fractalphreak
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2018
- Messages
- 318
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Northwest Dream
- Vessel Make
- Davis Vashon 42 Trawler (Defever design)
Hello from another new member.
My wife and I are making a next big step in our boating lives; its time for a trawler. We've basically raised our kids on boat vacations in the San Juan Islands on our Reinell 30' cabin cruiser. The Great Escape has twin gas engines and limited range so and we've never strayed far from our home marina. Its such a gas hog we have rarely strayed far from our adopted home port of Anacortes, WA. We have always operated the boat basically as a trawler, traveling at hull speed (6.5 knots) everywhere we go, planning critical or long transits to take advantage of current, etc. The kids are grown but we've decided its time to step up to a larger boat with greater range and endurance. We plan to do more cruising into British Columbia; one of our goals is SE Alaska!
This summer we are selling Great Escape and will be in the market for a trawler. I've had great success learning in other types of forums so I'm hoping that this one will be a good starting point for learning more detail about trawlers than I have picked up in the past.
We've long dream-shopped, looking at trawlers we have come across in our travels and on the internet; we are feeling fairly confident we'd like to find an older trawler in the 40-41 ft range. We have to accept the possibility of buying an older boat that needs teak decks removed or other work, my son and I have rebuilt a 19 ft Bayliner Cuddy from the hull skin up, so I have a basic idea what that will entail.
We hope to find a couple in our area that would be willing to let us tag along on an afternoon cruise - we want to confirm what handling a boat that size would be like for the two of us. (After all, GE has no keel and can be a handful in a lot of wind - a 40 ft trawler is 10 feet longer, 3-4 feet wider, and 2- 2.5X the weight we have come to be used to.)
Thank you all for hosting such a welcoming forum, and you'll be hearing quite a bit from me!
David
My wife and I are making a next big step in our boating lives; its time for a trawler. We've basically raised our kids on boat vacations in the San Juan Islands on our Reinell 30' cabin cruiser. The Great Escape has twin gas engines and limited range so and we've never strayed far from our home marina. Its such a gas hog we have rarely strayed far from our adopted home port of Anacortes, WA. We have always operated the boat basically as a trawler, traveling at hull speed (6.5 knots) everywhere we go, planning critical or long transits to take advantage of current, etc. The kids are grown but we've decided its time to step up to a larger boat with greater range and endurance. We plan to do more cruising into British Columbia; one of our goals is SE Alaska!
This summer we are selling Great Escape and will be in the market for a trawler. I've had great success learning in other types of forums so I'm hoping that this one will be a good starting point for learning more detail about trawlers than I have picked up in the past.
We've long dream-shopped, looking at trawlers we have come across in our travels and on the internet; we are feeling fairly confident we'd like to find an older trawler in the 40-41 ft range. We have to accept the possibility of buying an older boat that needs teak decks removed or other work, my son and I have rebuilt a 19 ft Bayliner Cuddy from the hull skin up, so I have a basic idea what that will entail.
We hope to find a couple in our area that would be willing to let us tag along on an afternoon cruise - we want to confirm what handling a boat that size would be like for the two of us. (After all, GE has no keel and can be a handful in a lot of wind - a 40 ft trawler is 10 feet longer, 3-4 feet wider, and 2- 2.5X the weight we have come to be used to.)
Thank you all for hosting such a welcoming forum, and you'll be hearing quite a bit from me!
David
