'05 Beneteau 42 trip review

We bought our 42 in March 2016 and started traveling from Vero Beach to Key West north to Charleston. Boat ran fine for the 150hours at 8-18kts.
We took the boat into the Beneteau dealer St Barts where we had outstanding service from JM and his service team, We had 13 new AGM batteries put in plus a 100A/3000W inverter for our extended time on the hook in the Bahamas in Jan-April. Also had several small issues were taken care of that really showed that JM knows these Swift Trawlers.
Leaving Charleston 3 weeks later we went up the ICW to Norfolk,up the Chespeak to C&D down to Cape May. Played tourist along the way ,anchored some nights and took slips others. Galley,A/C,gen,etc were fine-had some great meals on the grill. Most of the cruising was at 16kts in 2-3ft seas.
From Cape May we went up through NYC into LI Sound for stops at our old stomping grounds (we are from Boston) ,Mystic,Newport,Marthas Vineyard Cape Cod,Boston,Kittery Maine over the next 2 months-again a mix of moorings ,and slips. We traveled at 15-16kts most of the time between harbors-this is very comfortable with trim tabs down and at 2400RPM.
Roughest trip was from Montauk to Essex Ct-25NM, through the Race-real 4-5 ft seas on the nose-had to keep the bow up and speed at 10kts-nothing broke and we always felt safe
Return trip from Maine to Venice FL through the Lake took a month with more great stops.
LindaLee, our 2005 Swift 42 handled great,got good fuel mileage (1NM/gal),was comfortable and gets compliments at every stop

Sounds like some great cruising.

Sounds like some FAST cruising. I'm kind of jelly.

Speaking of fast, is it more stressful to cruise over 10 knots? I've done 12 hour runs by myself at 7 knots, and while I was tired at the end I wasn't exhausted. Cruising that long going that slow is mostly boring for me.

To my imagination, cruising quickly down the ICW would seem to require much more concentration, and consequently, make the captain more exhausted.

cardude01 said:

Sounds like some FAST cruising. I'm kind of jelly.

Speaking of fast, is it more stressful to cruise over 10 knots? I've done 12 hour runs by myself at 7 knots, and while I was tired at the end I wasn't exhausted. Cruising that long going that slow is mostly boring for me.

To my imagination, cruising quickly down the ICW would seem to require much more concentration, and consequently, make the captain more exhausted.

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Wifey B: Depends on the person. I would find 7 knots more stressful and boring. Let's say we're cruising at 21 knots and you at 7. You want to cover 84 nm today. You do so by cruising 12 hours, I cruise 4. Captain Wifey B isn't left exhausted at all. She's to the destination and out exploring.

BandB said:

Wifey B: Depends on the person. I would find 7 knots more stressful and boring. Let's say we're cruising at 21 knots and you at 7. You want to cover 84 nm today. You do so by cruising 12 hours, I cruise 4. Captain Wifey B isn't left exhausted at all. She's to the destination and out exploring.

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Good point.

Can you really travel that fast on the ICW? Maybe my senses have been dulled from traveling so slowly, but I can't imagine going that fast dodging barges and fishing boats. Or maybe you are talking about open water? That I can understand-- it would be very nice to get across the corner of the Gulf of Mexico from Clearwater to Panama City in 7 hours vs the 30 or so it took me.

cardude01 said:

Good point.

Can you really travel that fast on the ICW? Maybe my senses have been dulled from traveling so slowly, but I can't imagine going that fast dodging barges and fishing boats. Or maybe you are talking about open water? That I can understand-- it would be very nice to get across the corner of the Gulf of Mexico from Clearwater to Panama City in 7 hours vs the 30 or so it took me.

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Wifey B: Areas of the ICW you can, but we don't spend many days traveling on the ICW. More typically is short distance on ICW then outside for a while, then short distance back inside.

You talk about a lot going on at 21 knots but you drive on the road at much higher speeds and still consider it slow. Now we do generally have two people at the helm too so help in keeping watch.

Our most recent cruising has been on the Great Lakes. Plenty of open water and many small boats going much faster than us. Our cruising speed is 26-28 knots and there are boats going twice our speed as well as those going 1/4 our speed.

Speed on the ICW

We were surprised at how few boat there was on the ICW from Norfolk to Stuart Sept 7 to 27th. Marina operators told us that we were 2-3 weeks ahead of the crowd?? We could cruise at 16-18kts for 1-3 hours without slowing down(except for the occasional bridge or sailboat).We did have to pay attention to wandering depths in some channels but never ran aground.

Bob Nordstrom
LindaLee
2005 Beneteau 42

Hello, I am about to get my hands on a 2006. tks for sharing your trip - very informative.