In for the Long Haul?

Trawler, “troller”—does it really matter? why, yes.

The evolution of language is an interesting process, with words and meanings constantly in flux. Let’s take “troller.” According to the Urban Dictionary’s definition of modern popular usage, it is someone who trolls others on the Internet, but like so many popular words and phrases, it has its roots in the sea.

A troller, in the maritime sense, was and still is a commercial fishing vessel that trails baited lines, as do sportfishing and bass boats. The classic troller is found primarily in the Pacific Northwest and is not only rugged and seaworthy, but comfortable and attractive as well. It is no surprise, then, that yachtsmen in that region turned to noted local designers such as Bill Garden and Ed Monk to recreate the style as “troller yachts.”

At some point, the term faded, replaced by “trawler yacht,” perhaps because the yachts were getting larger and taller, more reminiscent of shrimp trawlers than trollers. Now shortened simply to “trawler,” it is a term that has completely lost its way, applied to any moderately sized motoryacht that’s a bit out of the ordinary. Usually, there’s a hint of ruggedness or commercial origin to the exterior lines, but too often with little to sustain that initial impression.

My old boss and a purist on nautical terminology, Jack Hargrave, was firm on the point. He consistently refused to refer to any vessel as a trawler yacht, save two. Both were custom built in the 1970s by Hatteras Yachts—one for industrialist Bill Boeing of aircraft fame and one for actor Dan Blocker, Hoss Cartwright of TV’s “Bonanza”—using the molds for the company’s 74-foot commercial shrimp trawlers (yes, Hatteras once built commercial vessels, as well as sailing yachts designed by Ted Hood). When Hatteras introduced a series of displacement-hull yachts during the fuel crisis of that era, Hargrave insisted they be called long-range cruisers rather than trawlers, hence their LRC designations.

Most of the current “trawler” manifestations bear little or no resemblance to either trollers or trawlers. Many have planing hull forms, with some operating at speeds of 25 knots or more. That is more a recipe for long stops at the fuel dock than for long passages.

Worse, the sweet lines of the trollers have largely disappeared. The “Euro-style trawlers,” in particular, with blunt bows, flat transoms and slab sides, resemble something that has fallen off a container ship. True, a box gives you the most interior volume for given dimensions, but “box yacht” doesn’t have much marketing appeal.

If you are seriously considering extended cruising, don’t rely on dock talk or marketing materials. Go to the original source, Robert Beebe’s classic book, “Voyaging Under Power.” Beebe is a U.S. Navy captain who learned his lessons not in a classroom, but through years at sea. His little book, revised several times, focuses on yachts up to about 60 feet, but the underlying truths about design and operation apply to all longdistance cruising boats, including the largest expedition and explorer yachts. Beebe recounts in painstaking detail the design and construction of his dream boat, with a multitude of clear illustrations to complement his text. Suitably, Beebe christened his resulting yacht as Passagemaker, a name adopted years later by one of our sister publications.

If you’re considering buying or building a yacht of any type, “Voyaging Under Power” is well worth the read. Beebe’s main lesson is this: Don’t adapt your cruising dream to the boat that’s most readily available, but rather, get the boat that will best allow you to fulfill your unique dream. It might mean buying a stock production boat, it might mean refitting a brokerage yacht or it might require designing and building from scratch.

But please, whatever you do, don’t call it a trawler unless you’ve decided that fishing for shrimp is your life’s goal.