Sailing vs. Trawlering

FF said:

"No question. If I was crossing oceans, I'd do it in a sailboat."

Larger sailboats are for long term distance cruising ,

as folks get older they want to go to distant shores less , and want all the comforts of a dirt house while afloat.

As we get older spending 14 hours stuffed into the roach coach , rather than 5 months sailing somewhere seems to be more popular.

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What is a 'roach coach'?? a RV?

cardude01 said:

Larry,

I’ve been watching the Sailing LaVagabond YouTube channel for awhile now, and they are are currently sailing across the Atlantic headed towards Florida. Their new boat is a 45’ Outremer catamaran, and it sure seems fast and stable. On the last video they talk about surfing down waves at 19 knots. Is that safe? Would you be comfortable ocean cruising on a cat? Is reefing early and often even more important on a cat because of all the stress on the rig?

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Outremers are one of the worlds greatest boats

dhays said:

I would not want to be in that type of water in a cat. If it goes turtle, all is over. You can knock down a monohull sailboat and it will come back up. If you roll it, you will have lost your rig, but you will still be floating.

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Your boat would capsize and sink long before you ever got near "that type of water" LOL

Make the choice based on what you want to do most of.
We circumnavigated a 46 ft cat and absolutely the best choice for that trip in my mind.
Sure they are fast (we surfed to 22kn so 19 is a little lame). However the best thing is how comfortable they are underway and at anchor.
We hardly stayed at marinas at all, mostly because there weren’t many, but also because we were happier anchored out.

Now we own a 36 ft fast powercat because my favourite cruising ground is 45 miles from the marina and I don’t have much spare time at present.
Next summer we will take it around New Zealand, mostly to cruise Fiordland.
It is by no means the ideal boat for that trip, but it is what we own, so off we go.

But next up in July this year we have chartered a trawler for a month out of Ketchikan for our first time in the PNW.
I’m told the boat is happiest at 7-8kn and seems by far the best choice we could get hold of for that trip.
Really getting excited about that trip.

geoleo said:

Your a little off-- "older sailors don't get fed up with motoring their sailboats---- they get fed up with being older!!!!:lol:

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For us it was nothing to do with age but more the reality that a million dollars would still not get us a sailing boat with the comfort and load carrying ability we wanted as a full time lveaboard.

If the boat existed then the loads to sail it would be brutal on a couple and ongoing maintenance to stay fast would keep us poor.

I'm another convert from sail to trawler. On a pretty summer's day on Nantucket Sound, I envy the sailors around me. But for live-aboard life and the ability to cruise directly to my next destination, I prefer my trawler. Plus, as has been noted, living aboard a sailboat is not unlike being confined to a fiberglass pup tent.
George

"Would you be comfortable ocean cruising on a cat? Is reefing early and often even more important on a cat because of all the stress on the rig?"

The rig will stay up in a cat , right thru the capsize .

A cat is stable inverted .

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"What is a 'roach coach'??"


The "roach coach" is an economy tourist seat in the back of an aircraft.

Flying 10-12 hours should give 5,000 miles ,

sailing at 100-125 miles per day , 5,000miles is a lot of days!

Not sure if the fuel savings is an issue for me. The several hundred thousand dollar difference in the purchase price can buy a lot of fuel. I do love sailing, but found when cruising on our past sailboats we motored a lot. However a day sail around the Bay was the best!

Simi 60 said:

For us it was nothing to do with age but more the reality that a million dollars would still not get us a sailing boat with the comfort and load carrying ability we wanted as a full time lveaboard.

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Really?? I always thought it was the opposite. I see used sailboats as generally being cheaper than a similarly sized motor boat. It's not uncommon to see older sailboats in the 40' range for WAY under $100k.

With a million dollar budget I'd be willing to bet you'd get a NICE sailing boat. But it may be 20 or 30 years old.

> the comfort and load carrying ability

of a nice trawler is just not available in similarly sized sailboats, have to go what almost double LOA?

And if you then look at comparable **pricing** vs condition, the bargain sailboat probably needs more $$ work, **if** you also want to actually get out there sailing as well.

South of Heaven said:

Really?? I always thought it was the opposite. I see used sailboats as generally being cheaper than a similarly sized motor boat. It's not uncommon to see older sailboats in the 40' range for WAY under $100k.

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Think volume or capacity instead of length. A 70' sailboat might be equal in volume to a 40 trawler. (Just guessing, but you prob'ly get the point.)

-Chris

"Our solution will be to buy a day-sailer or racing dinghy to get our sailing fix. But I will never say that sailing is any less worthy a boating pursuit than trawlering." Well said. Boating offers an equal opportunity for those who enjoy being out on the water, whatever their craft.

Three situations in which I would prefer sail:

Just out for the day enjoying the ride.
Crossing an ocean in less than a 60 foot boat
Spending years in the Eastern Caribbean where the wind is always on the beam and you cannot sell a trawler and have difficulty getting some systems repaired

Other than these I find for many if not most voyages the sailboats are motor sailing.

As to costs. If you actually travel with a sailboat the cost of replacing/maintaining the rigging and sails exceeds the cost of the diesel used by a full displacement trawler.

On flat water I usually just motor. Unfortunately that is rare around here so sails make the trip much more comfortable and safe.
Racing sail boats doesn’t interest me though It would be like racing trawlers.

Sailing is an art motor boating kind of like driving a floating truck thru nice scenery -so far---lol

porman said:

My sailing friends always glare at me when we are out cruising together and I am nice and dry and warm and drinking hot chocolate while they are in their foul weather gear in a cold, wet cockpit.

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Well said. The exact reason we sold our 41’ sailboat and purchased our tug.

Pgitug said:

Well said. The exact reason we sold our 41’ sailboat and purchased our tug.

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Really? In Florida? When I was sailing there, I envied the motorboat guys sitting in their air conditioned pilothouse while I was sweating in my shorts in the cockpit....

It's all "boating".

Pgitug said:

Well said. The exact reason we sold our 41’ sailboat and purchased our tug.

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Agree ... I'm an old sailor, and I suffer from cold and wet weather, therefore motorboat and get comfort and a longer season at sea. Photo last weekend on the first trip, sea +1 C ° air +3 C ° and Osprey came to nest here from South Africa (bird has a sensor), a long way to fly every year for their summer cottage.


NBs

Sailing vs. Trawler

I sailed for 30 yrs. Had a 25, 30, 38 ft. sailboats. I love sailing. If you go anywhere, you motor or at best motor sail. You can just go out for a nice day sail.
Once I made the switch to a trawler, the first thing I noticed is we actually use the boat more. I have a friend that has a philosophy, he MUST leave the dock at least 1 time each week. That's a great idea. We actually do that with a trawler, not so much with a sail boat. Not sure why?
This si my 2nd trawler. The 1st was a 27 Ranger Tug. Great boat, just a little too small for us. Plus we have no desire to trailer the boat. Now we have a Mainship 34 Trawler. Love this boat. I plan on cruising Charlotte Harbor and really enjoying ourselves.
I am not one of those "snobby type" sailors. I know a few. Once I went over to "the dark side". we were no longer included in a lot of club events. I joined a different club, great people, sailors, fishermen, trawler people, power cats, power boats. All boaters are welcome. Much much better,
I love being out there on the water, doesn't matter how.
KEEP ON KEEPIN ON

As one straddling the fence, I don't consider them the same thing, other than they both involve water. An entirely different experience. Some good and bad in each, but different.

Have done both. Sailing pros. Cheap, romantic, and in some cases quieter. Cons wet and cold, wet and hot, still have to motor 50% of the time, heeled under sail.
Trawler cons fuel pros AC, Ice maker, stove oven refrigerator freezer dry and warm dry and cool no heeling WAY MORE ROOM

Capt.Brett said:

Have done both. Sailing pros. Cheap, romantic, and in some cases quieter. Cons wet and cold, wet and hot, still have to motor 50% of the time, heeled under sail.
Trawler cons fuel pros AC, Ice maker, stove oven refrigerator freezer dry and warm dry and cool no heeling WAY MORE ROOM

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True with some sailboats, but there are other options as well.

When sailing in my mate's Lagoon 44 cat, there's no heeling, plenty of room including 3 full queen sized berths & 3 heads, plenty of refrigeration (incl a wine fridge & icemaker), a/c & heat, faster than many trawler type boats even under sail. Yes, with no wind you travel under power, but that's not really a problem. Just furl the sails and start the engines. It takes a couple of minutes.

I think my next boat will be a sail cat, but I would like one with decent sized engine compartments that I could get in and crawl all the way around the engines. Plus want direct drive, not sail drives, for simplicity. Also would like one with no balsa core.

I would really like to have more of a motorsailer catamaran, but I haven’t really found one yet. This Bamba 50 is kind of like that, but damn expensive and kind of clunky looking. Not sure how it would preform in a big sea.



The older Leopard 47 cats are direct drive and seem to have decent engine space. Wife wants a fly bridge but I’d rather have the helm down near the cockpit for better line handling, ease of getting to the salon.

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/200...tates?refSource=enhanced listing#.Wu1-vhZOmEc

AusCan said:

True with some sailboats, but there are other options as well.

When sailing in my mate's Lagoon 44 cat, there's no heeling, plenty of room including 3 full queen sized berths & 3 heads, plenty of refrigeration (incl a wine fridge & icemaker), a/c & heat, faster than many trawler type boats even under sail. Yes, with no wind you travel under power, but that's not really a problem. Just furl the sails and start the engines. It takes a couple of minutes.

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Opinion from a cat sailor and owner of many years.

They can do that but a half decent sailing cat does cost and a decent one costs a lot more again..

We have a few friends with 40 to 50 ft sailing cats, some of them live aboard and as they do actually sail, they are always weight conscious and that weight saving becomes a mania.

Every one of them is envious when they come over for a visit at the extra space, level of comfort and total disregard for weight saving that we enjoy and then seem almost angry that we spent considerably less dollars to get it compared to a half decent cat let alone a good one.

You're right about the value for money Simi; cats are expensive.
But it's tough to find anything that matches the value for money that you got with your boat. Your Milkraft appears to be about the best deal for a liveaboard boat I've seen in Australia for many years. Deals like that don't come up every day.

Sister ship with a Gardner is still for sale after about 12 mths on the market
More than we paid but still considerably less than a cat.

When I sailed in So Cal a good friend said it best:

It was lot more fun to sail to Catalina. But with the Trawler it was more fun being there.

I was a rag man for 17 years, after living aboard the sailboat I went trawler and never looked back.

It really depends on your requirements.

I was originally looking for a trawler with a $50K budget. The boat had to be seaworthy and comfortable in unprotected water (as we have no local protected water). I also wanted a secondary power source as we have no sea-tow service.

In that price range, the typical trawlers in Australia were Taiwanese 30 footers with a semi displacement hull, and a very uncomfortable ride when things get rough. Most needed plenty of work which I didn't mind, but there was nothing I could do to make them comfortable in 4-6 foot waves, and safe in an 8-10 foot waves.

A larger boat with active stabilizers was well out of my price range.

When a locally built motor sailor come up, it fit the requirements and budget perfectly. The hull is very seaworthy but rolly, the sails steady the roll and are my backup propulsion. It ticked all the boxes perfectly for my requirements.

If I lived somewhere with plenty of protected water to cruise in, I'd possibly choose a typical trawler and enjoy the bigger cockpit and additional engine space and a flybridge. Here, those types of boats don't seem to get out very often.

SeaMoose said:

When I sailed in So Cal a good friend said it best:

It was lot more fun to sail to Catalina. But with the Trawler it was more fun being there.

I was a rag man for 17 years, after living aboard the sailboat I went trawler and never looked back.

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I think that is our perception as well, after going from a 42 foot sailboat to a 42 foot motoryacht.