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Model profile · for Great Loop buyers
Marine Trader 50 Wide Body
What the published record establishes about this model, what owners report,
and the questions worth asking while a boat is still a listing. This page is about the
MODEL — a specific hull always gets its own homework.
A heavily built, keel-protected twin-diesel trawler well suited to the Loop's slow pace, but a marketer's boat whose age-driven fuel-tank, deck, and systems condition varies hull-to-hull.
The Marine Trader 50 Wide Body is a Taiwanese-built (Lien Hwa yard) long-range trawler-style motor yacht with a solid fiberglass hull, deep forefoot, and long prop-protecting keel; the full-width salon variant was introduced around 1985 and features a central lower corridor with the engines in separate compartments either side. Marine Trader was a marketer rather than a single builder, so quality and condition vary boat-to-boat and year-to-year. Model-specific forum intelligence on the 50 Wide Body is thin — most owner discussion concerns smaller Marine Traders or the MT 50/49 generally — so several items below are brand/family-level and should be verified on the specific hull rather than assumed.
How to read this: 🟢 Fact = confirmed against a document, spec sheet,
or owner. Everything else — Claim, Pattern, Question, Context — is not yet
verified: things to check, not settled truth. Sources are linked where published.
Model background
CONTEXT
Full-width salon with central corridor and separate engine rooms
The Wide Body carries a full-width main salon and a salon day head; below, a central lower corridor separates the two engines into individual compartments. Non-wide-body 50s lacked the hallway. This defines how you move through and service the boat.
src:
Trawler Forum; HMY Yachts powerboat guide
CONTEXT
Marine Trader was a marketer, not a single builder
Different Marine Trader boats and years were built in different Taiwanese yards, so build quality and condition vary considerably from hull to hull. Treat every finding as hull-specific until proven otherwise; a good survey matters more here than on a single-factory brand.
src:
The Hull Truth
Air draft
CONTEXT
Flybridge, arch and antennas drive true air draft
As a flybridge trawler this model carries a radar arch/mast and antennas that add height above the listed figure. Published and brokerage air-draft numbers are unreliable because arches, masts, and dinghies are not standardized. The real number must be measured on the specific boat, and you must identify what can be lowered or removed for low bridges.
src:
Trawler Forum
Your move: Physically measure air draft to the highest fixed point on this hull and list every item that can be unbolted or folded to reduce it.
Fuel & range
CLAIM
Slow displacement cruise around 8–9 knots on large fuel tankage
Broker/manufacturer descriptions put cruise at roughly 8–9 knots with fuel capacity around 750 gallons, implying a long theoretical range. Twin engines will burn more total gph than a single-Lehman 40-footer at the same speed, and delivery skippers warn that owner burn estimates run optimistic — treat any long-range figure as unverified until logged on this boat.
src:
HMY Yachts; Trawler Forum
QUESTION
What is the actual measured gallons-per-hour at Loop cruise speed on this hull?
No logged real-world gph from an actual MT 50 Wide Body owner surfaced in research; comparable single-Lehman trawlers report modest burn, but this is a heavier twin-engine boat. Knowing true burn is what turns tank capacity into usable range for planning fuel stops.
src:
Trawler Forum
Your move: Ask the owner for a fuel log, or run the boat at 7–8 knots during sea trial and record gph from the flow meters or by top-off.
Systems
QUESTION
Have the fuel tanks been replaced, and what material are they now?
Original black-iron fuel tanks are the most-cited big-ticket problem on these boats — corrosion and leaks above the tanks run into the thousands to remedy. Many originals have been replaced by now; a boat with documented tank replacement is worth seeking out.
src:
The Hull Truth; Boatered
Your move: Get the tank material, age, and any replacement invoices in writing, and have the surveyor inspect tank tops and fittings for rust and weeping.
QUESTION
Does the boat have dual 30-amp shore service, and is the AC wiring stranded?
Some Marine Traders were wired with only a single 30-amp circuit, making it hard to run more than one air-conditioning unit at once — a real constraint for a Loop liveaboard in summer heat. Some also used solid wire for AC circuits; rewiring is not difficult but should be budgeted.
src:
Boatered
Your move: Confirm the number of shore-power inlets/circuits and inspect the panel and AC wiring during survey.
CLAIM
Aging plumbing and tankage across the brand
Bad tanks and plumbing are recurring complaints on older Marine Traders. On a boat of this age, water, holding, and fuel plumbing may be original and due for attention.
src:
The Hull Truth
Hull & structure
QUESTION
Are the decks soft or delaminated anywhere?
Soft, cored decks from water intrusion are among the most-cited structural problems on older Taiwanese trawlers of this type; leaks at deck hardware and cabin joints let water into the core over decades. Repairs can be extensive depending on how widespread the wet coring is.
src:
The Hull Truth
Your move: Have the surveyor moisture-meter and sound the sidedecks, foredeck, and flybridge deck, and open suspect areas.
Handling
CONTEXT
Long keel protects running gear and tracks well at slow speed
The solid FRP hull with deep forefoot and long prop-protecting keel suits the Loop's displacement-speed cruising and offers some grounding protection for the props and shafts — helpful on shallow, debris-prone stretches. Full-keel trawlers trade some low-speed maneuverability for that protection.
src:
HMY Yachts
Engines
The engines research — factory options, tested performance,
and the engine-specific questions our members' dossiers carry — is part of the
full profile inside the product. It travels with every dossier and survey brief
built on this model.
Looking at a specific 50 Wide Body?
This page is the model's story. The product reads an actual listing against it —
your requirements, the hard gates, the record cross-checks, and the questions ready
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