Renting A Nimble Nomad

In a little over a week the wife and I are headed north to Hibiscus Harbor in Cayuga, NY to rent a Nimble Nomad from Cruise-USA for a trip on the Erie Canal. If anyone has done this we would appreciate all of the tips and advice you have to offer, be it about the tip and/or the boat. I have extensive experience in handling small fishing boats, have driven larger ones up to 26’ but never a displacement hull craft. We tent camped for 40 years then got ourselves a 16’ T@B travel trailer so we know how to pack light and eat easy. Has anyone rented this boat, if so what can we expect from the folks at the marina as well as the host and hostess in Cayuga? How does one pump out these things? How long does it take to fill the holding tank? Any little tidbit of what you might consider useless information will be welcomed by us. Thank you for your help.

Missed again, there are many threads on the Erie canal system if you use the search on the forum, one of which is very current. I also found the guide by Skipper Bob to be very useful for the Erie and the Trent and very reasonably prices http://www.waterwayguide.com/shipstore/product_info.php?ref=2&products_id=63. How quickly you fill up the holding tank varies on size of the tank, number of people, personal practices like using public facilities when available, so you will just have to get a feel for it. We can generally go at least 5 days between pumpouts on our boat with 2 people. Most importantly, relax and enjoy the trip, Enjoy!!

How did it go?

How was your trip? Pictures? Things you'd do again or skip next time? How was your rental experience?

Animal said:

How was your trip? Pictures? Things you'd do again or skip next time? How was your rental experience?

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Yes! Yes! Do tell. How was your trip?

And, you know, If you don't post pictures, we'll assume it didn't really happen.

Read his post!

On 8/5 and said it would be over a week before he even started. So, unless he went for only a few days, he's still out there, and, hopefully having fun!

Give the man some time.

We have just retired from having our evening cocktails on the fantail, the view of the canal was gorgeous, the weather cool and dry, and the folks friendly. It has been a great trip. We are moored at the dock in Newark, NY on the Erie Canal rocking to and fro, my wife will soon be asleep. So far our travels through New York have been enjoyable, before we picked up the boat we stayed at three state parks and visited a fourth. We are ending the second day of our canal voyage, we will keep going west through tomorrow then turn around Thursday and head back to Cayuga Lake and the home port of our little boat.
The boat has been fine, we are quite accustomed to its offerings and accommodations. As I said a parallel is how we land travel and are quite accustomed to living with limited space. And also as I stated before this is my first experience with a displacement hull boat, I have found it is a bit “sluggish” compared to what I am accustomed. At first this, and the wind, caused some anxious moments when going through the locks which I had never done before either but am now starting to get the hang of. This little thing doesn’t track very well either so you have to keep your eye on which direction you’re headed or you will soon be into the bank. For all you Nimble fans other than that it’s a fine craft, had I a place to really have use of a boaterhome I would consider one. If the wife likes our adventure enough……….
Pictures will follow when we get back home.

Glad to hear you're enjoying your trip. We love our Nimble Nomad and had a great trip on the Erie Canal last month. You are right, though. They do tend to want to turn in circles if left to themselves.

Some pics from our trip last month:

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing - looks like a great trip! Did they require any previous boating experience or provide instruction prior to your departure?

Animal said:

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing - looks like a great trip! Did they require any previous boating experience or provide instruction prior to your departure?

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That is not a rental boat. That is my own Nimble Nomad.

Apologies - confused with OP. Still looks great though!!

No problem. Thanks. Can't wait to see some pics from the OP. Here's some more from our trip:

Great pics L&F!!
Makes you wonder if a Nomad wouldn't make a great canal cruiser in Europe..

With one exception our trip has been just fine. The wife and I went west from Lake Cayuga on the canal staying in Clyde and Newark going and coming, turning around after one night in Fairport. The trip has been very nice and I must say everybody we met was very friendly, both towns people as well as boaters, and were very helpful when need be. As for who these folks rent to I suppose they screen out those with no or very little boating experience, I would not suggest such a trip to a novice. Our orientation, about thirty minutes out of a two hour conversation, was about the functions of the craft, AC-DC power, where the switches were, how to turn this or that on or off, but nothing on seamanship. They did warn me about the time it took to slow or stop the vessel as it weighs about 4000 pounds and it only has a 50 for power. I suppose anybody can tie a knot in a rope but there was nothing said about mooring, rules of the road, etc. It doesn’t take much but I expect they expect anyone to hire this boat to have some experience.

The down side to our trip has been the odor of gas fumes in the boat. My wife, whose nose is much more sensitive than mine, picked up on it as we were in the first day, I noticed it a day or so later. While we are traveling with everything open it is no problem but as we sit her moored to a dock and the wind dies down as dusk descends it becomes a problem. It was so bad this morning we decided to contact the owners, they sent a mechanic out right off but no compromises in any system were found. Now the question is, and you Nimble Nomad owners can chime in, is this the first time anyone has heard of this problem, is this an inherent characteristic of this particular brand boat or does it come with boats built like this one with a below deck encapsulated gas tank. Outboards have a blower in the bilge but since this one is an outboard it is not required. Maybe needed but not required. Opinions on this problem are welcome.

I can only presume that there must be something amiss that the owner didn't find. Sorry to hear that you had an issue on your trip.

We rented exactly that boat for that trip and had a wonderful time! I would recommend it to anyone!

As for the smell of fuel; we didn't experience that so something has gone amiss since we used it. It's clearly not a Nomad problem, perhaps a fitting is loose somewhere.