A good question to ask yourself before purchasing a boat to do the Loop is: "Is it the boat we want after completing the Loop" After 9 nears after completing our Great Loop, we still enjoy cruising the Chesapeake Bay on ours! I think that prospective Loopers might benefit from reading some of our articles on long range cruising in the ARTICLES section of our website -- # 6 A Tale of Two Boats and # 11 The Ideal Looper boat. Be sure to click on the link to the full article (more - PDF). We have completely re-powered our boat - 2 - new 8.1 Ltr. Crusader engines, new Westerbek CO-Safe generator, etc. and new chart plotter to extend her life. Note: the amount to re-power was less than the cost of a similar boat with diesel engines!!! However with all the fuel availability problems on the "Heartland Rivers" now, we might have opted for diesel power. John and Judy Gill Delaware River Sail & Power Squadron, D/5 Two J’s V, a 36 ft. Carver Mariner Slip E-26, Sassafras Harbor Marina, Georgetown, MD AGLCA Life Members, Gold Flag Loopers AGLCA Harbor Hosts for the Northern Chesapeake Bay USPS Life Members & CPS-ECP Members eMail: < jjgill@twojscom.com > Website: <http://www.twojscom.com/GreatLoop/>

Do yourself a favor and take a look at a cruising catamaran. A PDQ or an Endeavour. Shallow draft, low air draft, economical, and roomy for a smaller boat + stability. We have owned a big trawler and now a PDQ. Big trawler was big to take care of and somewhat fuel efficient at 1.78nmpg. PDQ was not quite as big to take care of and to maneuver and gets 3.89nmpg. Parts for small diesel engines are so much cheaper than for big diesel engines. Paige & Mike Caldwell Email:  MPonGolden@gmail.com Website/All Trip Logs:  www.GoldenTrawler.com -----Original Message----- From: Great-Loop [mailto:great-loop-bounces@lists.trawlering.com] On Behalf Of John & Judy Gill Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 4:24 PM To: Loop List Great, Loop List Subject: Re: GL: LOOKING FOR ADVICE A good question to ask yourself before purchasing a boat to do the Loop is: "Is it the boat we want after completing the Loop" After 9 nears after completing our Great Loop, we still enjoy cruising the Chesapeake Bay on ours! I think that prospective Loopers might benefit from reading some of our articles on long range cruising in the ARTICLES section of our website -- # 6 A Tale of Two Boats and # 11 The Ideal Looper boat. Be sure to click on the link to the full article (more - PDF). We have completely re-powered our boat - 2 - new 8.1 Ltr. Crusader engines, new Westerbek CO-Safe generator, etc. and new chart plotter to extend her life. Note: the amount to re-power was less than the cost of a similar boat with diesel engines!!! However with all the fuel availability problems on the "Heartland Rivers" now, we might have opted for diesel power. John and Judy Gill Delaware River Sail & Power Squadron, D/5 Two J’s V, a 36 ft. Carver Mariner Slip E-26, Sassafras Harbor Marina, Georgetown, MD AGLCA Life Members, Gold Flag Loopers AGLCA Harbor Hosts for the Northern Chesapeake Bay USPS Life Members & CPS-ECP Members eMail: < jjgill@twojscom.com > Website: <http://www.twojscom.com/GreatLoop/> _______________________________________________ http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) go to: http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/options/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com

Along with all the other things that have been discussed regarding a good boat for cruising (I think limiting your search to a "loop boat" is a mistake), don't forget to check on the difficulty/ease of maintenance. Not all cats are created equal in that regard. As much as I like catamarans (and trimarans, for that matter), I've seen some 40+ foot cats that stow the engines near the aft end of the amas and require you to lie on top of them (think warm engine here) to do so little as to check the oil. Living space is one thing; space to perform ordinary maintenance is another check list item. <><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><> Bob McLeran and Judy Young Manatee Cove Marina MV Sanderling Patrick Air Force Base DeFever 41 Trawler Satellite Beach, Florida Blog: http://mvsanderling.net/Blog Web: http://cruising.mvsanderling.net/ On 3/12/2013 4:53 PM, Paige & Mike Caldwell wrote: > Do yourself a favor and take a look at a cruising catamaran. A PDQ or an > Endeavour. Shallow draft, low air draft, economical, and roomy for a > smaller boat + stability. We have owned a big trawler and now a PDQ. Big > trawler was big to take care of and somewhat fuel efficient at 1.78nmpg. > PDQ was not quite as big to take care of and to maneuver and gets 3.89nmpg. > Parts for small diesel engines are so much cheaper than for big diesel > engines.

I ran a couple of cats to include a PDQ they are nice but some have severe access restrictions. Some cats require the stern of the amas to be raised which give good access to engines however consider doing that in any kind of sea state. Others have equipment buried under the beds. The other issue with them is that they can be more weight sensitive then a full displacement boat. The more you load them the deeper they draft and the shorter the clearance to the bridge deck from the water. If loaded enough the bridge deck can get slapped (very annoying and loud) in short steep seas when there is not enough reserve buoyancy in the forward amas because of loading. Their speed and efficiencies fall off...still good though. This was more of a problem with the earlier models based purely on sailing cat hulls. The more recent designs from the ground up as power cats are much better. The other problem is in dock space. Very few marina have slips wide enough to accommodate a cats beam and will turn you away unless they have an available face dock or t head. Heck, at our 16' we have issues sometimes. Cats handle very well but all boats are have some compromise. Joe M/V "Carolyn Ann" GH N-37 MTOA# 3813 AGLCA# 5485 (Platinum Looper) http://carolynann-n37.blogspot.com/ Joseph.pica@gmail.com -----Original Message----- From: Great-Loop [mailto:great-loop-bounces@lists.trawlering.com] On Behalf Of Bob McLeran Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 5:52 PM To: great-loop@lists.trawlering.com Subject: Re: GL: LOOKING FOR ADVICE Along with all the other things that have been discussed regarding a good boat for cruising (I think limiting your search to a "loop boat" is a mistake), don't forget to check on the difficulty/ease of maintenance. Not all cats are created equal in that regard. As much as I like catamarans (and trimarans, for that matter), I've seen some 40+ foot cats that stow the engines near the aft end of the amas and require you to lie on top of them (think warm engine here) to do so little as to check the oil. Living space is one thing; space to perform ordinary maintenance is another check list item. <><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><> Bob McLeran and Judy Young Manatee Cove Marina MV Sanderling Patrick Air Force Base DeFever 41 Trawler Satellite Beach, Florida Blog: http://mvsanderling.net/Blog Web: http://cruising.mvsanderling.net/ On 3/12/2013 4:53 PM, Paige & Mike Caldwell wrote: > Do yourself a favor and take a look at a cruising catamaran. A PDQ or an > Endeavour. Shallow draft, low air draft, economical, and roomy for a > smaller boat + stability. We have owned a big trawler and now a PDQ. Big > trawler was big to take care of and somewhat fuel efficient at 1.78nmpg. > PDQ was not quite as big to take care of and to maneuver and gets 3.89nmpg. > Parts for small diesel engines are so much cheaper than for big diesel > engines. _______________________________________________ http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) go to: http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/options/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com

Having lost an engine on a chartered cat in the Bahamas in calm seas but far from land, I can tell you that cats cannot be steered with one engine. The rudders aren't enough to counteract the off-center force, so they just go round in circles. I've tried this with both motor cats and sail cats. In fact, every time I get on one I start one engine to see if I can find a design that doesn't do this. So far, no go. Thus, one of the primary apparent benefits--twin engines for redundancy--seems to be a myth. Steve Petranek S/V "Bayla" Passport 470 On Mar 12, 2013, at 9:04 PM, Joseph Pica wrote: > I ran a couple of cats to include a PDQ they are nice but some have severe > access restrictions. Some cats require the stern of the amas to be raised > which give good access to engines however consider doing that in any kind of > sea state. Others have equipment buried under the beds. The other issue > with them is that they can be more weight sensitive then a full displacement > boat. The more you load them the deeper they draft and the shorter the > clearance to the bridge deck from the water. If loaded enough the bridge > deck can get slapped (very annoying and loud) in short steep seas when there > is not enough reserve buoyancy in the forward amas because of loading. Their > speed and efficiencies fall off...still good though. This was more of a > problem with the earlier models based purely on sailing cat hulls. The more > recent designs from the ground up as power cats are much better. The other > problem is in dock space. Very few marina have slips wide enough to > accommodate a cats beam and will turn you away unless they have an available > face dock or t head. Heck, at our 16' we have issues sometimes. Cats > handle very well but all boats are have some compromise. > > Joe > > M/V "Carolyn Ann" GH N-37 > MTOA# 3813 > AGLCA# 5485 (Platinum Looper) > http://carolynann-n37.blogspot.com/ > Joseph.pica@gmail.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: Great-Loop [mailto:great-loop-bounces@lists.trawlering.com] On Behalf > Of Bob McLeran > Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 5:52 PM > To: great-loop@lists.trawlering.com > Subject: Re: GL: LOOKING FOR ADVICE > > Along with all the other things that have been discussed regarding a > good boat for cruising (I think limiting your search to a "loop boat" is > a mistake), don't forget to check on the difficulty/ease of maintenance. > Not all cats are created equal in that regard. > > As much as I like catamarans (and trimarans, for that matter), I've seen > some 40+ foot cats that stow the engines near the aft end of the amas > and require you to lie on top of them (think warm engine here) to do so > little as to check the oil. > > Living space is one thing; space to perform ordinary maintenance is > another check list item. > > <><><><><><><><><><><><>Mozilla Thunderbird<><><><><><><><><><> > Bob McLeran and Judy Young Manatee Cove Marina > MV Sanderling Patrick Air Force Base > DeFever 41 Trawler Satellite Beach, Florida > Blog: http://mvsanderling.net/Blog > Web: http://cruising.mvsanderling.net/ > > On 3/12/2013 4:53 PM, Paige & Mike Caldwell wrote: >> Do yourself a favor and take a look at a cruising catamaran. A PDQ or an >> Endeavour. Shallow draft, low air draft, economical, and roomy for a >> smaller boat + stability. We have owned a big trawler and now a PDQ. Big >> trawler was big to take care of and somewhat fuel efficient at 1.78nmpg. >> PDQ was not quite as big to take care of and to maneuver and gets > 3.89nmpg. >> Parts for small diesel engines are so much cheaper than for big diesel >> engines. > > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com > > To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address, > unsubscribe, etc.) go to: > http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/options/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com > > > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com > > To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address, > unsubscribe, etc.) go to: http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/options/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com