Greetings from the Mississippi River in Minnesota

Hello lovely Trawler Forum community!

My name is Sadie (or Barnacle Betty, if you prefer). My husband (Dave) and I live aboard a houseboat downtown St. Paul, MN. We just bought a 44 foot Marine Trader. She is in Gulfport, FL (Tampa area) and we haven't even seen her yet! We bought her from friends. She's a fixer-upper and we fortunately found some people down there to start work on her before we get there. We are both very handy, but this is our first trawler and I bet some of you folks will have some great info and advice for us as we embark on our new adventure. We hope to move down there in 2021, continue working (at jobs) and working on the boat. Then, we take off! Where are we going? Well, on an adventure, of course.

Nice to be here.

Oh, I have a blog if you're interested.
https://mississippilifeaboard.wordpress.com

Congratulations! Welcome to the forum.

Post some pics when you get a chance.

Ted

Welcome aboard. Congrats on your new boat. We absolutely will need photos...

Greetings,
Welcome aboard y'all.

Welcome aboard BB! Thanks for sharing with us, and yes, there are a ton of DIY folks here plus others who can advise you about issues beyond the DIY stage. When you get to the boat be sure to shoot us a note outlining the challenges ahead. We love sharing our miseries!

One BIG piece of advice for you:

Sell the houseboat! You don't need it any longer

pete

Welcome to the funny farm.
Now that you have a trawler, are you going to see your house boat?
Temp today was over 80F. GRIN

Howdy doody!

Welcome and enjoy!

Thank you all for the warm welcome! Yes, the houseboat goes on the market this spring/summer! We saved her from the scrap heap and have rehabbed every inch of her. She has cherry floors, brand new kitchen, completely rewired following SPYC, insulated...

The trawler is a 1980. We've got a mechanic replacing raw water pumps, rebuilding coolers and possibly rebuilding one or both injections pumps (twin Lehmans).

Someone came and polished the fuel. The engines have not been started in 3 or more years. It still has the original steel tanks and we're told that they are at/past their expected life expectancy. The man who polished the fuel said that they do not appear to be leaking yet, but we know we will have to do something sooner than later. Fuel looked good. Mechanic will replace all filters.

Steering won't turn more than 20 degrees at both helms. Our mechanic suspects barnacles. She's been sitting unattended and there is quite a bit of growth. Once she's running, we'll have a diver get down there and check it out.

Don't worry everyone, the price was right and man, even though we're stuck in Minnesota, we're having a blast plotting and scheming.

Other than that, we're just dying to get down there.

BarnacleBetty said:

The trawler is a 1980. We've got a mechanic replacing raw water pumps, rebuilding coolers and possibly rebuilding one or both injections pumps (twin Lehmans).

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Oh, goody! This group can practically take a Lehman apart and put it back together remotely!

Well I love this group even more now!

BarnacleBetty said:

Well I love this group even more now!

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Oh, yes, we tend to grow on people, not unlike barnacles.

Greetings,
Mr. rg. "...not unlike barnacles." Or pond scum....

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. rg. "...not unlike barnacles." Or pond scum....

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Their new boat is in salt. I vote we do the barnacle thing.

This group is a wealth of knowledge. We generally are not big fans of houseboats though, better go somewhere else to try to sell it.

pete

Speak for yourself.

Pete Meisinger said:

This group is a wealth of knowledge. We generally are not big fans of houseboats though, better go somewhere else to try to sell it.

pete

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That's phunny, Pete. I may be having my first intro to houseboats this spring. Not one of the monsters, but a 40-ish footer somebody here wants me to deliver down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile.

What houseboat?

You folks are cracking me right up!!

Most trawlers with living accommodations aboard could be termed a type of "house" boat... with hull and superstructure designed to withstand some rather rough sea conditions.

Most so called "houseboats", such as often found on lakes, are not really boats... but rather floating containers that can support living accommodations atop only calm water.

The difference is paramount regarding what a truly capable design "boat" is and is not.