Mainship 430 Trawler w CAT 350

Hi, Just started to look and have always liked the MS430 for a loop boat and maybe some Carribean Island hopping. I have seen comments on the boat being equipped with Yanmars and it sounds like the 370 hp is the popular chose, I have not found much pro/cons of the this boat equiped with CAT 350 hp. Any comment would be appreciated.

storage

I'm interested in a Mainship 43 as well. Don't know about the engine issue but was surprised how little storage, particularly for clothes, these boats have. Any owners care to weigh in?

What are you using for a comparison boat? Going to look at one this week so I will take a more in-depth look. Unfortunately none of the listed units have good pictures of closets and drawers. Given the open floorplan and abundance of windows I guess you may have to sacrifice something.

We have the two cabin version of the 430 aft cabin. Not a lot of hanging clothes space, just one closet forward and one aft. But there is lots of folding clothes storage. Each cabin has two large pull out drawers. The aft cabin has lots of storage on the aft wall behind four (I think) doors. The forward cabin has lots of space in the cubby holes on each side of the bed. The two heads have plenty of space for towels, toilet paper, etc. We have lived aboard for three months at a time and probably used only a third of the clothes we brought aboard. The previous owner cut out holes on each side under the aft cabin bed for shoes. As far as food, there is a pantry in the forward cabin, a large space under the galley floor, and a huge storage area under the floor in the main cabin. On our first summer aboard we brought enough canned food to last for two summers.

I second what Porman has said. Our MS 430 aft cabin trawler was just listed for sale in New London, CT. We are moving to a long term live aboard and preparing for that now. We have the 370hp Yanmars and love them. We can cruise at 2650 rpm at less than 10 gal/hour or step it up to 3200 rom at 17 knots. We don't cruise above that but it can do nearly 3450 at our sea trail 5 years ago. There is plenty of storage everywhere! and three AC units, a 8 kWh genset and the best part is a fly bridge that can hold eight people comfortable or ten in a pinch. See it here: https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2005/mainship-430-trawler-3715938/

If anyone would like to discuss, PM me and I'll be happy to introduce this boat to you.

Jim L

XBoater said:

Hi, Just started to look and have always liked the MS430 for a loop boat and maybe some Carribean Island hopping. I have seen comments on the boat being equipped with Yanmars and it sounds like the 370 hp is the popular chose, I have not found much pro/cons of the this boat equiped with CAT 350 hp. Any comment would be appreciated.

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I have a 2003 MS 400 with a single CAT 3126, 385 hp. New boat to me. Just had the engine serviced and the mechanic said these are decent engines that can give good service if properly maintained. He did say newer computer controlled CATS have some issues. Hope this helps.