For Sale 55’ Steel Trawler

Offering my very unique steel trawler. This boat was originally built in 1948 as a “bum boat” or floating convenience store. In 1996 it was completely reconstructed by a shipyard in Wisconsin. The boat has always been kept in the sweet waters of the Great Lakes until a few years ago. We bought this great boat in Rhode Island and after some upgrades sailed her to Norfolk VA. The twin CAT 3208 NA engines only have 2300 hours on them. The boat has been stored on the hard for the last year due to my health issues. It has many electronic upgrades with Raymarine touch screen chart plotters, Flo-Scan diesel monitoring system and an 800W solar charging system. It boasts a 16K BTU Webasto Marine AC. The 12’ AB aluminum RIB and Mercury 4-Stroke el. start were purchased new in 2015. The boat needs some repainting and interior design, but it is pretty much an open canvas for anyone looking for a classic design with gorgeous lines and tons of deck space. Drawing only 3 feet is also a huge advantage and its solid built weighs in at around 50 tons. If you are interested, please pm me and I will send you many more pictures, a drone video and other information.

Very nice

How is the Hull condition?
Any price in mind?

$$-?

That is one cool craft. Fair warning, they are going to gang up and bust your ….., you did not put down a price.
It's easy to see the quality time and effort you put into her. She's got to be a "head turner". Best of luck selling her.

Pricing

I’m sorry, I did not include the price. I’m looking for around $75K, not including the dinghy. The hull is 1/4” on the sides and 5/16” on the bottom. Hull condition is good, a few dents and ripples are part of the nature of the steel hull. I had it blasted all the way to the bare metal two years ago and started with fresh primer and bottom paint (total of 5 layers). Inside the engine room the paint is bad. There is surface rust and I would recommend drip less shaft seals and new epoxy coating.
Cruising speed is great between 8 and 12 knots where she’ll burn about 3.5 Gal/hr. At idle she will move at almost 7 knots burning a total of 0.6 Gal/hr.

xcelsior I think your helm is great. The way it should be. The helmsman should have nothing in front of him except a wheel, a compass to steer a course to, and big window to surveil the world. All the distracting stuff is secondary importance and is readily available by tilting your head.

Interior? Engine room? We need a lot more photos and details if possible.

Tate
Are you seriously interested in this vessel? If so a few PMs would get all your questions answered I betcha.

For $75k somebody could have an interesting time "interviewing" this vessel, in person is the best way.

Yeah, I wouldn't have asked if I was not. I also sent a PM to the seller but don't know why people don't just post all the details up front so everyone can see/evaluate and not waste anyone's time.

XCELSIOR said:

.
Cruising speed is great between 8 and 12 knots where she’ll burn about 3.5 Gal/hr. (13.5 litres)At idle she will move at almost 7 knots burning a total of 0.6 Gal/hr.(2.27litres)

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Really?
That'd be each surely?

Well, whatever she burns, she sure looks good doing it.

$75K! Are you serious?

ssobol said:

$75K! Are you serious?

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They haven't responded on the thread or to my PMs and the poster has only 2 posts. I'm assuming this is bogus at this point. The boat looks nice from the outside, but who knows what dragons are within or if this was just a joke from the start?

He did say he had health issues....maybe he is not feeling well...

ssobol said:

$75K! Are you serious?

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Yes! Seriously high or seriously low? I believe my vessel has every bit of style and charm and yes, she will need some work. But technically I would have no second thoughts of taking here on a few hundred mike trip. Changing the port rudder bushing and installing dripless seals will be a good idea, but other than that she is a great ship

XCELSIOR said:

Yes! Seriously high or seriously low? I believe my vessel has every bit of style and charm and yes, she will need some work. But technically I would have no second thoughts of taking here on a few hundred mike trip. Changing the port rudder bushing and installing dripless seals will be a good idea, but other than that she is a great ship

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Not bogus, but I have a very demanding job, so I apologize for not responding immediately to all the messages, I will do my best to catch up.

More information

Please send me an email to xcelsior@tornadex.com and I will gladly send you more pictures a video and whatever other information you are seeking. Unfortunately I do not live near the boat, so additional specific pictures may be difficult to get until I make another trip to VA.

Tate said:

They haven't responded on the thread or to my PMs and the poster has only 2 posts. I'm assuming this is bogus at this point. The boat looks nice from the outside, but who knows what dragons are within or if this was just a joke from the start?

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Humm, quite the call out on your part after 11 posts

sunchaser said:

Humm, quite the call out on your part after 11 posts

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The difference is that I'm not posting advertisements. Seller has responded, so I've moved from dubious to optimistic.

healhustler said:

Well, whatever she burns, she sure looks good doing it.

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I do agree, she does look the part but it seems not just a little bit optimistic buy waaaaaaaaaaay optimistic

On ours of longer waterline and similar weight with a 14 litre single 6 the difference between 8 and 12 is probably 15lph at 8 to 65lph at 12

Surely 2x 10.5 litre v8s (21 litre v16) has to suck more, not considerably less.

Am I missing something?

.

If you are thinking the price is too good to be true, better think again. An 80 year old vessel on the hard is a challenge. Anything that could go wrong already has - longer ago than anyone alive remembers.

Where is she located?

Simi 60 said:

I do agree, she does look the part but it seems not just a little bit optimistic buy waaaaaaaaaaay optimistic

On ours of longer waterline and similar weight with a 14 litre single 6 the difference between 8 and 12 is probably 15lph at 8 to 65lph at 12

Surely 2x 10.5 litre v8s (21 litre v16) has to suck more, not considerably less.

Am I missing something?

.

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I am quite certain your situation must be different. If my boat idles at 600 rpm and sips only 2.7lph, yet she moves at almost 7knots, that would indicate that the motors are barely doing any work. That's also the reason why a larger motor generally runs more efficient than a smaller one, provided they are both required to do the same amount of work at the lower end of the spectrum. What rpm are you running at both the speeds you have mentioned?

Ben said:

Where is she located?

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Norfolk VA

XCELSIOR said:

I am quite certain your situation must be different. If my boat idles at 600 rpm and sips only 2.7lph, yet she moves at almost 7knots, that would indicate that the motors are barely doing any work. That's also the reason why a larger motor generally runs more efficient than a smaller one, provided they are both required to do the same amount of work at the lower end of the spectrum.?

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Your fuel burn interested me because 1litre/ nm has always been considered the holy grail for passage making and you seem to be smashing that

I was happy enough using 2 considering out windage and weight.

. What rpm are you running at both the speeds you have mentioned

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Our 855 Cummins is 800 rpm idle says the tach and the manual
Flat water , slack tide and clean bum we get
In gear about 5.5 knots
At 1100 we get 7.1
At 1250 we get 8.2 and that is our 15lph, 2 litres/ nm calc.
We tend to do passages at around 1150 rpm and 7.5 knots

At 1750 we get up around the 11.5 knot mark and according to the specs that's up around 65 lph
Only ever had it there for a few minutes to see what it did when we got her.


Some 3208 fuel burn numbers here that I looked at
https://www.44mlb.com/fuel-consumption-charts.html

XCELSIOR said:

I’m sorry, I did not include the price. I’m looking for around $75K, not including the dinghy. The hull is 1/4” on the sides and 5/16” on the bottom. Hull condition is good, a few dents and ripples are part of the nature of the steel hull. I had it blasted all the way to the bare metal two years ago and started with fresh primer and bottom paint (total of 5 layers). Inside the engine room the paint is bad. There is surface rust and I would recommend drip less shaft seals and new epoxy coating.
Cruising speed is great between 8 and 12 knots where she’ll burn about 3.5 Gal/hr. At idle she will move at almost 7 knots burning a total of 0.6 Gal/hr.

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Folks, after some concerns about the accuracy of the above statement I went back to search my records and found that I had in fact quoted the single engine burn rate. I apologize profusely if I have misled anyone. The rate quoted here is the rate per engine. Once again, sorry for getting this confused.

Boat said:

If you are thinking the price is too good to be true, better think again. An 80 year old vessel on the hard is a challenge. Anything that could go wrong already has - longer ago than anyone alive remembers.

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I would normally agree with your statement, however this boat was completely rebuilt by a professional shipyard in 1996. So except for the HIN it is in fact a 1996 Vessel.

Your boat looks great. I caught myself thinking it looked too good to be true. I wish I were ready to buy. That boat and me were made for each other.

See why I said what I said?


That said, I wonder about your draft of 3' too? Gotta be a little more than that?

Great looking boat and seems to be priced right but I do have one or two thoughts about your ad.

Post a few interior pics.
Verify the draft(just seems way off to me).
You mentioned paint issues on the inside. Here's the thing if you mention an issue but don't show it in a picture everyone assumes the absolute worst which isn't usually the case. You say blank slate and my mind goes to a boat with NO interior,etc.

I know you said to contact you for pictures but I can tell you first hand I skipped over a boat I would have purchased because I like many other people have short attention spans and wasn't impressed by the 2 or 3 pictures they posted. I saw the boat after I had already bought one and was upset I missed out.



Not for a second do I think you are trying to mislead anyone about the boat and you seem sincere(which is why I felt the need to post).

More Pictures

Here some more pictures