New Game - Rules & Round 1

As a newbie, what or where is the Great Loop?

Thanks,

Bill

Kwajdiver said:

As a newbie, what or where is the Great Loop?

Thanks,

Bill

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A water route popular with some cruisers around the Eastern third of the United States.

Kwajdiver said:

As a newbie, what or where is the Great Loop?

Thanks,

Bill

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Here you go, Kwaj.

America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association

Thanks guys, that would be fun for a year or so.

Bill

The Nordhavn 46 has always been on my list as a proven short handed passagemaker, I have a friend who had one and has recently moved up to the N57 for more livability etc. They have their draw backs for sure... squatty engine room, less interior space than other 45/46 more coastal boats, high cost.. to name a few. As far as fuel add a bladder for the really long passages and transfer fuel as soon as you can get it in the tanks, the flip side to the smaller tanks are you don't have either a huge amount of fuel that you need to use if you don't do really long voyages often ( like a pacific crossing ) or a hull full of half empty tanks. They are set up to take heavier weather than the smaller Krogens and some of the other " trawlers" (not bashing Krogens.. they are a great boat and i really like them too) .

As far as the D. Ducks are concerned beauty must be in the eye of the beholder, I don't care for the looks at all.. and the livability doesn't seem right...too much like a lot of sail boats.. a cave. I spent some time aboard the D. Duck that I think is the best example ( 10&2 built locally ) and the boat would not be great at anchor... but if you just wanted to circumnavigate fast it would be fantastic. It was built to perfection ( not a Chinese built one.... we had a local one of those and in a short time rust was bleeding through the paint system on the outside)

As has been mentioned here before there are not many TRUE sub 50' passagemakers out there.. coastal cruising with a range of 1500/1700 miles there are a lot more boats that will fit. most of the time the boat you buy is related to what you can afford not what you really want.
I am helping the owner of the N57 run the boat to Mexico the first of December, I will add thoughts on the Nordhavn after the trip.

What boat will I buy... have not decided yet.. either a 45/47' single engine trawler or we night go back to sailing and get a 42/44' catamaran ..only time will tell

HOLLYWOOD

I would have to say a custom built 50 foot raised pilothouse made of steel set up the systems I wanted. George Buehler has designed an 80 foot version of this boat for a customer while the one I have drawn up is 50 and very similar to his 80 footer and could be built for 500k. All of the Hatt LRC's I have seen have had DD4-71 or 4-53 engines in them and if I had to purchase an existing boat for the trip I would probably go with the Hatteras and strip and refit as needed.

Sun-we have not as yet made a crossing-we have gone from Seattle to San Diego and back. Our longest run was 7 days and 6 nights. Once our daughter finishes high school in 4 years, we will be leaving the dirt for good. Plans are to go through the canal and eventually cross to the Med via Bermuda and the Azores. I do know at least 3 KKs that have made the Atlantic crossing, 2 58's and a 48. There is a 58 in the South Paciic now that left from the Canal late last year. Their intent is to go all the way around via South Africa. Not sure if a complete circumnav is on our bucket list, but at least getting to Europe definitely is. But, short or long trip, our boat, and the Krogen company, have been everything we expected it to be. And that is even with me doing almost all the work on it myself!

Here is another great boat that would fit the bill nicely ! The 54 Krogen, not too many around but a beautiful boat.

1988 Krogen 54' Pilothouse Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Great Discussion! Thanks for all the inputs. Let's keep it going - Lots of talk about hull material and seakeeping ability as one would expect with a circumnavigation scenario. What about a discussion on systems? Which systems on either the two options presented (or the several alternatives offered) would you consider to be beneficial for such a journey? Icemaker springs to mind Active stabs vs stab rig?

RFunk said:

Here is another great boat that would fit the bill nicely ! The 54 Krogen, not too many around but a beautiful boat.

1988 Krogen 54' Pilothouse Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

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I like what they've done with the exterior teak.

RFunk said:

Here is another great boat that would fit the bill nicely ! The 54 Krogen, not too many around but a beautiful boat.

1988 Krogen 54' Pilothouse Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

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That is one great looking boat!

RFunk said:

Here is another great boat that would fit the bill nicely ! The 54 Krogen, not too many around but a beautiful boat.

1988 Krogen 54' Pilothouse Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

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Wow - Gorgeous boat with lots of rooms and 2gph @ 7 knots. Looks like a lot of boat for the money and a very good candidate for this Round 1 scenario! that may be a winner for me.

In 2008, Bill Van lenthe took his Kadey Krogen 44 from New York to Plymouth, England via the Azores.
The boat is called "Le Reve' and his blog documents the trip and a subsequent trip via European canals and rivers, down the Danube to the Black Sea thence to the Mediteranean. The boat is now wintering in Turkey.

weebobby said:

...wintering in Turkey.

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That phrase is going to ring in my cranium for a very long time. Something quite nice about the sounds of that!! Been to Turkey a couple times, would not mind wintering there!

Sounds like a nice trip. I'll look for the blog.

Animal-you can find a link to the La Reve blog onthe KK website under "Owners' Blogs". It is pretty cool reading, especially the trip down the Danube.

THD said:

Animal-you can find a link to the La Reve blog onthe KK website under "Owners' Blogs". It is pretty cool reading, especially the trip down the Danube.

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Thanks! Will do tonight - Love the KK App on my iPad!

Animal said:

Active stabs vs stab rig?

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Active stabilizers work great but they can not work, too. I prefer a boat to be a simple as possible so I would want passive stabilizers (birds) over active stabilizers even though the fins are more effective. There are boats out there that if the stabilizers quit working in rough water (or in the case of the infamous GB66, at the dock) the boat is almost uninhabitable. So I'll take passive stabilizers.

Marin said:

Active stabilizers work great but they can not work, too. I prefer a boat to be a simple as possible so I would want passive stabilizers (birds) over active stabilizers even though the fins are more effective. There are boats out there that if the stabilizers quit working in rough water (or in the case of the infamous GB66, at the dock) the boat is almost uninhabitable. So I'll take passive stabilizers.

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What's the GB66's story?

Marin-I would think that having stabilizers fail at the dock would be the best possible place for them to fail, unless you are in a really rough marina!

Larry M said:

What's the GB66's story?

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It's a long story. GB only made three of them and today they don't even acknowledge their existance. One of them was commissioned in Bellingham and one of the shipwrights who worked on it told me horror stories about its stability. He semi-seriously said that it needed the stabilizers turned on just to stay upright at the dock.

The GB Europa design only works aesthetically up to a certain size. The still-produced GB52 is pushing that limit. The GB66 was in the eyes of everyone except their owners, hideous.

Two of them used to show up here once or twice a year. I haven't seen either one of them for some time now. One of them went on the Grand Banks-sponsored cruise to SE Alaska a number of years ago and it ripped one of its stabilizers off on a rock. Only very fast thinking and acting on the part of the GB reps on the cruise prevented the boat from turing over and sinking.

Marin, wasn't the Grand Banks Aleutian 66 model a Tom Fexas design?

I'm not talking about an Aleutian model here. I'm talking about the Grand Banks 66. As such it was a 66-foot version of the GB52, GB46, etc . It was a giant version of a GB Europa using the same basic Ken Smith hull as all the rest of the GB line. The Aleutian is a whole different model.

Breaks the budget, but the Octopus could fill the bill with a crew of 60, two helicopters, submarines, launch and various dinghys.

I have been in love with that KK54 for years now. If it is the same oone it has been for sale for over 6 years. The first time I saw it they were asking 549K. I love the lines and that forward mast crows nest. I would have to get a wireless Autopilot just so I could hang out up there all day.

Crows nests are neat. But are they ever used?

Thy might get used in places with clear water and uncharted coral heads....lot's of people swear by visual nav when crossing shallow banks such as the Bahamas or the Keys.

markpierce said:

Crows nests are neat. But are they ever used?

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When we were in the South Pacific if you had one, you used it. The alternative was have rat lines or be up in the spreaders. Having the fly bridge when in and around coral is a plus.

psneeld said:

Thy might get used in places with clear water and uncharted coral heads....lot's of people swear by visual nav when crossing shallow banks such as the Bahamas or the Keys.

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Right. It's called eye ball navigation down here.