Any rally’s to Alaska?
- Thread starter bowball
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The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
rsn48
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If money is no object, there is always Slow Boat, a commercial enterprise providing flotillas to Alaska from Washington state. I will link their home page below but if you go into the webinars sections, they have great videos prepping for trips to Alaska.
https://slowboat.com/
https://slowboat.com/
Both Waggoner and Slowboat have done flotillas to AK in the past. We did a Waggoner flotilla to the Broughtons 6 years ago and really enjoyed the combination of traveling with more experienced boaters to the region, as well as being able to anchor away or near the group. They also held a weekend seminar months before hand to give us advanced knowledge and confidence.
Ken E.
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NW Explorations in Bellingham also does flotillas to SE AK, but with boats chartered from them, mostly Grand Banks.
Adopo
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Just did the NW, Juneau to Ketchikan.
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sunchaser
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Bow
The greater reward for us on our first trip was to, on our own, do the necessary leg work for route planning, charts, spare parts, fuel planning etc. This of course requires one to have a well setup boat and above average skills.
If no boat spend the money and do the NW Explorations trip as Ken suggests. Doing it this way on a well found boat provides the opportunity to better assess what kind of boat you may want to purchase. My gripe with flotillas is the group is tied to the slowest vessel and/or possibly suffering from poor maintenance and skittish owners. NWE gets around this problem.
The greater reward for us on our first trip was to, on our own, do the necessary leg work for route planning, charts, spare parts, fuel planning etc. This of course requires one to have a well setup boat and above average skills.
If no boat spend the money and do the NW Explorations trip as Ken suggests. Doing it this way on a well found boat provides the opportunity to better assess what kind of boat you may want to purchase. My gripe with flotillas is the group is tied to the slowest vessel and/or possibly suffering from poor maintenance and skittish owners. NWE gets around this problem.
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That makes sense. Maybe that’s what I do regarding my own planning etc. I have a trawler that likes to cruise economically at 8 to 10 knots (can go faster but why?) and she will be ready. The captain less so!
markpierce
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When doing several day-cruses with friends, my six-knot trawler (max speed seven knots) was slower than their's. While leaving early, I'd arrive at the destination 15 to 30 minutes later. Was no problem in the short distances involved, but people want to run their boats as they like. Could be a problem on hundred-or-so-mile voyages.
Bill V
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In years past I have cruised with flotillas as a "chase boat" and enjoyed it very much. Most of the trips were to Desolation Sound and the Broughton Islands. Acted as the "scout" for anchorages, moorage possibilities and parts/supplies runner. If a boat had issues I would help troubleshoot the problem if boat owner needed help and tow them to a location where they could get professional help if it was needed. Have also cruised in a couple flotillas and found it enjoyable. Nice to have the social hour after a days run. One advantage to being a part of a flotilla is a lessor experienced Captain can tag along and be "coached" thru some areas that help build confidence and boating skills. A flotilla can be somewhat of a "security blanket" for those that have not ventured out very far.
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JDCAVE
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Unless you want the social aspects of going with a group, we never saw the point of travelling in a group. And we were completely new to boating. As Sunchaser says, it makes you do your own research. At times we struggled a bit learning systems, but that continues to this day. You will meet lots of boaters along the way and lots of social opportunities come up, either at anchorages or at docks. Unless you are alone at an anchorage, you are never really alone. We’ve been invited to happy hours by people we only just met at an anchorage.
Travelling on your own, you get to decide when you leave where you go, what route and for how long. So many advantages to that, I’m not really interested in having a third wheel tagging along.
Jim
Regarding the questions of flotilla cruising, I wrote an article for Latitudes & Attitudes magazine (back when it was Cruising Outpost) about our 2015 trip. In it, I address some of the issues being discussed in this thread. But for anyone interested in being in a flotilla, this should give you a good idea of what it's like.
Nice article! Thanks
