Definition of trawler?

What are the defining characteristics of a trawler?

I thought a trawler was a boat with a full displacement hull built to move economically at abut 70% of the theoretical hull speed. The hull shape would be optimized for efficiency at less than hull speed. Trawlers would be in the lower range of horsepower per ton with not nearly enough power to plane. Trawlers would slower, wider, have more room and carrying capacity than planning hulls but burn much less fuel. Is there a min or max size to be considered a trawler?

In my internet searches I have found boats listed as trawlers shown on plane or described as having Down East shaped hulls. Do you consider those trawlers?

So what is your definition of a trawler and what do you feel are the pros and cons of trawlers.

Could we talk about anchors instead?

I think your analysis above is as good as any, and the word “trawler” has been beaten and abused by many to give an impression or suggestion of sea-worthiness and durability to buyers. Today, it’s so widely used that I’m not sure how much is left of the original intention.

I would not get too hung up on the definition of a trawler. A lot of people use trawler when their boats are not technically a trawler. I call mine a trawler but it really is a semi displacement cruiser. So what? We run it at mostly trawler speeds. It is easier to describe as a trawler. And definitely don’t ask about anchors...

Oh no, opening up this can of worms again. LOL

Can I be a part time trawler? At <8 Kn my Ranger is a fuel sipping displacement trawler. At 14+ kn it's a planing cruiser. Anything between those speeds and I'm just wasting fuel for little return.

Chris,
To adequately describe the true, real, definition of "trawler" as in reality it should be used by everyone, takes about 14 single spaced pages with much technical lingo .
What you are describing with "a boat with a full displacement hull built to move economically at abut 70% of the theoretical hull speed" is a very limiting definition, although maybe technically how it all started.
My Nordic Tug, even though it is capable of planing (barely and certainly not efficiently), is always operated at displacement speeds. Most "Tug" owners operate that way, therefore, even though a semi-displacement hull, it can and probably should be called a "trawler". Boats like the NT were probably the first "non-traditional" trawler to be included in the category. Now, some even call Carvers (and other boats that plane well) trawlers if the owner decides to operate most of the time at displacement speeds. To me, that is "stretching" the meaning, but that is just my opinion.

For me, I don't get "hung up" on the word "trawler", I look at each boat (brand/model) for their individual characteristics and then decide if that boat meets my needs and how I want to operate my boat. If I was contemplating going "off shore", then I would probably want what might be considered a true trawler such as a Nordhvn, Kadey Krogen, etc.
My 2 cents, don't get too worked up by definitions and look carefully at what will best meet your needs, wants, don't want, etc. and get what works for you!

firehoser75 said:

Chris,
To adequately describe the true, real, definition of "trawler" as in reality it should be used by everyone, takes about 14 single spaced pages with much technical lingo .
What you are describing with "a boat with a full displacement hull built to move economically at abut 70% of the theoretical hull speed" is a very limiting definition, although maybe technically how it all started.
My Nordic Tug, even though it is capable of planing (barely and certainly not efficiently), is always operated at displacement speeds. Most "Tug" owners operate that way, therefore, even though a semi-displacement hull, it can and probably should be called a "trawler". Boats like the NT were probably the first "non-traditional" trawler to be included in the category. Now, some even call Carvers (and other boats that plane well) trawlers if the owner decides to operate most of the time at displacement speeds. To me, that is "stretching" the meaning, but that is just my opinion.

For me, I don't get "hung up" on the word "trawler", I look at each boat (brand/model) for their individual characteristics and then decide if that boat meets my needs and how I want to operate my boat. If I was contemplating going "off shore", then I would probably want what might be considered a true trawler such as a Nordhvn, Kadey Krogen, etc.
My 2 cents, don't get too worked up by definitions and look carefully at what will best meet your needs, wants, don't want, etc. and get what works for you!

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As myself an American Tug owner and you a Nordic Tug owner can say is, we reserve the fuel burning speed until it is necessary to race a tidal change at our designated safe spot for the evening and MAYBE to avoid the negative weather change.
Step 1, loosen the fuel fill caps so we dont draw a vacuum, crushing the fuel tanks when running at max speed. LOL

Now.... what is the best anchor for use on a semi displacement, planning Trawler with stabilizers and a winged keel???

Ready, set, GO.

hee, hee, hee!

Olebird said:

Now.... what is the best anchor for use on a semi displacement, planning Trawler with stabilizers and a winged keel???

Ready, set, GO.

hee, hee, hee!

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LOL
Brand of boat and displacement is a place to start.
Better get some popcorn and a drink, you too have opened up another can of 'something.'

I was hoping to talk about how to figure out what each boat does well and not so well. Since if you listen to the people selling the boats they are all great at everything.

For now we could leave out what operational qualities are most important and just talk about how to identify the characteristics of a boat and where it falls on the trade off scale. A tall order I realize but that is my quest.

There used to be a real meaning to the word trawler. Now it is applied to almost every boat including real trawlers and planing boats which have nothing to do with a real trawler.

Strictly speaking your description is close but even so when I learned what it really meant it was a FISHING vessel that dragged a net behind to catch fish, not a seiner, not a gill netter, not a troller and not a pleasure vessel. And YES, those trawlers almost always had full displacement hulls.

Thank the marketing folks and people like me who picked it up before we understood the real meaning.

There is no point worrying about it anymore because the word has no real meaning any longer.

C lectric said:

Strictly speaking your description is close but even so when I learned what it really meant it was a FISHING vessel that dragged a net behind to catch fish, not a seiner, not a gill netter, not a troller and not a pleasure vessel. And YES, those trawlers almost always had full displacement hulls.

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ADK,


All kidding aside, that is a tall order. To get any meaningful answers, I suggest you narrow the width of your trade off scale: comfort, size, crew req, economy, speed, range, maintenance cost, usage, etc.


Trawler has become an overly broad class - like "pickup" ... there are 1/4 ton Nissans and 2 ton 4 door King Ranch -- apples and oranges.



Old axiom, "How do you tell when a boat salesman is stretching it - his lips are moving!"

I have a good friend (sailor) who likes to call my Albin-25 a "Mini-Trawler. As she was built in Sweden 45 years ago, predating the current term for recreational "trawlers", I tell him she's really a Scandinavian-style Motor Cruiser.

Trawler was a marketing term created back in the 70's and 80's during the oil embargoes and high fuel prices.

Fuel efficient, shippy looking boats were built in Taiwan to be sold in the US and called "Trawlers". They were inexpensive for what you got and thousands were sold in the US.

US manufacturers caught on and started manufacturing similar type boats. Marshall Californians, Mainship Nantucket, Bayliner Explorers and many others were sold.

Fast forward to 2019 and the term doesn't fit all the different types of vessels available.

For me, the term Trawler is more of a lifestyle description than a description of the boat; slow, fuel efficient, comfortable riding, roomy, self sufficient cruising.

Check out the search feature at the top of the page.

PLEASE!

syjos said:

For me, the term Trawler is more of a lifestyle description than a description of the boat; slow, fuel efficient, comfortable riding, roomy, self sufficient cruising.

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I agree 100% with this!

In all practicality the word “trawler” today and here on TF means a motor vessel comfortable for extended time aboard

AdkChris said:

I was hoping to talk about how to figure out what each boat does well and not so well. Since if you listen to the people selling the boats they are all great at everything.

For now we could leave out what operational qualities are most important and just talk about how to identify the characteristics of a boat and where it falls on the trade off scale. A tall order I realize but that is my quest.

Click to expand...

Honorable quest, but maybe more useful to just ignore the word "trawler" when you're looking at ads and focus on engine sizes and hull descriptions (where the latter is offered).

Small engine, displacement hull, good at going slow. Larger engine(s) and semi-displacement hull, a compromise. Large engines and a planing hull, good at going fast.

Latter category can go slow pretty well, too. Ours is NOT a trawler.

-Chris

It depends on where you are. Down here, if you say own a trawler, the next question is, how long have you been a shrimper?

The late George Buehler recognized this marketing schism and corruption of the term "Trawler" 25+ years ago and wrote "The Troller Yacht - how to cross an ocean without getting wet and without going broke.". George, a self avowed curmudgeon, was pretty strict in his interpretation of a "Trawler." I'd say less than 1% of the boats owned by TF posters would fit his definition (probably a lot less than 1%). My Willard 36 might slip in under the wire only because it was designed by Wm Garden, one of the classic West Coast designers.

A good read might be to spend quality time on Ken William's blog. Ken has been a prolific and transparent writer for years, and recently went from Nordhavn to Grand Banks. Although his budget is a two-comma's beyond mine, his thinking is sound and absent rules. He just expresses what works for him in his circumstances.

I once owned a Uniflite 42 ACMY. For all practical purposes, there was little difference between it and a GB42. Both carried 300hp engines and approx 500g diesel. GB has a finer and higher bow, but that's about it. For marketing purposes, one is a trawler, the other is motoryacht.

syjos said:

For me, the term Trawler is more of a lifestyle description than a description of the boat; slow, fuel efficient, comfortable riding, roomy, self sufficient cruising.

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I think similarly to this. To me, when someone says "Trawler", I think of a boat that's built to be comfortable for extended time aboard, prioritizes comfort and practicality over weight savings, is built to run slowly and efficiently most of the time even if it can go faster, etc.

By my own definition, my boat is not a trawler. It's got similar usable space to a lot of similar size trawlers, but the helm arrangement isn't quite ideal for all-weather running (although it's doable), it's significantly lighter than most similarly sized trawlers (and with some sacrifices as a result), and as much as it does just fine running slowly, the hull design is very much intended to get up and run on plane most of the time. And because of that last point, in a following sea you're pretty much forced to power your way into good handling, as it becomes a mess if you get too slow (small rudders, square transom, not a lot of keel).

Moby Nick said:

I have a good friend (sailor) who likes to call my Albin-25 a "Mini-Trawler. As she was built in Sweden 45 years ago, predating the current term for recreational "trawlers", I tell him she's really a Scandinavian-style Motor Cruiser.

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I had an A25 for 6 years before the Willard purchase. I named her “Trawlerette”. Kind-of a way of saying “small trawler”. I lived to regret that name for several reasons.
Not a “motor cruiser” unless she’s actually powered by an electric motor.

Trawler;
An extra heavy pleasure craft with a hull designed for slow speed.

As far as electric motors are concerned, I submit that the term "Motor Vessel" and it's abbreviation "MV" is way more popular than the term "Engine Vessel" in reference to power boats.

Nomad Willy said:

I had an A25 for 6 years before the Willard purchase. I named her “Trawlerette”. Kind-of a way of saying “small trawler”. I lived to regret that name for several reasons.
Not a “motor cruiser” unless she’s actually powered by an electric motor.

Trawler;
An extra heavy pleasure craft with a hull designed for slow speed.

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I should add, but the edit bar is already gone.

That there conceivably be a trawler w OB power. Unable to plane of course as it would be too heavy or over powered for it’s displacement. Power is not a significant trawler but I’m sure there are gas trawlers out there. Probably auite a few older boats like about 1950 Ed Monk boats .. mostly bridgedeck cruisers. Speaking of cruisers that’s what trawlers were called in the 50’s ... Heavy Cruisers. That’s what they really are and in a two word definition heavy cruiser nails it. But in this confused day it’s very vogue to toss out words and substitute new one’s like “absolutely” for “yes”. Yes is so much more efficient but people need to feel like they are cool and the vogue substitutes get them that.

One thing in favor of “trawler” is that it’s a real name. I think. Whereas heavy cruiser serves only to amplify or modify the word cruiser. And also heavy cruiser is two words. I assume that’s a negative.

Moby Nick said:

As far as electric motors are concerned, I submit that the term "Motor Vessel" and it's abbreviation "MV" is way more popular than the term "Engine Vessel" in reference to power boats.

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Yes that’s very true but then we tend to substitute “motor” when we really should be using “engine”. If you were posting about your engine in your boat using the word motor would be not so good english. It would just be the wrong word.

We [currently] have:

34', 1977 - Tollycraft tri cabin "Pleasure Cruiser Boat" ... with twin screw inboards
19', 1988 - Bluewater cuddy cabin "Ski Boat" ... with single inboard/outboard
15', 1975 - Crestliner "Runabout" ... with Johnson outboard

Trawler schmaller! Notice, in our opinion, we have no trawler... even though many persons like to term our 34' Tolly as a Trawler.

The only true "Trawler" is a working boat for the means of collecting [trawling for] seafood for human consumption.

That said: Advertising guru's decades ago realized that by affixing the word "Trawler" onto pleasure boat promotions they could create a mystique of sea-romance into the general public's minds! The word "Trawler" worked well to increase sales! Now a days nearly every type of medium to large sized "Pleasure Cruiser Boat", that has engines for its main power source, is too often called a "Trawler".

!!!!

mvweebles said:

I once owned a Uniflite 42 ACMY. For all practical purposes, there was little difference between it and a GB42. Both carried 300hp engines and approx 500g diesel. GB has a finer and higher bow, but that's about it. For marketing purposes, one is a trawler, the other is motoryacht.

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Just FYI, Grand Banks has never marketed their boats as trawlers. They marketed them as "Dependable Diesel Cruisers" for most of their history. They are now calling them "Luxury Performance Yachts".....strangely looking more and more like sportfishing yachts(but with covered cockpits). But for some reason in almost all of our heads, GB is what pops up in our mind's eye when "trawler" is mentioned.

The one company I know that definitely took advantage of the term is Mainship. It is right there on the side of the boat. "Mainship Trawlers". I had a Mainship Pilot that is NOT a trawler but there it was....plastered on the side of my boat.

To the OP...a trawler is a fishing boat. And more specifically down here on the gulf coast, it is a shrimp boat. If you hear a tow boat captain or any other larger commercial vessel use the word "trawler" on the radio, down here they are referring to a shrimp boat. With all of that said, your further clarification of your question leads me to many questions...as in what are you looking for??? I could(and should) write a book on the subject. My point being, the answer to your clarified question is a very long one. I just bought my fourth power boat(and still own my third...eeeek). And the only one that comes close is the first one(the Prairie)....even though the Mainship had "Trawler" written on the side. All of my Powerboats have gotten bigger and faster. I reckon I will slow down at some point.... . BUT I enjoy being "out there" just as much as the people that are going slower....maybe even more...

IMO, you can call your boat design a "fred" for all I care.
My 34ft American Tug is often referred to as a fast trawler.
I call it, 'needs a bigger hanging closet'.

Weebles wrote;
“I once owned a Uniflite 42 ACMY. For all practical purposes, there was little difference between it and a GB42. Both carried 300hp engines and approx 500g diesel. GB has a finer and higher bow, but that's about it. For marketing purposes, one is a trawler, the other is motoryacht.”

There is a profound difference. In a sentence the GB is a SD hull (clearly so) and the Uniflite is a planing hull also clearly so. And beyond the weight that’s the most identifying feature of these designs. Being a planing hull the U42 is not a trawler. A big planing hull run slowly does not make a trawler.

One could say one is a cruiser and one a heavy cruiser.

The Grand Banks is a beautiful, capable boat but, the only way I would own one is if there were no exterior teak and no teak decks.