The Troller Yacht Book: A Powerboater's Guide to Crossing Oceans Without Getting Wet or Going Broke

I was pawing through a Port Townsend bookstore the other day and saw the title and more importantly the sub-title of this book. And I instantly had one of those epiphany moments where a major element of the rest of my life fell into place. I've wanted to have the means to explore the world by ocean for a very long time but haven't had any good ideas on how to make progress. I bought Mr. Buehler's book and now I do. I may not end up building to any of Mr. Buehler's plans (although the 48' Diesel Duck looks awfully appealing) but I'm certainly going to put together a boat based on these ideas or die trying. No doubt what got me started down this line of thinking was reading the Patrick O'Brian novels a couple times. If you relate to my perspective at all then I'll expand on this for a moment. The book opens up, extensively, a frame of mind that answers the extended set of questions sitting in my land-lubber's brain. Here are the summary questions and answers, unabashed advertising for TTYB. How big does a boat need to be to safely cross an ocean? (Answer: about 40 feet does it. 50 feet seems a nice compromise between 'more is better' and 'more is too much'.) Should one move about on the ocean by sailing? (Answer: No! But a mast ought to be built into a power boat so sails can be used at sea in the event of engine failure.) Do big boats need commensurately big engines? (Answer: No! Not if you travel in displacement hulls at modest speed. This means you can travel along under tens of horsepower burning a gallon or two of diesel per hour; what a concept!) What sort of range can one get on the ocean on a single tank of gas? (Answer: A narrow hull and a small engine get you a quarter of the way around the planet on 800 gallons of fuel.) And to reiterate/summarize: What is the basic idea for ocean-crossing adventures on a middle-class income? ((To be fair Mr. Buehler phrases this question in his book better than I had formed it in my head) The answer: Build a compact narrow boat with a modest superstructure to cut down wind resistance, travel at 8 knots or so, and keep all of your critical systems simple and thereby reliable.) As the man says in his book, the design concept is based on very seaworthy salmon trollers rather than wide-bottom trawlers. (So any review of this book that uses the term 'trawler' must be written by someone who didn't actually read it.) And as another man says (in Young Frankenstein): To the lumber yard!!

Mr. Buehler's book is an excellent read, and an extremely handy guide for those of us interested in its subject matter but without the bottomless pockets required to enjoy today's production boats. Can you build a boat using just this book? No. Can you plan your round-the-world cruise using just this book? Again, no. However, with chapters on the concept of a proper cruising design, affordability, safety, construction, outfitting and other relevant items, the book is an excellent primer on the concept of safe, affordable cruising for the everyday Joe who loves boats and the water.Mr. Snell may not have found what he was looking for; personally, I suspect he was offended by Mr. Buehler's attitude toward production yachts and their inadequacies.

Down here on the Gulf Coast, hundreds of people still make their livings piloting wooden power boats out into open water, staying a few days, and then coming back with holds full of seafood. I know some of these folks. They don't inherit fortunes to buy boats, they aren't millionaires stepping off into the latest trendy adventure, they're people who use boats, well and practically built, to make a living. George's book is about the Northwestern versions of these people and their boats. George asks why people like me can't find proper boats. Why people who want a good, spacious, long-legged cruising vessel but who didn't have a dear rich uncle or a winning lottery ticket to pay for it. Why forty feet should be $750,000.00. And he answers the questions. He answers well. He steps on toes which need to stepped on, and tells us that dreams can come true. He took my little piece of a dream and expanded it. What more can one ask of a book?

This is a wonderful book about building and owning reasonably priced power boats, as well as why it's so difficult to find such boats from the standard manufacturers today. I,too, have often wondered exactly why a 40' power cruiser should cost $350,000 and need 350 horsepower to move through the water. After reading this book, I now know:1. it doesn't have to be that way, but2. the boating industry profits handsomely from that structure.Whether you agree with Mr. Buehler's opinions or not, you really should put his book on your "must reading" list prior to making a considerable investment in your own boat. The included boat plans, the interesting equipment discussions, and Mr. Buehler clear writing style make this one of the best books on the topic I've ever read.

Having lived with this book and "Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding" now for several months, and having purchased a set of Mr. Buehler's plans, what strikes me as the most salient aspect of this whole deal is that most of us are terribly misinformed about boats in general. Just because boats are sold for a quarter-to-half a million bucks and designed to burn $500 in diesel a day, doesn't mean they HAVE to. I think Mr. Buehler realized one day that the right kind of power boat is much more liveable, straight-forward (no tacking) and probably cheaper than an equivalent sailboat. His sailboat-design experience provides him the insight to design powerboats that take a tiny fraction of the power needed by "trawler yachts", the big craze these days. There's an informal network of builders forming and you're welcome to join us!