Great Harbor Trawlers still in business?

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Umm, Honestly I've never cruised a GH-37 but know many that do so extensively with great success. Windage is always a issue to be dealt with but I've dealt with 20 knot winds on many occasions in our N without damage :). As always, resourceful skills can accommodate many conditions but there are limits. There are limits with all boats.
 
cardude01 said:
Are you considering a GH37 or an N37?
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Have been ever since Eric Craft gave me a tour of all the models in Green Cove Springs, FL about four years ago. When I arrived to view all the models I thought the GH would be my preference, but I was surprised by the N. Yes, the engine room is incredible and I've been dreaming about that ever since. The GH is the same engine room in floor space, but half height. The GH is the space king, but the configuration of the N with its pilothouse, flybridge, features of its engine room, huge bosuns locker for storage, lower CG and wind profile are more attractive to us, not to say that I wouldn't do a GH series. As you can see by the profile of my own boat, I would. If not for the price, I'd probably have one now.
 
This doesn't mean much but I know of at least 5 former owners of Krogens that then owned Great Harbours. But again that is not necessarily an endorsement.
'Fowever 39" moved up in space and length and the boat was a bargain price.
 
Joe Pica said:
This doesn't mean much but I know of at least 5 former owners of Krogens that then owned Great Harbours. But again that is not necessarily an endorsement.
'Fowever 39" moved up in space and length and the boat was a bargain price.
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Is this a Great Harbor?
 
Hello,
I have cruised on a GH37, which influenced my purchase of a GH47. We were shopping for a GH37 when our boat came on the market and we both said "yes". I would buy any of the Great Harbour trawlers again, although I do prefer the GH form due to the pilot house.
When we brought our boat up from Florida to the Chesapeake, we were on a schedule (not a good thing). We were moving the boat in January for a week, a week at the end of February and the final week at the end of March. We moved up Alligator river in 30+ mph winds that threatened to close the bridge opening at 35mph. We docked at Alligator River Marina (not fun but not a panic). When we moved up to Charleston, we got caught in some nasty weather and the radio was warning of tornados when near Paris Island. We had to change plans and slide into Port Royal Marina.
The GH model certainly has windage to deal with. A lot of the docking questions depend on the marina or dock. Our marina in Baltimore is very large, with narrow fairways. Winds from the west make docking difficult. We know we have two options - a) drive into the slip instead of our normal stern in b) dock to outside face docks until the wind drops.
I would not want to dock too many other trawlers in our current marina for the same reasons.

Henry
 
I want one. I can stick the stern in winds and move forward with a component dock hand in most winds.
 
"Forever 39" a very nice Krogen moved up to a Great Harbour N-47 which was a substantial increase in size etc. at an excellent price.
 
I probably have something well over 25,000 miles in Great Harbour Trawlers of all type but mostly the "N" series. There is not much question about the fact that the GHs have more windage and it does show when you are driving the boat. I never thought it was a big deal but it has occasionally caught my attention. Unlike most sane folks that cruise I normally move boats because I have to for boat shows and such so I go regardless of the weather. I remember one particular instance in Tampa Bay going to the St Pete boat show and it was howling. Winds were steady at 50 and gusting to 70 MPH. There was not much to do other than continue on, it was not like I really wanted to anchor in that either. One particular gust caught the boat and simply blew the boat completely off course and downwind. Downwind was completely controllable but not the direction I needed to go so I turned back on course and again was hammered by a huge gust and spun. Because I was in good water with nothing around it was not a problem but I was interested in the response of the boat. All boats will do the same thing at some wind speed and now I new what it took on the GH 37. The solution was to increase the RPMs to about max and I had no more problems until the squall passed in about ten minutes or so. I found that mostly it just took some focus to keep the wind on the nose and things were fine. No big deal but an eye opener. I have been in similar wind speeds in the N series and never felt like there was any issue at all. I am an aircraft pilot also and I preach quite often to beginners in planes that you need to do what it takes to put the airplane on the center line when landing, crab, slip, more power, whatever you need. If you can't put it there doing everything you can it is time to think about a different runway! By the way, thanks for all the civility here it has been a breath of fresh air and if somebody sees something that I might weigh in on and have not please shoot me an email and I will give my two cents for what its worth.
 
Ken: Your handling assessment sounds grounded and realistic. For most of us, I'd hope that a situation like you had in Tampa Bay would be the exception. But something common for us would be when the same principals are played-out in the confines of a narrow marina fairway, where forward inertia is almost non-existent and one is surrounded by other people's property. Can you extrapolate?
 
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Sometimes I think of these GH boats as catamarans w/o the huge tunnel down the middle of the bottom.

Kinda like a Livingston dinghy w/o the tunnel.

Has anyone ever considered building a plywood GH? Plywood being very stiff in flat panels would seem an ideal material for this design. The bow would need to be multi-layered w the grain along the WL forming a sort of a cone and done w odd number of plies for bending. Being so much lighter than steel it would need to have really heavy scantlings or lots of weight aboard.
 
If it can handle those winds like that then I can assume that it can easily handle any conditions that we would encounter.
 
beachbum29 said:
If it can handle those winds like that then I can assume that it can easily handle any conditions that we would encounter.
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For crying out loud, Beach! Go ahead and buy one...you have the money!:thumb: We're all interested in your pics and opinion of the boat after you buy one! :popcorn:
 
Here's a short little video of a GH37 in supposedly 4-5 seas.

How does the GH37's movement compare to everyone's more traditionally keel-type trawler in the same environment?

Tapestry underway - YouTube
 
A little hard to track, but did I see 20 degrees port and stbd? Very interesting. Thanks for that post, Cardude.

I'm with you, Walt. Beach has the wherewithal to get out there and reveal the facts about his new Great Harbour.
 
healhustler said:
A little hard to track, but did I see 20 degrees port and stbd? Very interesting. Thanks for that post, Cardude.

I'm with you, Walt. Beach has the wherewithal to get out there and reveal the facts about his new Great Harbour.
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It certainly won't be a new one. Either a Great Harbour or something similar is in our 5 yr plan.

We have to see if we can handle living aboard before we move up.
 
beachbum29 said:
It certainly won't be a new one. Either a Great Harbour or something similar is in our 5 yr plan.

We have to see if we can handle living aboard before we move up.
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Beach: There isn't anything similar to a Great Harbour. Mine is probably the closest and I could drive mine into a GH-37.

There may be a point to what Eric said about the GH being a catamaran without the tunnel between the hulls. Endeavour's 40 Skylounge is the closest concept boat I know to it, and it's a cat. Hmm. Looks a bit like my Avitar doesn't it?
 

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To me the Florida Bay Coaster seems to be similar in design but has the steel hull.

It does look very similar. I'll have to get on my desktop to see your avatar.
 
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OK, maybe you're right about the Florida Bay Coasters also being similar. Both are space giants, as are the Endeavours by-the-way. If you haven't been aboard a Manatee 36', get ready to smile. If my Admiral didn't have such a shoe collection, I'd be in a sleeker design.
 
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cardude01 said:
Here's a short little video of a GH37 in supposedly 4-5 seas.

How does the GH37's movement compare to everyone's more traditionally keel-type trawler in the same environment?

Tapestry underway - YouTube
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4-5? I wonder where and how much is swell as there are very few whitecaps that I would expect in 4-5 in protected waters.

Secondly..the video starts out with the seas on the nose pretty much...again without knowing the speed...can't make a comparison.

Then they focus on the inclinometer and I can't really see if they are changing course to make the rolls larger...they appear to get larger as the beginning seems to show little roll....

All in all...the video doesn't tell me much enough to make a call on performance.
 
healhustler said:
OK, maybe you're right about the Florida Bay Coasters also being similar. Both are space giants, as are the Endeavours by-the-way. If you haven't been aboard a Manatee 36', get ready to smile. If my Admiral didn't have such a shoe collection, I'd be in a sleeker design.
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I want the most living space with the shortest length. Cheaper for dockage, etc.
 
Remember that the GH trawlers all have twins and they are spaced about 8 ft apart. With differential throttle you have quite a bit of control. The mistake many people make handling twins is that they fail to include rudder to assist in controlling the boat. It is pretty much essential in heavy (20+kts) wind to use the rudders and differential power to put the boat where you want it. Unlike a sportfish boat that might have 60 or 70 horse at the prop as soon as it is in gear an N37 has 54hp (per prop) at wide open throttle! So Use plenty of power and rudders and the boat will go where you want in docking conditions. As is the case with any boat at some wind speed you decide to not attempt to dock and do something else until conditions allow.

I doubt that any other boat has as high a percentage of owners as full time live aboards as Great Harbours. There are reasons for it.

In regards to the plywood idea it could certainly be done but it would not be my recommendation. I would be more for flat sheets of glass laid up on a "Formica" table and bent into shape and bonded together. We have built several boats with that technique and two that went around the world, very tough, very cheap. Additionally when I hear folks talk about steel being "so much stronger" you must know what the comparison is, such as type of steel, thickness of steel, type of laminate and the thickness of the laminate. Today there are laminates that are stronger than steel at the same thickness and still much lighter than steel.
 
I understand your point and that's something I would have to adjust to. Now I just have to blip the throttle on one of the 310's to get the required movement or sit and wait for it to happen.
 
Great Harbour question for those who have seen them both in person: how does the pilothouse/salon and engine room compare in size between the N37 and the N47? Obviously the below deck space/layout forward varies quite a bit with the extra ten feet of LOA, just wasn't sure if there were any dimensional/layout differences from the windshield wipers aft.
 
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