I see that the MT still has a ladder from the swim platform. How are the side decks for walking room? I believe it is a full displacement hull but how is it different from the Gulfstar. I have a 13 ft beam, is full displacement and weighs about 18,000 lbs empty. Full keel that is supposed to be ballasted. I do not think it is.
What are the specs on your MT?
Thanks Ken
This is very interesting subject and as you said, everything is a compromise. I agree totally with your analysis of the Gulfstar.
As I said, what I know about the Gulfstar is what I saw and what I read - and no matter what you do, if you're sharing hulls between sailboats and trawlers, it's going to cause both to suffer, in my opinion.
As I said, we are full-time liveaboards. Our plan is to live on the hook as much as possible and our needs as we saw them fit the Marine Trader better than the 3870.
Our MT is a 36 Sundeck model. It is a single screw powered by a 136 hp American Diesel with a 13' beam and 3.5' draft full displacement hull. It will do about 8 knots at 1700 RPM - which is admittedly slow compared to the Bayliner's top speed, but part of the tradeoff we were willing to make.
Yes, it has a ladder to the (very tiny) swim platform. Our long-term plan is to move the gate from midships to the port side and build a set of stairs with a small platform at the top along with a longer, partially folding swim platform. I have a picture somewhere of another MT Sundeck with the same setup and plan to mimic it. The only difference is that their steps were all aluminum, and I plan to go with something using stainless and coosa laminate. I'd also like to add a small pipe crane so we can store the dinghy on the sundeck and get rid of the custom (not very nice looking) davits installed by the PO as they would just be in the way of everything else.
As I said - she has less than ample room for moving forward and aft on the side decks - especially the steps to the sundeck area. That was a trade-off for more interior room. The engine room is nice, but you still end up crawling around on your knees to do anything in there unless you pull up all four of the floor hatches in the saloon. And even then, it's only access directly around the engine. Getting to the genny or anything aft of the engine requires crawling. Access to the bilges, seacocks, water, and waste tanks as well as the anchor locker is all very good. However, fuel tank access is terrible - but we knew that going in. They're not leaking - yet - so knock on wood as the decks would need to be cut out in order to replace them.
What we wanted was - in our price range - a roomy double cabin with a walkaround bunk in the aft compartment. The admiral also wanted a bathtub. We got all that. Because the plan is to live on the hook, we also wanted a generator and ample fuel and water storage. To that end, she has a genny, two 75-gallon water tanks, and a 40-gallon holding tank. She also carries a total of 350 gallons of diesel in two 175-gallon tanks. Not on our list, but as a bonus, we also got a very large, very nice covered aft deck. And if we wanted to pull out the dinette, there's room for a freezer and lots more counter space. But the admiral is resistant to that.
Lastly, the v-berth in the MT is very nice. The bunk is almost full-sized, it has its own head, and there's more storage in that one room than we had in total on our old sailboat.
None of this would have been possible on the Bayliner - which is why we decided against them after looking at five or six and surveying one that failed horribly.
We figured someone was trying to send us a message...