Any info about Mariner 36?

[GMTownsend]

Hi all, after 25 years of sail boating we have moved over to the ‘comfort side’. In February we bought a Mariner 36 in Sechelt and moved her home to Sidney, B.C. We are loving boating on our new to us trawler and working through a long list of projects.
I have been trying to find some info about this type of trawler and haven’t been able to find very much at all. She was built in 1981 in Taiwan at the Gi Yuen boat yard. I’ve tried to attached a few pics.
She is ‘europa’ style with a sedan main cabin, large forward v-berth and small cabin with upper and lower bunks on the port side before the v-berth and across from the head. Boat info world shows a number of large sailboats built at this boat yard in the late ‘70s & early ‘80s but nothing about trawlers. It would be nice to know if there are more like her out there so we could compare notes, but she could be a one of a kind knock-off, e.g. Cheermen? Any thoughts welcome.

 

[FWT]

This is a guess.

Today's Helmsman Trawlers rose from the ashes that Mariner became. Your design appears to be a larger version of what is now the Helmsman 37. Helmsman also makes a 38 that is a very different pilothouse design (I have a 38 on order.) They stretched the 38 to make a 43, and have a fresh design for 46 to come out soon. They also bought the molds for the old Camano, which is now the Helmsman 31.

Here is the link to the Helmsman 37. There is so much similarity I am thinking this lineage is correct.

https://www.helmsmantrawlers.com/helmsman-trawlers/37-sedan-2/

If you pick through old threads on the Helmsman folder here you can find some material on the demise of Mariner. You will discover that the Helmsman threads are among the most active brand threads on this site. There is lots of material that may be of interest to you.

You say it was built in Taiwan. Today Helmsman's are built in China.

 

[Nick14]

I'm just guessing as well, but I don't think today's Helmsman hulls have their roots as far back as the 1981 Mariner you mentioned.

The name 'Mariner' seems to be pretty common, and has been used on various boat brands and builders over the years (including Carver). Helmsman boats definitely have their origins in 'Mariner' boats built in the early to mid 2000's. At the time they were called the Mariner 35 (and various versions of that). The current Helmsman 38 (and 37) hull are based on that boat. AFAIK, they were always built in Mainland China.

The Helmsman 38E (Pilothouse) and previous 37 Sedan are the same hull, built in the same mold. The difference was the previous 37 Sedan blocked off the aft 2'3" of the hull above the waterline, with that section forming essentially a built-in hull extension/swim platform (whereas the 38E Pilothouse hull used the entire mold and had a conventional bolted-on swim platform).

The 38 Sedan now replaces the 37 Sedan (I posted a thread on this in the Helmsman/Camano builders forum). The 38 Sedan uses the completely identical hull (above and below the waterline) as the 38E Pilothouse, with no blocking plate and the same bolted swim platform as the 38E Pilothouse.

 

[Slowmo]

Pretty boat. As pointed out by Nick14 the 'Mariner' name has been used, and is being used, by multiple marketers. Importers of Taiwanese trawlers used a variety of names ( Marine Trader, Orcas, Sea Ranger etc). Particularly in the late 70's and 80's most of these boats were quite similar, despite being made by a variety of yards. The current Helmsman 38 is clearly based on this design as well. The form factors of the Helmsman appear very similar in design, so if there are differences they're subtle. These boats have a timeless appeal based on their good looks, practical design, and relative seaworthiness. I'm not 100% sure but many of these were based on Ed Monk designs, though the Taiwanese were quite willing to do 'knock-offs' back then so Monk may not be credited.

 

[koliver]

Your boat has the look of many Taiwanese Trawlers of that vintage.
In 1998 there was an overview of Taiwanese Trawlers in Passagemaker Magazine. I think we have it archived on this site, though I looked and couldn't find it just now. IIRC, it lays out the culture of the small quantity boat builders that turned out most of the similar looking trawlers of that era. Hence I don't think knowing the actual builder gets you very far, as most of the parts used, hulls, decks, doors, hawse holes, portlights, wheels, etc, etc, were mass produced for all of the builders and were assembled in the individual shops.

 

[GMTownsend]

Thanks for all the replies. I had a look at the Helmsman 38 and the similarities in the cabin and flybridge structures with our boat is striking. It’s like looking at our boat built new, forty years into the future. There must be a common lineage there.
Fairly sure our boat was built in Taiwan as we have some of the old registration info showing the builder was located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. There is no hull number though and no info about Gi Yuen boat builders on the internet. So no way to say for sure whether Taiwan or China.