Intro/Hello

[Christov10]

Hello. My name is Chris and I live in Southern Middle Tennessee. Grew up on the West Coast and spent my formative years surfing. Have paddled folding kayaks in Tennessee since about 2005. Took up cycling when my son got old enough to realize I was gone a lot. Repeated shoulder injuries have kept me from paddling much and for a while kept me from pedaling. Here lately, after completing what my acupuncturist says was my first 60 year cycle, have been thinking about getting (at first) a houseboat but now (after more thought) a modest trawler with which to explore this state's navigable inland waterways.

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard y'all. To be perfectly blunt, what's your budget, do you have any boating experience AND what do you want the boat to do for you (weekends, extended cruising, sitting around fishing/swimming etc.)?
IF this is your first boat, I highly recommend USPS (US power squadron) courses. GREAT time to take them (winter) now. Boating Courses
Enjoy!

 

[Christov10]

Thanks for the welcome and greetings.

Budget's limited to the amount of cash my wife will tolerate my spending on a boat and related expenses. I'm unwilling to go into debt for anything so that rules out Nordhavn, Kady-Krogen, Dashew FPB and pretty much any boat more recently built than the Orwellian Year.

Boating experience is limited to understanding how waves work when breaking and swells bending along the coastline (surfing) and handling human-powered double-ended craft (kayaking & canoeing). Totally agree boating courses are a necessity. Thanks for the link.

Really, what I want a boat for is to explore/cruise Tennessee's navigable inland waterways for the next few years on weekends and vacations over against spending time and money at crowded beach cities. The family will sell the farm up north before much longer so that won't be our regular summer and Christmas destination. Wife will retire in a couple of years. Because I was unwise when a young man, I'll be working until I die, but weekend cruising strikes me as a pleasant alternative to retirement.

 

[PierreR]

If that were my aspirations, I would definitely by a houseboat. Doesn't mean you are not welcome here once purchased.

 

[CharlieO.]

We really like our trawler, great for vacations and every weekend of use. Doesn't cost us much to operate and we appreciate the heavier weight of her.

 

[Delta Riverat]

House boats are very popular here in the Delta. Inland rivers don't have big waves and house boats don't draw a lot of water. They are also inexpensive as far as dollar / space ratio goes and easy to work on (everything is pretty square and not curved / sloped.

 

[Christov10]

Houseboats seem to have gasoline powered engines and are for that reason (I am guessing here) less economical to run. I tend to think of them as floating waterside condos (and who knows, I may come back around to that).

I have seen an Albin 43 on a classifieds site that appears to have sold for $85k about 7-8 years ago after a previous owner had spent a lot making it "look" new. Older YouTube videos of the same boat indicate upgrades and maintenance had been brought up to date. Current photos indicate exterior is in need of attention, interior looks about the same, engine compartment needs cleaned. Needs surveyed. But the current asking price is less than that of a decent used car. So that interests me. More than a houseboat of the same age.

Anyway, that Albin is what got me seriously thinking about buying a trawler, which is what got me seriously thinking about possibly, eventually, going farther than Tennessee's rivers.

 

[Moonfish]

Welcome aboard! And FWIW, I think you're on the right track.