New member from SF, California - Trawler Express

[krc]

Hello,
Just wanted to take a moment and greet everyone. This looks like a great resource. Already have a bunch of questions that I will start to post on engine (cat 3126, single), bow thruster (vetus 25_), problems I have seen, etc....

We are berthed at Emmery Cover Yacht Harbor. Relatively new to boating. Hope to learn a lot. We have had the boat a couple of years now, and are enjoying it but do seem to run into problems that make me scratch my head as to how some of these systems are put together.

Anyway, cheers.

Karl

[jcollins]

KRC,
Welcome to the group. You are correct. This is a good resource for information. I too have those head scratching problems. Good answers here.

Thanks for joining.

[Mariner]

krc,

What year is your boat? We looked at two 36' Express Trawlers in Sausolito in 2005, and bought one. I wonder if you bought the other one. I seem to recall that it stayed on the market for about a year after we bought ours. It was a 2004, had a green hull, full canvas enclosure, the single Cat engine, and a Simrad chartplotter.

If you haven't already (I've been out of town for the weekend and am just starting to catch up on the site), post your questions and I will respond with whatever information and advice I can.

[krc]

Green hull with full canvas. Yes. And the simrad chart plotter. We kept it in Sausalito for a few months, then moved it to Emmeryville as we live in the East Bay.

[Mariner]

That's the boat all right. In fact, I've got some pictures of it from when we inspected both (they were side by side at Marotta). We ended up deciding on the Carolyn Anne, which was a year older (2003), because it had fewer hours and showed a little less wear. Though, it was a tough decision, as your boat had more goodies already installed. Mainly, we like the enclosed cockpit and the railing on the cockpit cover. We just finally had the canvas installed last month (three years after purchasing the boat). The railing above is still being debated. We store our tender, kayaks, and crab pots up there, so the railing would interfere with loading and unloading of those things.

This first picture is of your boat, with the then Carolyn Anne (now Nordvika) in the background. And yes, that is me on the flybridge.

[Mariner]

Another picture...

[Mariner]

The hatch, which our boat does not have, but we've always wanted to install:

[Mariner]

Another...

[Mariner]

Custom Kayak mount

[Mariner]

Gangway cover. We had a "doghouse" built over the gangway as part of our custom canvas. The advantage of this is that it completely covers it, so that no rainwater gets in. The disadvantage is that it increases windage when it's up. There is, unfortunately, no good solution to the problem of covering this opening.

[Mariner]

A closeup of the custom canvas:

[krc]

Marinar - Wow. Good pics. We haven't really done much to the boat, besides of course trying to figure it out as we are all new to boating. The canvas is great for the back, but the top canvas (top bridge) can pool water if the support legs fall down due to wind. Not sure what to do about this. Thanks also for your comments on the other thread about installing a bilge alarm, and hints for finding the leaks. Still puzzled with the water entry - does not appear to be the deck embedded scuppers, but I did notice the same thing you had noted regarding the top compartments filling a couple of inches with water if debris plugs up exits.

[Mariner]

Our flybridge cover pools water even with the support in place. We just stopped using the cover. We remove the cushions and toss them in the second stateroom when not in use. In the winter, we simply remove them from the boat and put them in storage, since we don't really use the flybridge that time of year. All the electronics are covered and we have a plactic cover for the chair, so there's really no problem leaving it exposed. We're currently having the cover trimmed so that it can be used as a cover for just the dash, rather than the entire flybridge. We also had a bimini made for the flybridge.

The problem with the water getting into the bilge and cabin seems to be directly related to the drains on the flybridge plugging up, which causes water to overflow into the rigging tunnel, which drains it into the bilge through the galley. The next time you see this happening go up and inspect the upper entrance to this rigging tunnel before clearing the drains, and see if water is pooling high enough to overflow into it.