84 Feet of Steel for $175,001: The True Cost of a Trawler Conversion
M/Y ‘Jezebelle’ offers a staggering entry price into the heavy-displacement market. I break down her commercial Gulf Coast pedigree & budget required to finish her.
M/Y ‘Jezebelle’ offers a staggering entry price into the heavy-displacement market. We break down her commercial Gulf Coast pedigree, the exact yard budget required to finish her, and whether the final numbers actually make financial sense.
Over the weekend, I happened to stumble over another boat that currently fits somewhere between two explorer-yacht worlds. This boat is not a ‘motor yacht’ in the conventional sense. But she is not a commercial boat anymore either. So, for me, that in-between space was worth a much closer look.
The boat’s name is ‘Jezebelle’, and she is an 84-foot steel-hulled former shrimp trawler that is currently, at the time of writing this, sitting in Bayou La Batre with an asking price of $175,001. For 84 feet of steel, that is a very sensible number. My initial reaction was: how is that number possible, and is there a catch?
Well, depending on how you look at it, one could conclude that there is a catch. Personally, I would call it an opportunity, and really, it is the entire premise of the boat.
From the Gulf to the Yard
‘Jezebelle’ was built in 1977 by Master Marine, a yard with deep roots in Gulf Coast commercial shipbuilding. My research found that she is documented as a former refrigerated Gulf of America shrimp trawler, and records show that the same hull (#580685) was originally called ‘Master John’. So, already, we know that this boat was built for hard and unglamorous work on very demanding and unpredictable fishing grounds. Exactly the kind of work that would make her an exceptional explorer yacht.
Her LOA is noted as being 84 feet, though the reproduced survey records her registered length as 74.1 feet, which is often a normal gap on a working commercial hull. She has a beam of 22 feet and a draft of 7.6 feet. Tonnage is 121 tonnes. Her fuel capacity comes in at 12k gallons, with 3k gallons of water. As is to be expected, this boat was designed and built to spend extended periods of time at sea in all sea states.
She is powered by a 500hp 2014 Cummins KTA-19 M with 3,000 hours of operation logged. The current listing (details below) quotes an 8-knot cruising speed with a max speed of around 12 knots.
For anyone interested, Cummins published test-cycle data for the 500hp KTA19-M3 that gives fuel burn figures of between 17.5 and 25.4 US gallons per hour. So, we can deduce that her range is around 3,800 to 5,000 NM when motoring along at 8 knots. However, the listing only IDs the engine as “KTA-19 M” without confirming the exact variant, so this is a conditional model and not a measured burn rate.
When you factor in a 10% fuel reserve and a standard hotel load, then I would suggest that 3,000 to 4,400 nautical miles is probably the realistic ceiling. The broker does also note on the listing that the engine hours cannot be guaranteed.
‘Jezebelle’ currently holds USCG recreational documentation that was issued in November 2022. A condition and valuation survey was carried out towards the back end of 2023 and into 2024 while she was on the hard in Alabama, recording her official number as 580685 (IMO 7730367)
The survey does not ID a class cert, and its regulatory analysis found a trim and stability booklet was not required, and that is different from a blanket finding that no class requirement could ever apply. Of course, her future owner would confirm the details with a naval architect, flag state authority and an underwriter.
Put simply, she is currently a recreationally documented vessel and is not classed as a commercial vessel.
The part that explains the current asking price for ‘Jezebelle’ comes down to the fact that she is mid-conversion and therefore is not finished. The bow cabin is reported as being around 85% complete. The former fish hold, which will become the bulk of her accommodation, is still an open shell (the insulation and construction materials are noted as being on site.
She already has some ‘private motor yacht grade’ equipment, including a bow thruster, a hydraulic windlass, AC, inverter and a generator (although I could not find the exact make and model of the generator).
It is not often that you find a conversion of this calibre on the market with an asking price of $175,000, and I do think there is a very focused, albeit relatively niche, pool of buyers who will be looking for a vessel just like ‘Jezebelle’. I have a feeling that her future owner could be reading this article, as has been the case with many of the articles which I have written!
This article continues below. It is thanks to my premium newsletter subscribers that I am not only able to keep all of my articles independent, but also able to travel around and film explorer yachts for my YouTube channel.
In the premium section below, I cover:
- The conversion cost breakdown: budget estimates for survey, steel work, machinery recommissioning, systems, interior fit-out, and project management, from a bare minimum path to a fully finished expedition yacht
- The value-risk verdict: what this boat could realistically be worth once finished, weighed against genuine market reference points for similar steel trawler conversions
- M/Y ‘Pink Shrimp’, the proof of concept: how a comparable ex-fishing steel hull became a genuine charter yacht, and what that transformation can and cannot tell us about this boat’s future
- My honest assessment of the economics: whether buying cheap and finishing the job well actually beats buying an already-converted trawler yacht
- More pictures (including the interior) and broker’s details
For me, the real question with a boat like ‘Jezebelle’ is not necessarily “can I afford to buy her”, as the current asking price is a modest entry point for 84 feet of steel.
The real question for many people with the financial means needed to buy ‘Jezebelle’ is “can I afford to finish her,” and that is a completely different equation altogether.
Building the Conversion Budget…[article continues below]
