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Old 08-03-2014, 11:37 AM   #24
Jeffrey S
Scraping Paint
 
City: Full-time onboard
Vessel Model: Trawler
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 929
> I'm curious how you got along with such a "large boat" on the Erie.

Out arch folds although it takes 3-4 guys to do it. We took care of that at Shady Harbor on the Hudson. They built some basic blocking for it along with a zipperable shrinkwrap cover because there were areas that would get direct rain that typically don't get that wet. We had Rich's Marine in Buffalo help to put it back together. That part was all quite simple and inexpensive.

We got down to 14'8". The lowest bridge is about 15' although the lockmasters can give you another couple of inches.

We draw 6'. Depth was never an issue. ActiveCaptain had one shoaling hazard on the western side. I removed it when we went through because there was 11'. NYS confirmed that they had dredged it in spring 2013.

We were the largest boat we saw on the western side. It's what helped to bring out townspeople every night wondering how we did it.


> I'm concerned about the availability of suitably sized docks given
> there are no anchorages, was this an issue and did it necessitate
> having to bypass some stops?

Space was never a problem and I was never concerned about it. I think our longest day on the western side was about 15 miles so if something didn't work out, there was always time to go to the next town. Only in Macdeon did we have an issue. We had met a couple of people at the town prior who invited us to Macedon. They have no town dock but there's a few hundred feet of lock wall at their lock. We got past the lock to see a few people waiting to say hello but they didn't realize that there were only 2 tug rings about 200 feet apart with no other way to tie our boat. We tried to figure out a way but couldn't. We went 5 miles further to Fairport. The Macedon people beat us there and grabbed our lines. That was our biggest "problem" day.

I had a few emails with the Macedon town officials over the last year. They supposedly got permission from the NY Thruway to put in about 8 new cleats to handle 60' and smaller boats. It's a lovely town and perhaps now it's yet another destination there. There are dozens of additional towns and walls possible with just a little expansion like that.

Bottom line: there are a lot of walls and locks and docks where you can spend the night. We never even thought about it.


> I'm also concerned with our windage and squeezing in among a
> raft of smaller boats. Did you find this to be a concern, ie: lock
> masters loaded appropriately? (we do not have thrusters)

While on the Erie Canal, Karen and I kept saying, "Every day is a boating day on the Erie Canal." There was not one day where we were delayed for weather. If we planned to spend 4 days in Lyons, on day 5, we left. The weather was always fine. The entire canal is very protected. There were some misty days and some rain. But the winds were never an issue for any day at all.

We never were in a situation where we needed to squeeze past other boats. Think of a nice canal opening into a wider section for a town with long walls on both sides. That's a lot of the configuration of each town. It's all the easiest side-to docking possible. I don't think we were in a real slip on the canal at all except maybe at Ess-Kay Marina (who had a courtesy car to allow us to provision up).

Lock loading is always done in the order of arrival. The lockmaster might arrange which sides the different boats go on but that's about it. The locks are all the same and after a couple, you'll be quite familiar with them. We always ran them with my wife amidships using a single line. I stayed at the controls to help maneuver the boat if needed.

I've posted this before but here's the first 9 locks in time lapse heading west - so it's the easternmost part of the canal:
http://youtu.be/fU0LKx6ewYs?list=UU0...ksSkRrDv4J7oxw

I'll also paste my favorite picture of our boat on the canal. It was just leaving Lyons. One of the townspeople were waiting at an overpass bridge and snapped the picture as we floated by. It perfectly captures the feeling of being on the Erie Canal. It also shows the configuration of our trawler with the arch down.
Attached Thumbnails
aCappella on the Erie Canal.jpg  
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