Camano 31 Purchase - What to Look For?

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SeattleWind

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Joined
Oct 11, 2024
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1
Location
Seattle, Wa.
We've narrowed our cruising boat search down to the Camano 31. This will be our first cruising boat, stepping up from ski boats. I want to give my kids the experience of cruising the San Juan Islands like I had as a kid and make family memories on the water. The Camano looks like a great boat our needs.

Of course we will get a professional survey, mechanical inspection and do a sea-trial on a boat that we put an offer on, but can any Camano owners share specific things to look out for and specific issues that you've come across with Camano's? Is there anything you wish you would have known before buying your Camano or any surprises? Are leaking fuel tanks an issue or any other big ticket items that are cause for concern?

Thank you for your insight!
 
Welcome aboard. I've always admired the Camano's. I've never heard of anything bad, so that's something. Wonder what changed when Helmsman took them over.
 
A friend had one of the early Camanos and liked it, I think with a Yanmar. Maybe there's an owners' forum that would be helpful to you.
 
We owned our 2005 Camano for 9 years and it was a great boat. We would still have it if we hadn't lucked into our Mainship at a price we couldn't pass up. The only drawback we found was the small holding tank, although with a Vacuflush toilet and not flushing every time that was not too big a deal. Very well built boats, with all wiring and plumbing easy to get to, engine accessible for maintenance.
 
Current Troll owner here. I will echo the others; these are lovely pocket trawlers with excellent access to their relatively simple and straightforward systems.

I don’t know of any “known issues” with them, although if I were buying one I would look for a later year (2000+? Not sure when the changes were made) with the larger fuel and water tankage. The black water holding tank is small at ~15 gallon as stated. The big ticket items on the boat are the engine and to a lesser extent the generator (if equipped). Make sure they are mechanically sound and well cared for. A Yanmar is preferable to a Volvo if for no other reason than parts availability and cost. With that said, I would not let the presence of a Volvo TAMD41P-A in the engine room keep me from buying another one as long as it checks out mechanically.

I would avoid one with carpet in the salon for no reason other than I don’t like how it looks. Luckily most seem to have the oak flooring. If you can find one with a recent electronics refit that would be a big plus. I’m about to put about $15k into mine updating the navigation suite and bringing it into the NMEA2K world since it still has all original Raymarine stuff from circa 2003.

Any specific questions, just ask! There are quite a few current Troll owners here.
 

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