Considering a trawler

Hello everyone,

My wife and I are looking for a boat for our family and seems a trawler might be the best fit for us. We are looking for a good weekend boat for us and our 2 children. Some of the criteria we are looking to fill are:

• 40 - 48'
• 2 Staterooms
• Flybridge
• Preferably a raised pilot house
• Need to be able to comfortably do San Diego to Catalina (100 nm open ocean)
• Preferably a twin screw but could be open to a single with a wing motor.
• Would like a swim platform in case we decide to dive off the boat but that's not a deal breaker
• Good for a floating condo for when we are in San Diego
• Price less than $250k

So far in my research I really like North Pacific 43 and the Swift 42. However, I am not real sure on the overall quality of those vessels and am totally open to suggestions.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum!
Might want to indicate speed, age and condition of the boat also. Some of the older 42' Kadey Krogens might be a possibility.

Ted

Defevers are worth a look.
49 Raised Pilot house,very popular,well priced.
44 Offshore,also very popular.Not a separate pilothouse though.
Both good seaboats,walk in engine room on the 44 which is a nice thing to have.

Thanks for the replies!

OC I am looking for a turnkey setup. I am cutting my teeth on this a bit and don't want to get too buried in a poorly maintained vessel. Speed I am pretty open to. The twins are nice in case I have to beat some weather. But the efficiency of the singles are hard to ignore. Age...I was thinking early 2000's and up.

There are many vessels that will fit your desirements.

Most of the difference in this class of boat is the shape of the deck house.

The motor yacht will be sleeker the trawler yee oldy , but if a plaining twin screw is chosen , under water will be almost identical.

They make far more MY than trawlers per year so you might wish to look at both.

The trawler if single screw ill run 6-7-8K so a 100 mile trip will take all night.

15K is not too expensive in a MY , get there in 1/2 the time with 4x the fuel bill.

With a thick wallet 30K and a 3 hour ride could be done.

Almost all but the true (rare) deep sea trawlers make great cottages or party barges dockside.

Good hunting,

For your price and for the seas you get (Or don't get) you may want to look at the Mainship. For the money you can get a newer vessel that makes a good dockside home.

Have you checked out "YachtWorld.com" they list thousands of boats, and have a good search menu.

you have a good list but the trawler idea is limiting. trawler is just a name given by marketing to sell boats. Look at every style boat in your range then decide what style has the features you want.

If those were my qualifying factors, Bayliner 4788.

healhustler said:

If those were my qualifying factors, Bayliner 4788.

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Agreed.

IFlyEm said:

My wife and I are looking for a boat for our family and seems a trawler might be the best fit for us. We are looking for a good weekend boat for us and our 2 children.

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Don't overlook Ocean Alexander, they come in a wide range of sizes, shapes, layouts and power.

There are some on here from your area.

Also, don't forget children grow and change quickly, so, depending on their ages, think 2, 3 even 5 years out.

I have spent a lot of time in the water between SoCal and Catalina, for small craft, the crossing method I'm most familiar with involves heading up the coast then crossing the separation scheme at a near 90 some where around Newport. Limits the middle of the channel time and doesn't take much longer.

Also, doing that run at 8 kts means you'll be leaving about 13 to 14hrs before you plan to arrive. At 12 kts it turns into a days run 8.5 hrs, at 16 it's a full morning at 6.25 hrs. Hence the popularity of the semi-planning hulls for those with fuel but not time...

Happy shopping!!

healhustler said:

If those were my qualifying factors, Bayliner 4788.

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Gotta admit that's the only boat that crossed my mind reading the OP. Ticks almost every box he mentioned.

CPseudonym said:

Gotta admit that's the only boat that crossed my mind reading the OP. Ticks almost every box he mentioned.

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It really does. Has all the features he wants, big enough for the kids to grow in, affordable, reasonably fast, and definitely a great dockside condo with plenty of outdoor space for the SoCal lifestyle. There also tends to be a large inventory of them on the market (at least up here in the PNW)

healhustler said:

If those were my qualifying factors, Bayliner 4788.

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Couldn't agree more! Almost everything the OP listed is covered by the Bayliner 4788. One exception, though....the ER Is almost non existent. (Pretty cramped! )

OK, not a pilothouse. I did have a chance to go aboard a 48 Offshore Sundeck a while back and have to say it was pretty damn nice. Seemed solid, sturdy. Various power options out there. Pascoe actually had a few nice things to say about them.
I do find it odd that the same boat in the sedan configuration fetches $100k + than the sundeck version


1997 Offshore 48 YachtFish Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Great advice guys! I am not totally stuck on the trawler per se. I just like the "Shippy" look of many of them. The N40 would be at the top of my list but they are still $100k over my target price.

Thanks for taking the time to educate me!

dhays said:

Agreed.

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DHays, how do you like your NP43? That's one that I like but haven't seen it in person.

IFlyEm said:

DHays, how do you like your NP43? That's one that I like but haven't seen it in person.

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I absolutely love it. I was looking for a comfortable single engine Pilothouse design that is efficient at 7-8 knots. The prior owner cruised at 10 knots, but he had more money to spend on fuel than I.

Keep in mind that I have only owned it for 2 months, but I have spent a lot of days on the boat. So far we have had 4 adults sleeping on the boat very comfortably and could easily add a couple of kids to that.

The head and shower are very nice, even for my wife and me who are not small people. The same is true for the master stateroom.

I love the Pilothouse and that is where we intend to drive the boat most of the time yet we have used the fly bridge several times already, which is saying a lot for the PNW in April and May. The covered aft cockpit is great for outperform weather and yet the large swim step has seen plenty of use.

I have spent a lot of time in the ER and found it to be well laid out. Certainly not standing room but with the hatches above the ER I can easily get around the engine and generator.

I have been pleased with how the boat handles. I am completely inexperienced in handling a power boat but I have yet to make any huge mistakes. The bow and stern thrusters are very effective when needed.

The quality of the interior finish is outstanding and the standard hardware is high quality. Did I mention how quiet it is under way?

So yeah, I am really happy with it.

That's good to hear. I really like the North Pacific.

As for the Bayliner how's quality compared to say the other recommendations on the list? I'm not a huge fan of the overly hard angular look of it. But it does meet a lot of my needs.

I do like the looks of the Defevers.

IFlyEm said:

That's good to hear. I really like the North Pacific.

As for the Bayliner how's quality compared to say the other recommendations on the list? I'm not a huge fan of the overly hard angular look of it. But it does meet a lot of my needs.

I do like the looks of the Defevers.

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If the NP has the layout and the features you want, I think they are hard to beat.

Have you had a chance to get it out into some moderate seas? How did it ride?

healhustler said:

If those were my qualifying factors, Bayliner 4788.

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dhays said:

Agreed.

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My choice as well.

We take or 4788 out in the open ocean of the Gulf of Alaska every time we leave port. The ride is the same as any other SD hull form. It does just fine.

The only way you will get a better ride woud be to buy a Full displacement boat that has either Paravanes or active fin stabilization.

Then you would be limited to displacement speeds though. Sometimes in really rough seas I honestly wish for stabilization. That said there are some real advantages of being able to cruise at 15 knots when time constraints make getting somewhere more important than a couple hundred dollars in fuel savings

Nice! Always like to hear from owners.

IFlyEm said:

Have you had a chance to get it out into some moderate seas? How did it ride?

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So far the largest sea were 3' wind waves It handle those without an issue.