Well, I agree that the maintenance and operating costs of a sailboat and a similarly sized trawler are approximately equal with the trawler being slightly higher.
When I said not cheap I was referring to purchase price. A Nordhavn and the others I mentioned, capable of crossing oceans, is roughly twice as expensive on the used or new market as your Beneteau.
This is a point that member FF makes every time a new member says he wants to be able to cross oceans in his next trawler. There are few such trawlers made and they are inherently expensive.
Read Bebe's book, Voyaging Under Power with new material by Nordhavn founder Leishman in the third edition. He reviews a dozen current ocean going trawlers in this book, most of which are custom builds. For example he notes that the Kady Krogen can do it but needs its windows upgraded to survive blue water crashing over the bow.
I haven't read the fourth edition which has lots of new material on stability and sea worthiness by Denis Umstot but it might be even more infornative. Some say that Leishman's material is too self serving for Nordhavn.
Also read member Daveo's recent post about his trip down the coast of Baja in his Nordhavn 46 here:
http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/trip-report;-san-diego-la-paz-42171.html
The pertinent paragraph is copied below. His boat, the original Nordhavn 46, was built and set up well with paravanes and he survived it ok. Not sure other trawlers would have. You may have encountered similar conditions in your Beneteau, but believe me, in a trawler it is a totally different experience.
For example the worst conditions I have seen on a sailboat was 35 kts of wind and 8' seas. On a Mainship I was once in 20 kts of wind and 6' seas on the way to Catalina Island. I felt that the two experiences were roughly similar. The Mainship was rolling significantly but no blue water over the bow, just spray. In the conditions noted below he got big slugs of blue water over his bow. Not all trawlers can take that.
"With a crew of three Navigator is heading south for Mexico. On Dec. 6th we left Chula Vista, CA. We came to Chula Vista from Portland, OR via the west coast of Vancouver Island this past summer. Our first, and last for a while, stop was Pearson's Fuel dock behind Shelter Island, San Diego, to take on 540 gallons of diesel oil to fill our 1000 gallon tanks. *Except for being detoured to the edge of the channel by the harbor police to avoid the "situation on the Coronado Bay Bridge", no further explanation offered, perhaps a jumper?, our departure was all smooth sailing. We left on the outgoing tide running counter to the wind. This caused some pretty steep seas in the channel, which in turn lead to some fairly violent pitching but the paravanes, which we had set up for quick and easy deployment before leaving the calm of the harbor, did a great job eliminating roll. *We quickly discovered everything that wasn't well enough secured. *The rough ride wasn't much of a surprise with the opposing wind and tide, but the next twelve hours were. *In spite of forecast 8-10 knots from the south, right on the nose, we got hammered by steady winds up to 25 knots gusting to 30. *We were beleaguered by 6-8 foot very short period waves for the next twelve hours. *Our poor little, 30 ton, boat would climb the face of each wave and then pitch over and plunge into the trough burying the bow, and the portholes, or slamming into the next wave with a horrific crash. We got plenty of blue water over the decks and a fair bit also into our cabins. Plenty of rain, thunder and lightning. *Our speed over the ground was as low as 3 knots for much of the night. *The motion had us all chewing on bonine and some of us vomiting into the teeth of the gale. *Ever the optimist I let the completely discredited forecast, which called for the wind to drop to nothing by 4 AM, tempt me to press on rather than running for shelter into Ensenada. *Happily, that part turned out to be about right and everybody got some sleep before, and after, a beautiful dawn. *The boat handled herself well and so did the crew. Everyone was uncomfortable, perhaps at times even miserable, but not, I’m pretty sure, scared."
David
