31' Semi-Displacement Trawler from Seattle to Florida

The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
dw8928

dw8928

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2011
Messages
162
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Silver
Vessel Make
Helmsman 31
Anyone ever heard of (or done themselves) a coastal trip from Seattle the East Coast via the Panama Canal in a semi-displacement coastal cruiser?

Is this fun or suicide?
 
I think it could be a bit of both (suicide and fun). What I might suggest is to take the boat to southern CA on the water, then have it trucked to the Gulf of Mexico, then make the rest of the trip on its bottom. I helped take a 58' boat from Seattle to Stockton, CA a few years ago in June. 9 days, including weather delays, and a great trip.


San Diego to Corpus Christi by truck would probably cost less than the fuel and costs associated with a Panama Canal trip and would save a LOT of time.


From Corpus Christi, cut across (or along the shoreline) to the Keys, then head north.


What a great trip that would be.
 
FUN! I think it would be a hoot to do the trip on your own bottom, provided you had the time to run in good weather. It would be a fantastic adventure, and you have a great boat for it. Just add an air conditioner if you have not already.

When you are laying in your nursing home bed, hopefully MANY years from now, will you reflect upon a grand adventure, or be happy you shipped it?

Jeff
 
Would this be in your helmsman? What sort of range does it have? I think that would be the first hurdle. There are some relatively long stretches involved in the proposed route, and range might be a show stopper.

Coast and time wise, I expect trucking would be the fastest and cheapest. But if you are looking for adventure, by water would be much more fun.
 
150 gallons of fuel. About .9 Goheen at 6.7 knots. I haven't mapped out waypoints with my range yet.


twistedtree said:
Would this be in your helmsman? What sort of range does it have? I think that would be the first hurdle. There are some relatively long stretches involved in the proposed route, and range might be a show stopper.

Coast and time wise, I expect trucking would be the fastest and cheapest. But if you are looking for adventure, by water would be much more fun.
Click to expand...
 
The complications of doing this trip entirely by water which must be weighed against trucking are the Pacific trip south of Southern California to the Panama Canal. It is not a pleasant trip for well founded boats. The Panama Canal is not only expensive but can be time consuming as pleasure boats do not have priority. I have heard tales of waiting for days/weeks for an opening. The current price for a canal passage is not inexpensive.
 
Sounds like a great trip! The journey via Panama may be more expensive and time consuming, but if you have the money and the time - why not? You can organise a broker to handle all the paperwork, and speed up the process.

I'm not familiar with the regional sea conditions, but I'd possibly consider the option of adding paravanes to make it more comfortable in rough conditions.
 
Yes I'm sure you could do it.

You will have to be prepared to wait longer for a weather window than a larger, or more comfortable in rougher weather boat.

But is that so bad??? Being stuck for a week or two, or even a month in a place you've never been?

The only thing that really concerns me about the trip is the politics and or safety in just a couple countries along the way. Nicaragua is scary to me, but maybe it's just me.
 
If you never made it past the Sea of Cortez that'd still leave 5 years of gunkholing to look forward to. I'm still thinking of buying a houseboat down there and retiring early.
 
ksanders said:
The only thing that really concerns me about the trip is the politics and or safety in just a couple countries along the way.
Click to expand...

But you'll be fine once you get to Mexico. :hide:
 
I've read if you do the transit yourself thru the Panama Canal that it costs $800. I don't know if the lines and tires cost more to rent.

I do not believe it is necessary to use a broker, etc

AusCan said:
Sounds like a great trip! The journey via Panama may be more expensive and time consuming, but if you have the money and the time - why not? You can organise a broker to handle all the paperwork, and speed up the process.

I'm not familiar with the regional sea conditions, but I'd possibly consider the option of adding paravanes to make it more comfortable in rough conditions.
Click to expand...
 
As a reference point for fuel range, the San Diego to La Paz rally requires that you have a minimum range of 450 miles. So that's a data point, but only for that segment. That would probably get you down the US west coast as well, I imagine. I'm not sure about south of MX, and through the Carribean and Gulf. Also, my inderstanding is that the run from the canal to next landfall is a rough ride with wind and seas on your nose. A friend recently did it in a Nordhavn 55 and said it wasn't fun.
 
ksanders said:
Yes I'm sure you could do it.

You will have to be prepared to wait longer for a weather window than a larger, or more comfortable in rougher weather boat.

But is that so bad??? Being stuck for a week or two, or even a month in a place you've never been?

The only thing that really concerns me about the trip is the politics and or safety in just a couple countries along the way. Nicaragua is scary to me, but maybe it's just me.
Click to expand...

Nicaragua actually has a great resort and marina and as insecure as much of the country is, that area is not problematic. Now, I wouldn't leave the grounds there without a local driver and I still wouldn't go far internally nor would I be out at night. Still Nicaragua was an incredibly nice surprise as the people there went so out of their way to serve us and were so appreciative of us being there.
 
dw8928 said:
I've read if you do the transit yourself thru the Panama Canal that it costs $800. I don't know if the lines and tires cost more to rent.

I do not believe it is necessary to use a broker, etc
Click to expand...

Not necessary but sure simplifies things using an agent as they arrange for everything you need.
 
dw8928 said:
Oops, spell check whack. Goheen = GPH
Click to expand...

You mileage starts to sound too good to be true, but I'll grant perhaps you're accurate, I just wouldn't trust achieving that in all conditions. Still, even a range of 1000 nm would be plenty and you'd seem to have that safely covered. I'd just double and triple check with some runs in varying seas.

Now, as to the boat. It's a make-able trip but it would be a very long trip to be done slowly and willing to spend time along the way if conditions are poor. Still, it's coastal cruising. Just there are some likely overnight runs and some areas you'd be rather exposed if you had to seek refuge or anchor. Definitely read the book referenced but keep in mind a much different boat.

Still, the roughest conditions we encountered were the coast of Washington. Like most areas of cruising, given the size and nature of your boat, you wouldn't always be taking the shortest route but sometimes a little additional coastal cruising. I'd want to feel comfortable devoting 18-24 months to do it. We spent an elapsed time of 9 months but we cruised on average about 18 knots. Now we did take a couple of breaks on the way. That made it a more agreeable cruise.

There are so many special experiences to be had along the way. As to it being cheaper to ship your boat, that's universally true and misses the whole point of cruising and boating.

We found it to be just an incredible adventure.
 
One place we did stop, but I'd bypass now as it's much less safe than when we were there is Acapulco.
 
I had to recheck the GPH - it is in fact 6.2 knots at 0.87gph. I assume a new engine will improve with time on fuel burn (diesel). This was achieved on a lake with no current and minimal wave action.

I had a Volkswagen TDi engine that certainly improved a lot in fuel burn after a certain amount of time. I could literally get it to 50+mpg on the highway.

However, yesterday I had the boat out on the Puget Sound and fuel burn was not as good and I was in 2-2.5 foot waves at times. Went to Blake Island and moored for a while then headed back to the Duwamish River. Major swells as entering the river.

Also, notice the orangish huge log I was about to hit in this picture - avoided at the last moment. The Puget Sound has a lot of wood in the water.

BandB said:
Your mileage starts to sound too good to be true, but
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0508.jpg
    IMG_0508.jpg
    116.2 KB · Views: 221
Last edited:
Helmsman

Very interested in your travel decision from WA. to FL. My wife and I are traveling to WA. in late June to look at the Helmsman and Bracewell. We were considering doing the same thing as you.
 
tugabago said:
Very interested in your travel decision from WA. to FL. My wife and I are traveling to WA. in late June to look at the Helmsman and Bracewell. We were considering doing the same thing as you.
Click to expand...

Here are my questions to anyone debating the trip.

1. Do you expect to get to the west coast again?

2. Do you have somewhat unlimited time to make the trip. It can include flights to and from home, but can you make it at a pace to truly enjoy the areas you visit. If you're going to do it like a delivery run then no reason to do it. Just ship the boat, but if this is your chance to see some great places, then do it.

In our case, we'd never spent time on the West Coast. So, it was all new and exciting from Alaska to Washington to Portland to San Francisco to Los Angeles to San Diego. We left Washington the final time on September 30 and didn't leave San Diego until January 8.

Then from there we spent time as follows. Not showing our travel times as those would vary widely between boats. But these are the places we spent time.

Ensenada-2 Days
Cabo San Lucas-4
La Paz-3
Mazatlan-3
Puerto Mallarta-4
Acapulco-2 (Definitely not recommended today)
Huatulco-1
Quetzal, Guatemala-3
Costa Del Sol, El Salvador-2
Chinendega, Nicaragua-3
Liberia, Costa Rica-1
Puntaneris, Costa Rica-1
Quepos, Costa Rica-1
Golfito, Costa Rica-2
Panama City, Panama-4
Christobal, Panama-3
Bocas Del Toro, Panama-4
Now a bit of a detour
Cayman Islands-7
Port Antonio, Jamaica-5
Now back to the coastal cruise
Bocas Del Toro, Panama-3
Belize City, Belize-6
Puerto Aventuras, Mexico-4
Cancun, Mexico-6
We did cross from Cancun to Key West, but had we not already cruised the gulf coast often, we wouldn't have short cut that.

You very well may make more stops than we did and stay longer times. Just no calendar. Be free to stay longer due to weather or just desire to enjoy more. Just don't rush through it.

When I was in the corporate world, I traveled a lot of places in the world, but never saw them. Retired, I make a point to see them all.

Corporate life was funny in that respect. I had cities that all I'd ever seen was the airport-Los Angeles, Buffalo, Denver, Houston, Manchester, UK. When I retired, I guess I could say I'd traveled the world, but seen virtually none of it. I could count a great list of places I'd been. Lots of places for one day meetings.

So, only make this trip if you truly plan on seeing all the places along the way.
 
Great advice BandB, but I am a bit of an odd person is that I would enjoy the trip even if it was done as a delivery run. However, I enjoy a road trip even if all I am doing is going from point A to point B as fast as possible. (I may boat slow, but I tend to drive fast)
 
dhays said:
Great advice BandB, but I am a bit of an odd person is that I would enjoy the trip even if it was done as a delivery run. However, I enjoy a road trip even if all I am doing is going from point A to point B as fast as possible. (I may boat slow, but I tend to drive fast)
Click to expand...

But if it's the trip of a lifetime, you do want to see more. Even if you aren't able to. We boat faster than others but it only allows us to see more.
 
I presume you did your journey on your Helmsman. How did it handle? If things work out, we will be purchasing our boat in WA. and plan to spend considerable time around Puget Sound and then boat south along the coast, eventually ending at our residence in Florida. We will be looking at the Helmsman and Bracewell and curious about your evaluation of the boat.
 
Maybe I have the wrong person. Someone posted about taking a Helmsman 31 from Canada down the West Coast and around to Florida. I was hoping to inquire how the Helmsman trawler handled the trip
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Seeking crew San Diego to San Francisco
Replies
3
Views
423
Liberty Hound Skipper
Liberty Hound Skipper
Pmcsurf1
WA to FL Cost: Shipping boat via truck or ship or cruise
2
Replies
34
Views
6K
Pete Meisinger
Pete Meisinger
S
Cruiser instead of Trawler?
3 4 5
Replies
140
Views
11K
psneeld
psneeld
M
Sail to power transition
2
Replies
56
Views
4K
slowgoesit
slowgoesit
M
Book recommendations?
Replies
4
Views
569
MVTara
M

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom