Roger Long
Senior Member
Birth, cradle, childhood, sailor, trawler owner, rocking chair, grave; with our purchase of the 1987 Kadey-Krogen Manatee “Captain Ed II”, we continue the natural progression of the nautical life.
I cruised over 20,000 miles in the 32 foot sailboat I just sold, lived aboard for three years after selling my commercial boat design business, and wrote extensively about my cruising for print and online magazines. Six transits of the ICW during my cruises between Halifax and Florida made me realize that nearly half a century of rolling around in waves looking at shore far away or out of sight are enough. I've come to love waterways, sliding close along a nearby shore and waiting to see what is around the next bend. Our future cruising plans are focused on the inland waters of the Great Loop and the canals of Canada.
My business during the last half of my career was primarily devoted to the design of coastal oceanographic research vessels and I designed most of the additions to the US east coast fleet over two decades. You have almost certainly seen some of them if you have cruised in New England and along the ICW. Designing vessels with rolling motions that made them excellent working platforms was a key to the success of my design business and readers of the latest edition of “Passage Making Under Power”
will find my name on a sidebar about motion and comfort in the chapter on seaworthiness. Google will turn up more than any reasonable person would want to know about all that.
My companion, crew, and great love for the past few thousand miles spent thirty years working for the New York City school system and NYU to develop connections between education and career. She still keeps her hand in as a part time career counselor and coach. Patsy is a full partner in this new endeavor. After years of cruising, I might be ready for that rocking chair but am grateful that her enthusiasm for travel and life afloat inspire me to further adventures.
This will be a financial and boat re-fit adventure as well as a cruising one. We fell in love with a Manatee we were invited aboard while looking at trawlers at the entrance to the Erie Canal and went away thinking it was too bad we couldn't afford a 50 foot boat. Not long after, we learned it was only 36 feet and saw one listed at a price we could afford. It's a boat we never would have even gone to look at if we had known what the survey would turn up but only five were built with the full pilothouse and only one is currently on the market. We fell in love with the boat and repairing and refitting her is the only way we will ever be able to own and
cruise in a vessel with this much room. So, before the cruising comes a lot of work and heart stopping bills. I'm sure I'll be posting here about things like congenital defect in the engine installation that caused an engine mount to break long ago and our beefing up of the hull around the rudder port where there is some cracking due to deficient design. Then, there's the rot in the cabin sole, and ….and....
Oh yes, the new name of the vessel will be “River Cooter”, a turtle ubiquitous to many of the areas we want to cruise. I always like turtle names for boats because turtles carry their home with them and it seem especially appropriate for a boat of this shape and speed. Homeport will be Beaufort, SC since it is our favorite area of all we have visited in the lowlands and because of Patsy’s family connections nearby.
Some of my vessels you may have seen:
I cruised over 20,000 miles in the 32 foot sailboat I just sold, lived aboard for three years after selling my commercial boat design business, and wrote extensively about my cruising for print and online magazines. Six transits of the ICW during my cruises between Halifax and Florida made me realize that nearly half a century of rolling around in waves looking at shore far away or out of sight are enough. I've come to love waterways, sliding close along a nearby shore and waiting to see what is around the next bend. Our future cruising plans are focused on the inland waters of the Great Loop and the canals of Canada.
My business during the last half of my career was primarily devoted to the design of coastal oceanographic research vessels and I designed most of the additions to the US east coast fleet over two decades. You have almost certainly seen some of them if you have cruised in New England and along the ICW. Designing vessels with rolling motions that made them excellent working platforms was a key to the success of my design business and readers of the latest edition of “Passage Making Under Power”
will find my name on a sidebar about motion and comfort in the chapter on seaworthiness. Google will turn up more than any reasonable person would want to know about all that.
My companion, crew, and great love for the past few thousand miles spent thirty years working for the New York City school system and NYU to develop connections between education and career. She still keeps her hand in as a part time career counselor and coach. Patsy is a full partner in this new endeavor. After years of cruising, I might be ready for that rocking chair but am grateful that her enthusiasm for travel and life afloat inspire me to further adventures.
This will be a financial and boat re-fit adventure as well as a cruising one. We fell in love with a Manatee we were invited aboard while looking at trawlers at the entrance to the Erie Canal and went away thinking it was too bad we couldn't afford a 50 foot boat. Not long after, we learned it was only 36 feet and saw one listed at a price we could afford. It's a boat we never would have even gone to look at if we had known what the survey would turn up but only five were built with the full pilothouse and only one is currently on the market. We fell in love with the boat and repairing and refitting her is the only way we will ever be able to own and
cruise in a vessel with this much room. So, before the cruising comes a lot of work and heart stopping bills. I'm sure I'll be posting here about things like congenital defect in the engine installation that caused an engine mount to break long ago and our beefing up of the hull around the rudder port where there is some cracking due to deficient design. Then, there's the rot in the cabin sole, and ….and....
Oh yes, the new name of the vessel will be “River Cooter”, a turtle ubiquitous to many of the areas we want to cruise. I always like turtle names for boats because turtles carry their home with them and it seem especially appropriate for a boat of this shape and speed. Homeport will be Beaufort, SC since it is our favorite area of all we have visited in the lowlands and because of Patsy’s family connections nearby.
Some of my vessels you may have seen:
