Thanks Shrew, some good insights here! You are correct that such a search can be widened quite a bit if you search for "Trawler" rather than, say, "Grand Banks 42", which is what I was doing. I was also focusing on 2000-2002 as that should be far enough back to match my budget (I say "should be" as I see asking prices are still inflated.)
One more consideration: When we were looking for a boat, we knew we wanted a "trawler", by which we meant a displacement hull, not a speed boat, so for parameters in Yachtworld search (and use the UK search, NOT the US search. The UK site is much better
Anyway, we put in:
"Trawler"
"Diesel"
and the length we were looking at, 40' to 60'
Our boat never came up.
I finally just put in: Diesel, Powerboat, Used, and length 40' to 60'
It returned about 1,350 boats that fell into those parameters . . . so I spend a few days surfing boat porn. . . . .
And lo and behold, on the 2nd day, our 50' Beebe Passagemaker came up! It had been advertised for some time, like a year or so, but by my putting "Trawler" in the search parameters, it never came up.
The broker had neglected to check the box for "trawler".
Anyway, I think an awful lot of people select "Trawler", and thereby run the risk of limiting their search without really realizing it . . .
.But as Laura says, "This boat was just meant to be ours!" And after 35 years of marriage, I'm not going to argue with my wife!