Slow Trawlers vs Fast trawler

What size range are you looking for? What price range? Those two items will help with any advice someone could give you.

Welcome to YF Jim. Given your plans let me first recommend that you check out the thread Great Loop Cruise Video, and also Google the AGLCA.
There are lots of boats that meet your criteria, and some (like 17 to 24 kt. WOT) that you'll find aren't as important for the task as you currently think. Things like holding tank size are fairly easy to remedy on a lot of boats simply by increasing the size tank (s).
I was at the AGLCA Spring rendevous in Norfolk (and there's another this month at Joe Wheelers), and there were as many different types of boat as there were boaters. From 23' trailerables to our 60' Hatt. So give us a few more specifics about what you're looking for, to do, what's a must have, etc. and I'm sure we can give you some good places to start your search.

Since your plan is Looping, I'd keep it closer to the 39' size if you can handle living on that. We're currently Looping on a 56' Hatteras (60'LOA), and we're a very big boat for the job. Finding dockage and sufficient electric up north and out west can be a challenge, our air draft requires lowering our arch for places like the Erie Canal, Trent Severn and Chicago, our 4'10" draft could also be an issue in a lot of places along the loop. Most of the fishing along the fresh water part of the Loop is drop the line type as opposed to trawling, so I'd stay away from SF. Since Looping is all about cruising a long distance over a long period (we'll be doing it over about 3 years from purchase date), I think you'll find fuel economy more important than speed. Most loopers cruise around 50 miles a day, with 90 miles a long day. We were just cruising with a 36' GB that tops out about 8.5 kts. To me that's just a bit slow, especially if you get a late start or get hung up. To me about 12kt. cruise with no more that an 18kt. top end is ideal. Remember that speed = $$$, both to buy and run. You want what you need for your purpose. There are lots of rainy days in the northern section. So interior space is more important than cockpit space. A full keel is also very helpful as you'll find yourself in some very shallow waters, and it's nice to have your running gear protected. It's more a case of when you'll touch bottom rather than if.

Single vs twim. All depends on whether economy is more important than maneuverability.The Hatt I'm running doesn't need a thruster, but we put one on and I was real grad to have it at several locations. I like twins. It's just easier and more reliable. I like speed, but speed costs money. 8 kts. is too slow for me. 10-12 kts. works. Personal preference. Were I coming off a sailboat, 8 kts would feel like NASCAR. You don't need a keel, but it's a good thing for this kind of running. More protection in the shallows and more stability at slow speeds.

Take a look at the Lagoon 43/44' Powercats (same boat, different exterior layout.) You want the larger engines. But they do 10 knots at 3 mpg, 12 knots at 2mpg and 16.5 knot cruise at 1.5 GPM with the large Volvo's. Very efficient, very seaworthy, and very stable with a lot of interior and exterior room......albeit there are a lot of steps inside, but you have 3 real staterooms and 3 real heads.

Bigger engines in SF are just as fuel efficient down low as trawlers almost. SF have a very fast hull speed and it doesn't take a lot of HP to push them at 10 knots or below. You will need to run them up to cruise for 30 mins a couple of times a day, but they're also very seaworthy and would make a great loop boat IMO providing the height on the hardtop is low enough. The cockpit is also easy to handle lines. Look at a Cabo 40' FB with the zues, you have fuel efficiency and maneuverability.

The trouble with the power cat is her beam. It'll severely limits the docking options. A big problem with SF and such is the lack of a lower helm station, and often ladders to the bridge. With the Hatt we spend 90% of the time at the lower helm station. It's easier to work lines from, better weather protection and doesn't set the helmsman apart. Also it's a lot of wasted hp. When you're in no hurry to get anywhere, who wants to burn 70 gph (or even 30 gph) getting there. Of all the boats at the AGLCA Spring Rendavous rhere was one SC and no SF. There were no boats capable of doing more than about 20 kts., and most were around 10 kt or less WOT boats.

I like. Only drawback is the speed. Be aware that there will be places where you'll face a 4 kt. current, which can make steering a bit dicey. Beyond that I've got nothing negative to add. Along those same lines check out the Florida Bay Coaster, one of my favorite boats.

Forget about the steering, in a 4 knot head current you hardly make way!!!

Snailboats do it all the time coming up the East River and through Hell's Gate, although the smart ones play the tide. I had to do it with a 51 Bertram with an engine down. Was glad to have a thruster.

As long as you're going faster than the current you're moving forward. It just requires care. Really the biggest challenge is a following current or coming into an inlet. Every boat has short-comings though. You find the boat that bests suits your needs, and then adapt to its nuances. There's a lot of sailboats out there sailing at 3 or 5 kts. on single engines and doing fine. And yes the search is a great adventure. Do it right and the rest of the adventures stays better as well.

Sailing at 3 or 5 kts. on single engines? Isn't that an oxymoron? Like so many sailboats spending the majority of their time under power. But as far as them doing fine, when they face 4 knots head currents, they don't do fine if that's their maximum speed. They either tack or wait for better conditions.

Now back to the 7.25 knot boat in the discussion, it obviously can still make forward progress in those conditions, just very slow.

Now back to Fish Catcher. You're a bit all over the place and I'm sure you're feeling it right now. From Trawler to planing at 24 knots to SF to 7 knots. I think it's perhaps a good time to back up and head at it again. Go back to what the most important things to you are. Rank them. List preferences but also make sure you list deal breakers. If you have questions about being happy on a 7 knot boat, then charter one for a few days. We chartered one boat limited to 13 knots just to confirm how we felt about full displacement. It was a wonderful boat but we found ourselves growing more weary of it each day and by the end of a week, fully understanding it wasn't for us. Did our preconceptions influence us? Perhaps so. Whatever the reason it wasn't for us. Meanwhile many would not like our boats.

Weighing fuel usage vs. speed is something only you can do. Can you get good fuel usage out of a running a faster boat slow? Yes. Will it ever match running a slow boat slow? No. You can run a 60' Hatteras with twin 1135's at 600 rpm, 7 knots, and get 1.2 nmpg. But, a 39' Kadey Krogen with a 120 hp John Deere is going to get 4.9 nmpg at 1500 rpm and 6.4 knots.

As to the little bit of fishing, what kind of fishing? You said not 30 miles out but is it 10 miles? Do you want to cross to the Bahamas and fish?

When not looping, ICW or outside? For looping obviously draft and air draft are important considerations. I understand you're thinking out loud but on Sunday morning power and speed were important to you. On Wednesday you liked the sound of 54 hp Yanmars. You need to think carefully of what influenced that change. Was it someone who is passionate about small hp engines and displacement only or was it truly a change in your mindset?

You'll go through this in looking. We made a list of preferences and absolutes. We also created a spreadsheet with rows for every aspect of the boat and columns for each boat. Just a few considerations other than that of speed and economy, that I'd suggest for your thinking.

How many cabins? Do you take guests? What percent of the time? Don't sacrifice your own comfort for guests 2 times a year. As a live aboard it would seem master stateroom and bath become much more important. Size of bed is a huge issue for me. A huge consideration to many is galley up or down. But also just the size of the galley. If you're living aboard and cooking daily then it's a much bigger factor than a weekend cruiser. Indoor vs. outdoor living space. What climates do you anticipate being in? This also brings in the question of bridge vs. no bridge as a bridge adds an outdoor living space. Helms up or down or both? Having up and down became an absolute for us and eliminated some nice boats. Space for a dinghy/tender? Is that important for you? Better on bridge or platform? We use ours a lot so was critical for us. Number of spaces to relax on boat. Some couples find the ability to separate into private areas and have some time apart crucial to pleasant live aboard. Others not so much. How much of the time docked, anchored, home, moving? That's where water and holding tank become big. If you're sitting at your home dock water is not much of an issue. But if you cruise and anchor then a watermaker becomes huge. Space in the engine room. Often overlooked but if you're working on it yourself becomes a big issue for many. Height in various areas. How tall are you? I'm tall and the ability to stand up is important to me. Some boats claim one height but then you find it's hallway and not really all of the stateroom. Dressing hunched over not enjoyable day after day. Aesthetics. This is a home. Generally the key person in buying homes is the wife. It can be the greatest boat ever but if one hates the decoration, the wall coverings, the upholstery, it won't be pleasant. Sometimes it becomes, "Ok, as long as we can throw all the furniture out." Electronics. Often on older boats the first thing done is replace everything. A huge difference in expense doing that vs. finding the boat that was updated three or four years ago. Redundancy. Again depends on usage as to how critical. But not just parts, systems. If on canals, Autopilot is at one level of criticality, but when cruising long distances in rough water, it's quite a bit higher. Ability to enclose aft deck and perhaps bridge for winter use.

So back up just a bit for your project. Step one is really to more carefully define your requirements. Perhaps will take some time to truly learn them. Then it becomes much easier to compare boats you see to those requirements and know if they might be a fit.

I see way too many people that get caught up in eeking out the most fuel efficiency they can. I think a 7 knot boat is really too enjoy the Great Loop in 1 year. You spend too much time transiting and not enough time enjoying the stops you want to enjoy. That being said I would want something Capable of cruising at 20-25knots and capable of doing at least 9, but 10 knots would be even better while not throwing a huge wake and at hull speed getting good fuel economy. Most of it 10 knots is a very good speed to do the loop in, BUT, some places you need to pick up the pace to get to marina's. Also, crossing the lakes themselves I would certaintly want to do at 20-25 knots. There is nothing to see in the middle of the lakes and the weather changes so quickly, so IMO someone else can wallow around at 7 knots when you see the wind on top of the lake really kick up and you want to get in, in 2 hours (40 miles) before it gets rough..... But everyone is different. Quite honestly, I think a SF with a hardtop and small dinghy on the bow could be a very good choice.......Or a 20-25 knot diesel motoryacht that has a good hull speed......but the smaller SF tend to have a better hull speed for their size.

I agree with part one....not necessarily with the SF part but then I know that's your favorite. But I see what you're describing, people spending so much time getting from place to place which subtracts from the time to enjoy the places they go. Now if time is unlimited, fine. But 50 miles at 7 knots wipes out most of a day and then if you move again the following day, you only got a little time where you were. However, at 20 knots you're there by 10 AM with the full day ahead. As to the Great Lakes, seems like most loopers see very little of them, just use the shoreline as much as possible and treat them like a necessary evil. To me, there is so much to see on the Great Lakes and I want to move across and see more.

However, I also do recognize that cost is a huge factor to many and for them the economic, fuel efficient, slow boat isn't so much the best way as it's the only practical way they can see it.

The other thing I think so many loopers miss is the rivers. So much to see on the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Ohio, even the Missouri.

Out loop plans will involve little time on the east coast and gulf coast as we do them all the time. But we will spend a lot of time on the Great Lakes. Then keep the boat on Lake Pickwick for a year or even two to explore the inland rivers before completing the loop.

I think you missed the point of doing the Loop. Although speed would be nice when trying to outrun a storm, the key is to pick your weather instead, and hang till it comes. In our cruising since NY, if we had the ability to go faster we probably would have. We would have also then missed so much along the way. We're not interested in making 100-200 nm at any time. We'd rather meet the people and see the little towns and coves every 20-40 miles. For most of the stops we make, an afternoon or a day is enough time, but to get stuck there for a few days waiting out the weather is ok too. Those are days for doing laundry or maintenance, or just relaxing. Believe me, after nearly 30 years of transports this pace took some getting used to, but it's pretty nice. Starting next spring our float plan will be to make almost all stops 2 night minimums. As for doing the Loop in a year, I think that's how most start their plan, but the reality turns out to be anywhere from 18 months to several years. The quest is not in completing the Loop. It's in doing the Loop. Think about So. Florida for a moment. If you could run from Miami to Palm Beach in a day, you probably would. But if you'd never been there before wouldn't it be more enjoyable to make a stop in Ft. Lauderdale, check out some manatee south of Port Everglades and all the bikinis along the way on the inside?