new member

I am just joining this terrific forum. I am a 73-year-old retired doctor, grew up in the Chesapeake Bay but now live in Ohio and looking for a trawler to use as a base on the saltwater. I'll have some catching up to do but have been around the water for years.
Have been doing some preliminary looking and ran across a Thompson 44 long-range trawler with dual Perkins T6.354 engines, 4400 hours reported but one recently had rings replaced.
Is this a good boat? Am I going to have problem with the engines, particularly repairs and getting parts
my budget is at this point 30 thousand dollars or less.
Would appreciate everyone's thoughts and I am glad to be part of this group

Welcome aboard. Not familiar with that boat but the Perkins engines are a good long lived engine. The individual boat is what matters in the older boats, get a good survey.

Welcome to the forum. As usual, Comodave has it right. You are definitely looking for a boat that has been loved by it's current and past owners. Even at that, make sure you don't "blow the budget" with the purchase, as you should count on leaving a pretty substantial budget for repairs, setting a maintenance baseline, additions, etc. We bought a boat in great condition, and still spent over $30,000 in the first 2 years, and still have not updated the electronics. Not trying to "scare you", just want you to go into it with your "eyes wide open".

One of the variables is how good are you at DIY? If you are good at DIY and like working on boats then you can accept a boat that needs a bit of TLC. However if you are not good or don’t like DIY then you have to set the bar a bit higher. At 30K for a budget you are going to have to look at older boats. Then brand really isn’t significant since a Mercedes can be run down so that a great condition Chevy is a better deal. Good luck and enjoy the search.

When we were looking for our boat, we looked atcseveral Thompson 44s. They were a solid, fishing boat based hull, sometimes finished by other yards or owners.
They seemed to have a decent engine room and layout, a huge fuel tank, and, onbtwo of three I looked at, soft cabin tops.
At your price point, expect to have repairs and upgrades before the boat is cruise- ready. Check to see if you, or your mechanic, can easily access the outboard side of the engines.
Welcome aboard.
Good luck with your search.
JohnS