Choosing a boat for the loop, the height should not be greater than 20 feet to fit under the bridge near Chicago. If your clearance is less than 17 feet then some alternate routes may be taken such as the Champlain Canal and the downtown Chicago route. If your clearance is less than 15.5 feet then you have a choice of taking the Western Erie Canal to Buffalo and continuing to Cleveland and Detroit. Your draft should be less than 5 feet for the Trent-Severn Waterway. The ICW from Florida to Norfolk often have shoal areas reported and therefore a smaller draft is better. If your draft is less than 4.5 feet then you may take a side trip up Crystal River and you may take the Florida Keys ICW. If your draft is less than 4 feet you have the option of taking the Rideau Canal and possibly the northern half of New Jersey ICW. Alan Lloyd Author, Great Loop Navigation Notes _www.NavigationNotes.com_ (http://www.NavigationNotes.com) In a message dated 10/22/2015 2:58:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jkeischen@gmail.com writes: I'm in the market for a trawler to do the loop with Based on your experiences what would be the top 4 of 5 items the boat should have or meet? Height, depth, etc