"...are there any trawler style brands that have semi-displacement ability and are still very capable of ocean crossing?..."
I don't know. There are boats like the Fleming 55, which are trawler-ish but capable of higher speed, but I wouldn't try to cross an ocean in one.
On the Nordhavn rally, one of the boats, Crosser, was capable of going 20+ knots. I remember David Stone, the owner, lobbying me to go faster. He was worried that it would be tough on Crosser to run so slow. Once in a while, Crosser would do giant loops around us, just to let the engines run faster for a bit.
So... I think faster speeds are possible, but at an enormous cost in fuel. I averaged about 8 gallons an hour, running at 9 knots, crossing the Atlantic. My guess is that a planing hulled boat might cross at 20 knots, but average closer to 75 gallons an hour or more. There are two questions here - can it be done? And, at what cost?
-Ken W
| Williams, Ken |
2007-03-24 23:03:38
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