Twins Verses Singles
Occasionally, I am asked if I know whether Mainship builds more 400's as single engine, or in twin engine configuration. Here's your answer. This letter was posted 01/31/06, in response to discussion about twins verses singles in the marketing plans for Mainships
A letter from Jim Krueger, Mainship Director of Sales and Marketing, posted to the Mainship list at Yahoo e-groups.
"Hi Guys,
To give you Mainship's perspective on this - we offer a variety of
engine sizes and packages to meet the varying needs of our cruising
customers depending upon what engines are available and make sense at
the time of production. When the 350 trawler came out in 1997, it was
only available with twin Volvo 200's for the first year and Mainship
sold the first years production very quickly. As time went on, we began
to offer the single engine Cat 300 as well which became the dominant
engine for a number of years and then they offered the 350 version which
took over in popularity from the 300 (even though the 300 continued to
be offered). Today we are asked to build around 70 to 80% singles in
the 34 Pilot, 34 Trawler and 40 Trawler - twins have actually been
increasing in popularity the past two years. It seems that available
cruising time is still limited for many of our owners so the ability to
cruise at twelve to twenty knots or more continues to get stronger each
year. That is not to say that many don't throttle back when they have
the time, but the speed is there when you need it. The surprising part
is that even though we offer the 240 and 315 Yanmars in the 34 Trawler
nobody has taken us up on these economical engine packages.
In regards to the 43, we have built one hundred and one in the past five
years - all with twin 300 - 440 engines. The reason for the 540's is
that again we have been asked for cruising speeds above 20 knots for a
whole new group of owners that are coming to us from Sea Rays and
similar fast motor yachts. The 540's are also incredibly economical as
we got readings of just nine GPH at eight and a half knots (1200 mile
range) and thirty eight GPH at twenty two knots (530 mile range) in a
40,000 lb boat. We have not abandoned our core group which ask for the
twin 370 and 440 versions that cruise at 15 to 20 knots in this size
boat. And, we continue to get requests for a single engine version of
the 43 and plan to offer a single next model year. In the past five
years the number of requests for single engine 43's have been around one
percent, but I believe this number will grow once the first one is built
and our customer base get's a little older with more time to spend
cruising. So far, the 43 buyer is our youngest buyer, who has the least
time to cruise.
Someone made mention about offer the Yanmar 440 engine in the 40 Trawler
- maybe it isn't common knowledge yet, but the 440 is on the price list
for this model year and we have built four so far.
As a side note - two years ago I ran the 34 Trawler prototype (single
Yanmar 370) from Ga to Annapolis for the fall show. Two days were spent
running offshore in three to five foot seas (as far out as twenty miles)
and the furniture stayed in place on the carpeted floor (I did secure
the table as a precaution on the when there where five footers).
Regardless of the size boat I have run (up to 72'), I secure the
interior loose chairs and tables if I think that I am going to be in
conditions five feet or larger offshore and the seas are breaking close
together - large swells are totally different. I carry bungee cords and
ratchet straps as I like to run offshore versus the inland waterway when
conditions are reasonable. This year I was fortunate to put 180 running
hours on the new 43 Trawler, taking it from St Augustine to Annapolis
and back, and then from Tampa to Stuart, FL. On the trip to Annapolis,
we fought a tropical storm all the way with consistent winds 15 - 25
knots, gusting to 30 knots at times. The seas offshore ran from six to
thirteen feet so it made sense to stay inside all the way and even then,
there wasn't much traffic on the intercoastal waterway except for a few
large yachts heading south for the winter. On the return trip I choose
to run offshore from Norfolk down to Oregon Inlet (I should have stayed
offshore down to Moorehead City) and ran down Pamlico Sound to Beaufort
(five footers on the nose all the way down to Adams Creek). From
Beaufort we ran offshore direct to Charleston and then from Charleston
to St Augustine. These offshore direct routes saved us a lot of time
and miles and took us as far offshore as 40 plus miles. The seas going
to Charleston where two feet of less and the seas going to St Augustine
where three to five footers mostly on the nose. The 43 has a high gloss
floor and I put small anti skid feet on the sofa, table, chairs and bar
stools and not one moved or slid around the whole trip.
Yours truly,
Jim Krueger
Mainship Director of Sales and Marketing
PS: See you in St Augustine this weekend.
Nothing contained in this email is intended to be an offer to commit
Mainship Corporation to any purchase, sale, contract, or other course of action."