[PUP] Handling big boats--- and their maintenance

[Truelove39@aol.com]

Frequently heard aboard every boat we've owned:  "Honey, we need a bigger 
boat!" I'll confess - it's usually me who has  said it. 
 
One night, we speculated on the maximum size we'd want  and came up with an 
arbitrary 75 feet; from then on we've joked about the  75-footer. I have 
handled larger commercial boats and find that the  adaptation to "bigger" happens 
quickly; the differences being anticipation  time and speed of approach.
 
That aside, larger machinery and systems aren't  the issue for us, it's the 
quantity of equipment that's the downside of a larger  boat. That's why we'd 
never be in the market for some of the new  "trawlers." Twelve volts here and 24 
there - sometimes half a dozen  separate battery circuits, located all over 
the boat and then there's two  gensets - 480 volts here and 120/240 there. Bow 
and stern  thrusters, stabilizing fins and hydraulic hoses and multiple  
aircons everywhere. That's just nuts, IMO, as their buyers will find  out about 5 
years from new.
 
One of the big attractions of Seahorse was the  simplicity of the machinery, 
typical of her PNW fishery  heritage. Although not a conversion, she was 
fitted similarly: one  main engine, no thruster, and one get-somewhere engine which 
doubles as the  DC, and only, genset. It charges one house bank and the 
single  starting battery. We have one inverter and no aircon (don't need  it where 
we summer). We do have heat and plenty of it. 600 gallons  of potable water 
make running the water maker unnecessary on  passages of less than 20 days or 
so.  
 
We think that the biggest downside of increased size  is maintaining the 
exterior - there is simply too much surface area to  rinse and wash and wax unless 
you have crew or can afford to hire workers in  every port to do it. 
 
Regards,
 
John
"Seahorse"






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