Steve Seaton, has conceived many "trawler styled" vessels over the years.

Saying all that..........trying to describe a trawler to someone, for me, is very difficult. It is a look, a style, a performance characteristic, or the function of a boat. All are valid but maybe it is just an "attitude".

I often tell people that I don't know what makes a (recreational) trawler........but I do know one when I see one.

As is often posted here...everybody's definition isn't worth spit unless verified with an expert.


OK...who is the expert on what recreational vessels should be called a trawler or not?


I know there are experienced boating people on here...what say they?


Where was all that wisdom accumulated?


I can reasonably guess who on this forum is fully immersed in the cruising crowd 24 hrs a day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade.....you know the people who live the boating life that don't have jobs or other distractions that pull them away from boating. They are the types that meet boating people every day, 12 hrs a day and interact with them by just plain old BSing about boating.


Call boats whatever you like...and sure there is no clear cut answer...but I will stand by my assessment that the active boating crowd, whether they agree or disagree, see the basic definitions of a recreational trawler....and based on my experiences...it's only looks...not anything else.

OkSkipper said:

Marin......do you really think that builders are trying to scam gullible customers?

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Not anymore. There's no need to. The scamming was done a long time ago and the term has become an accepted part of the language as Mark pointed out earlier. So today you can call your cabin cruiser a "trawler" and nobody bats an eye other than those who know better.

But initially, absolutely. The Taiwan Trawler crowd glommed onto the term "trawler" as a wonderful way to hype the image of their not-all-that-well-built cabin cruisers back in, I suppose, the 1970s, maybe?

If you call a pig a swan long enough and persistently enough and effectively enough eventually you'll persuade your target market that a pig actually IS a swan and then your job is done.

I think there a bunch of people who "know better" that just go with the flow and laugh at those who laugh at them....


Pretty funny world we have....

Marin said:

The Taiwan Trawler crowd glommed onto the term "trawler" as a wonderful way to hype the image of their not-all-that-well-built cabin cruisers back in, I suppose, the 1970s, maybe?

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I totally agree......I remember my first experience at cruising "down east" in Maine...circa 1980 on our sailboat. (This was long before I became delusional and got into the boat business) Someone came into the small harbor where we were anchored in, what was probably, a Grand Banks. Someone in our party remarked that a trawler was the only acceptable "stink pot" to be anchored near. I answered......"trawler......that's a trawler?.......where the hell is the fish hold".

Now I build 'em with no fish hold..........go figure.