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Old 06-19-2017, 09:25 PM   #1
Dani-lu
Veteran Member
 
City: Delray Beach, Fl.
Vessel Name: Dani-Lu
Vessel Model: Searay/410 Sundancer
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 84
8 Knots - Are you kidding?

While my subject is tongue in cheek, I really want to hear what you folks think of full-displacement or semi-displacement trawlers and what it was like to adjust to slower speeds, assuming some of you came out of faster boats.

We currently own a 45' LOA/14' beam diesel express cruiser that cruises at approx 20 knots. Most of my friends own faster boats, but I always tell them boating is about enjoying the journey as much as the destination. The one thing I know is, I like the feel of a planing boat. But, I am hoping this will change over time, because it has to. Otherwise we could not afford to become traveling live-aboards. I assume some or many of you started out like us and can share your experiences.

I recently started showing my wife pics of trawlers (Kady, Selene, Nordhavn, etc), and she is excited about the prospect of living on a trawler, 5 or 6 months per year. Maybe full time one day. We plan to start out living aboard in the southeast, Bahamas, Cuba, and hopefully even further south.

Until this weekend I did not explain to her how our speed would change with a trawler. So, after taking a nice ride at 20kts, I slowed our boat down to 8kts, and explained to her how this would be our new cruising speed. I also explained the financial necessity for this change.

Sorry to run on, but I thought this would be a good first post to start my trawler education. I promise to repay this forum by offering my advice to future newbies with the knowledge I gain here.

Thanks,

Jeff
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