[Bluejacket]

So, this recent California retiree's plan is to purchase a used, full-displacement hulled trawler yacht @ 40' in Washington state and bring it back to / register it in California. It would be a live aboard that would be kept in a Sacramento River Delta marina during the Winter and then headed North each Spring / early Summer to Pudget Sound - Southern Alaska for Northwest cruising during the warm months there. Questions:

1. What months would be best (weather wise) to transit north along the Pacific Coast to Washington and later south back to California.

2. My leading choice for such usage would be a used 39' Krogen. Anyone have an alternate candidate they think would be better suited?

3. Is it safe to undertake such travel plans with a single diesel engined trawler and basic mechanical knowledge?

4. How many hours are too many on a used diesel engine?

5. How often would such a vessel need to be hauled out for maintenance? Routine mainenance of what type / cost?

6. Are there significant offshore navigation hazards along the Pacific Coast?

7. What exactly is a Genset? If it is simply a generator for use aboard a yacht when the main engine(s) are off, why isn't it simply called a generator?

8. Do marina rules / regulations make it too difficult or prohibitive to live aboard? Are there ways around these prohibitive factors?

9. What type of insurance issues could present for a trawler of this (proposed) size?

10. How common is the "rogue wave" experience offshore?

As you can see, I'm in the "information gathering" stage before reaching a decision on this lifestyle. Although it sounds tremendously exciting, it's also tremendously expensive and frightening without a great deal of experience. Suggestions, comments are welcome!

[JWY]

Welcome to YachtForums. You came to the right place for answers. All of your questions are valid and reasonable; however, most of your questions require a somewhat lengthy answer and may therefore deter responses due to the number of questions. I would suggest you do some research in the archives and you'll find many of your answers there. Let us know what remains unanswered and we'll inundate you with more than you probably want to know.

Judy Waldman

[NYCAP123]

If you don't have friends with boats to spend time on do some charters to get a lot of experience before taking this beyond the dream stage. The answers to all your questions will come over time as they should.