Marinette Boat Forum

As noted by my posts, been trying to get smart on the Marinette Boats. Had a 37 sedan under contract with sea trials and surveys scheduled for today. After climbing all over it last night and exploring as much as possible under the floors, I cancel everything scheduled for today and rejected the boat. It was a very clean boat but the stability at anchor and engine/generator accessibility made it unsuitable for us. We fish/sight see the bays and fish the Gulf of Mexico, most of the time at anchor. Viewing the Blue Angles, fireworks, Bands on the Blackwater, also at anchor. Never go out when more than 2 foot seas, but the lightness of the boat and the shape of the hull makes it too unstable for us in any kind of seas. Even stepping down into it at the dock caused more rocking that acceptable for us and if on the flybridge, hang on. My past experience has been with a number of boats, all smaller and with less displacement and were all acceptable but were fiberglass, never aluminum.. The best reference is the 1984 Californian 34 with probably close to the same displacement but shorter and with less beam. I have to conclude the shape of the hull is the big difference between the two boats, hence the difference in stability. The other negative factor was under deck accessibility. The Marinette has more limited hatch access and a lot less clearance among the engines and generator in comparison to the Californian. Even though the Cummins engines were installed by a Cummins Dealer it is a wire, tube, and hose challenge. So back to the search again. I thank all you folks on the forum that tried help me out. It was most appreciated

Thanks for your posts.
By the way what type of boat do you presently have
I keep waiting for the price of the SEAKEEPER gyro system to go on sale.

A dismasted sail boat with a heavy keel would be a pretty stable platform.
A Catamaran
A pontoon boat.
bill

I have had a 31 Foot 1968 Chris Craft, with diesels, a Aquasport Tournament Master, with diesels, a 27 foot Hydra Sport, twin OB, and a 1984 Californian 34LRC, with diesels. My son-in-law across the road has a Harris Cutty Hunk shrimp/fishing boat and a pontoon boat. All of these were more stable at the dock or at anchor than the Marinette 37 sedan. As I recall the gyro system was around 10,000 dollars, but it would be tough to find a place to put it on the boat I just looked at with the 330 Cummins and the 8kw genny.

Where is the boat that you were considering?

Scottsboro, Al

You sound like from your planned use to need to look for the following

36 Foot Marine Trader Europa or Double cabin
36 Foot Mainship
31 Bertram

These are nice platforms that mid 70's to mid 80's are pretty decent price ranges.

Mike

Know what you mean about Marinettes tipping too easily when someone gets aboard. My 32 footer did that even with a moderate weight person.

My buddy's massive Silverton barely moved (yesterday) when a rather burly fellow jumped onboard. One pays for that advantage with high fuel bills, however.

So...if you're a serious cruising boater, the big Ms the way to go, but if you only put-put about, off plane, putting minimum hours on the boat each year, then the heavy cruiser makes more sense.

Jeff

Is your 32 footer gas or diesel?? We are talking only diesel, and fuel isn't a problem?? And want to run at least 20 knots. 1mpg ok with us at 20 knots. We can do that with 32-35 foot boat with Cummins 6btas, up to 18,000 lbs.

Mine was gas--360s--getting 1.2 mpg at 18-20 mph. Thirsty!

Jeff

I'm used to working with knots, but 18 mph is probably only 15 knots. With diesel can probably get 20 knots with that fuel burn on a 32 Maninette using 300HP diesels. I get off road diesel delivered to my barn for the boat and my tractor, big difference in price there versus marina so fuel costs are what they are. If I can't afford the fuel for the performance I want, than I can't afford a boat.