35 Mainship

35 Mainship Review

Source: Peter A. Janssen, Yachting Magazine

Walking down the dock at the Sea Isle Marina during the Miami boat show, I did a double take when I saw the big sign saying “World Premiere 35 Trawler” on the back of a new Mainship. The boat clearly had the Mainship family look, with attractive clean lines; it seemed functional and user-friendly, ready to take you and your family or friends cruising for a weekend, a week, or more. But then I stepped inside and realized that this was a new breed of Mainship. The light, bright salon had big windows all around; the galley was up, so that passengers had a place to sit under way and watch the view go by, a large master forward and, the real news, a second stateroom below on the port side, opposite the single head with a big shower. All this on a 35-foot boat with a good-size foredeck, a nice cockpit with tons of storage, an extra-large flying bridge with room for socializing and even an optional summer galley in back. A whole lot of boat here, I thought to myself.

Then I ran into my old friend Jim Krueger, the vice president of Mainship Trawlers. As he walked me through the boat, he mentioned that it probably would be going to the Mainship dealer in Fort Myers after the show. Would I like to come along? As you can imagine, I replied affirmatively in, well, a New York minute.

So there I was, at 8:30 on a very cold morning, the day after the show ended, climbing on the boat with Krueger. The first thing I realized is that the Mainship 35 (which replaces the popular Mainship 34 in the company’s fleet) is indeed an easy-to-run, easy-to-like boat. As Krueger maneuvered with the standard bow and stern thrusters (the boat has a single 380 hp Yanmar diesel), I handled the lines, taking them off the dock and then the outer pilings. This was easy because the boat’s covered side walkways are wide and deep and there are stainless-steel grab rails everywhere. This is a family-friendly vessel; even going up to the bridge you climb up a set of eight stairs (yes, stairs, not steps on a ladder) with a super-size stainless grab rail ready for your right hand.

Our first (and only) decision was whether to head for Fort Myers via the north route (go up to Stuart and then across the Okeechobee Waterway, which I had done before), or go south to the Keys, hang a right and go north up the Gulf side (which I had not). The wind, blowing about 20 knots out of the north, made the decision easy. We headed south, barely making the 9 a.m. opening of the Venetian Causeway Bridge, joining a parade of other new boats leaving the show.

We settled into two of the three swivel chairs on the bridge, taking turns driving, as we headed down the inside route, the Intracoastal Waterway, to the middle of the Keys, aiming for Islamorada, about halfway down to Key West, where we would make the turn north for Fort Myers. As the day heated up, the enclosed bridge, with an L-shaped settee and a folding fiberglass table on the port side and a settee on the starboard, was warm and comfortable. “This is like a Florida sunroom,” Krueger said, as we stripped off our jackets and fleece a sunroom with an optional summer galley with a refrigerator, a sink and a Magma grill all the way aft.

This inside route to the Keys is relatively protected and beautiful, with gorgeous light-green water that often gets thin very quickly outside the well-marked channel. As the day wore on, we cruised at an easy 14 or 15 knots down Card Sound, Barnes Sound and Florida Bay, the wind behind us, the open water increasingly interrupted by narrow cuts through mangroves, the low archipelago of the Keys always off to our port side. We encountered only a handful of other boats, but we passed dolphins, pelicans and an occasional osprey on a day marker.

By mid-afternoon we pulled into our destination, Plantation Yacht Harbor in Islamorada, which bills itself as “the sport fishing capital of the world,” with easy access to Florida Bay, our route or, a few miles down, the Atlantic Ocean. The newly renovated docks were immaculate, with 85 slips and a 42-acre park with a swimming pool and tennis courts next door. We still had 150 miles to go to Fort Myers the next day, so we topped off the Mainship’s 250-gallon tank, finding that we had been burning roughly a gallon a mile at our 14- or 15-knot cruising speed, a very impressive performance.

After we tied up, Krueger walked me through the boat, showing the three spots for engine access via a hatch in the salon sole, a lazarette in the cockpit and the lower stairs, leading to the bridge, that lift up on a hinge. The salon was bright and cheerful, with cherry hardwood throughout, an inviting galley with cooktop and microwave, and a generous Corian counter with a large, deep sink to port; a three-person sofa (convertible to a bed) to starboard; the dinette (seating two easily on each side) in front of the galley; and a very professional-looking helm with a wooden wheel and a wooden pod to starboard with a door next to the helmsman, so he can get to the deck easily. A nice touch: a leaning post behind the helm, so you can drive standing up or half-sitting.

We had dinner at a sports bar a short walk down U.S. 1 from the marina, crashed and woke up early the next day. The night had been cold with a heavy wind, but in the morning it was down to 10 or 15 knots. We were off the dock at 6:40, continued down the waterway 10 miles or so to Old Dan Bank, and then turned up toward Cape Sable, running at a slower 13 or 14 knots between stakes, day markers and very thin water. As we passed Cape Sable and the start of the Everglades, there were crab pots everywhere, but then we had an easy long leg up the Gulf coast past the gleaming white beaches stretching north from Cape Romano past Marco Island and Naples heading for our waypoint off the 98-foot-high Sanibel Island light. After we passed it, we turned up the Caloosahatchee River to Fort Myers and tied up in the soft evening light just after 6 p.m. at Legacy Harbour Marina, home of Bayside Yacht Sales, the Mainship dealer.

By the time we cleaned up the boat and headed up the dock, it was dark, but we were happy. We’d spent two full days on the Mainship 35, a very comfortable, economical cruising boat with lots of easy living space throughout. I didn’t want to leave.