Hudson River Lake Champlain cruise

Ok, planning a cruise up Hudson River this summer. Doing the cruise in a 36 ft Gulfstar trawler. Need 20 ft clearance minimum. Looking for some kind of cruising guides, any suggestions?
All guides I have seen on line are outdated.

Air draft wise, you have to fit under a 17 foot bridge to get up the Champlain canal.

Lots of info online from NY Canals, AGLCA, & Others.
Here is the NY Canals site.
https://www.canals.ny.gov/boating/bridgeheights.html
One variable is the wayer level as times of high water significantly change clearances.

Kpinn,


At max water you need 15 and a half feet to get under some of the bridges in the canal. Check bridges C14-22

I have to believe you can get a Gulfstar 36 down below 17 feet by lowering various appurtenances. It's not a taller boat than my old Hatteras 56, which I could get easily down to about 18'6" even before taking off the FB venturi windshield, stepping the davit, etc.

Anchoring on either side of the Hudson you will get to enjoy the sound of trains going by.

FF said:

Anchoring on either side of the Hudson you will get to enjoy the sound of trains going by.

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I love "train" anchorages! One more good reason to cruise the Hudson, thanks

(I'm not the OP, but still reading along.)

The trains come into play in very few spots where you would actually anchor. Not a factor when planning this fantastic cruise.

What I think I remember was going north the bridge just before lock 12 was the lowest. My flybridge throttles and shifters are my highest point at 15 1/2 feet. I shut the engines off and hand push pulled my boat under the bridge with 1/2 inch to spare between the throttles and the bottom of the bridge.
It is a great trip, do it if you can.

This sounds like great fun.

If you had no intention to do the Eire canal nor go to Champlain where would you stop going up and down.

Cliff Meima said:

What I think I remember was going north the bridge just before lock 12 was the lowest. My flybridge throttles and shifters are my highest point at 15 1/2 feet. I shut the engines off and hand push pulled my boat under the bridge with 1/2 inch to spare between the throttles and the bottom of the bridge.
It is a great trip, do it if you can.

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Sounds like you had high water conditions when you went. That bridge lists at 14.52 feet at max pool level, but 18.02 feet at normal pool. The lowest bridge at normal pool level is listed at 17.03 feet. However, there are 2 consecutive bridges with lower clearance (15.46 and 16.10 feet), but the website indicates they can drop the water up to 6 feet on request for more clearance in that area.

Susan and Alan McKibben put out a nice cruising guide up until about 20 years ago. A lot of the content is still relevant and useful. There was one for sale in the classifieds a few months ago.

I liked this guy’s website.

The Travels of the trawler Tug 44 on the Erie Canal and New York Canal System

rslifkin said:

Sounds like you had high water conditions when you went. That bridge lists at 14.52 feet at max pool level, but 18.02 feet at normal pool. The lowest bridge at normal pool level is listed at 17.03 feet. However, there are 2 consecutive bridges with lower clearance (15.46 and 16.10 feet), but the website indicates they can drop the water up to 6 feet on request for more clearance in that area.

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I’m supposing lower water water levels are more common in the fall? I’m trying to decide if transitioning Lake Champlain is something we could attempt if we arrived in Waterford and there were low seasonal water levels. With everything off the radar arch, our air draft is around 17’—possibly less with full tanks.

To travel from Waterford to the St Lawrence, what is the minimum height for any bridge that cannot be manipulated by the lock operators?

Hippocampus


If not traveling the canals then a good turnaround spot is the Waterford Harbor Visitor's Center (Harbor Visitors Center - Town of Waterford, NY), about 2 1/4 miles north of the Federal Lock at Troy. Nice facilities (water/electric/showers/helpful volunteer staff) with easy walk to village. Nice restaurant (McGrievey's) plus breakfast cafe, pizza shop, laundromat and a gas station with small store. Can walk to Hanaford's grocery store on the opposite shore bridge with nice sidewalk about 5/8 mile. Taxi/Uber easily available.


Free 2 day dockage, water, pumpout and believe they charged for electricity (cheap). Good docks on first come basis. It fills fast on busy days. A pleasant place to stop after a long day. Usually vendors and frequent events during weekends. Plenty of benches and shade trees. Erie Lock 2 is next door. Most times can find dockage across the river at Troy Boat Club (Troy Motor Boat and Canoe Club - Troy Motor Boat and Canoe Club) if full.


No fuel but best local gas/diesel is at Albany Yacht Club about 11 miles south. This club is a good alternate stop.



Leonard

X2 on a stop at Waterford. They also have Skipper Bobs Guides in the office. As others said there is a train bridge C-28 with a 17.0 clearance on the Champlain Canal Mile 60.0.

angus99 said:

I’m supposing lower water water levels are more common in the fall? I’m trying to decide if transitioning Lake Champlain is something we could attempt if we arrived in Waterford and there were low seasonal water levels. With everything off the radar arch, our air draft is around 17’—possibly less with full tanks.

To travel from Waterford to the St Lawrence, what is the minimum height for any bridge that cannot be manipulated by the lock operators?

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You'd probably want to check with the canal corp on water levels. But they usually post alerts if the water levels are above normal pool level. They regulate pretty well unless there's really wet weather.



For the Champlain canal, lowest clearance at normal pool is listed at 17.03 feet. Lowest clearance at maximum pool is listed at 14.20 feet, but it would be rare for water levels to be that high (and they'd certainly have alerts out if they were). Not sure about bridge clearance on the Canadian end of things, however.


When you get to Waterford you'd likely be able to confirm whether there are higher than normal water levels and therefore reduced clearance. If clearance is good, go up the Champlain Canal. If not, go west on the Erie Canal and up the Oswego Canal. That route has just over 21 feet of clearance at normal pool levels and just over 19 feet at the worst point at maximum pool levels.

We created a pretty extensive primer on cruising the Hudson River which can be found here: https://myoloh.com/cruising-the-hudson-river

Hope it helps at least a little in your planning.

Another great guide, which gives a lot of background and history as well, is the one Larry Zeitlin put out. Still a lot of great content.

http://mvsanderling.net/Blog/wp-con...Larry-Zeitlins-GUIDE-to-Hudson-River-2015.pdf

Virtually all the towns along the way are worth visiting, starting with Croton-on-Hudson. Read the various guides and take your pick.
If you time the tides correctly, you can pick up a knot or so coming and going. The indigenous name of the Hudson was "river that runs both ways'.

FF said:

Anchoring on either side of the Hudson you will get to enjoy the sound of trains going by.

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As a retired railroader the sound of the trains is music to my ears because the railroad bought my boat and everything else I have.

Shady Harbor Marina is a great stop just south of Albany and the Erie Canal. https://www.shadyharbormarina.com/

ColonyCove said:

As a retired railroader the sound of the trains is music to my ears because the railroad bought my boat and everything else I have.

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No shortage of them. Pax trains on the East shore. Freight trains on the West. Every 15 minutes or so during a normal work day.

The freight train line turns inland at Hyde Park. Frankly, we never found them intrusive whatsoever.

ColonyCove said:

As a retired railroader the sound of the trains is music to my ears because the railroad bought my boat and everything else I have.

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AAh - I think I remember you from the BOC and NJ maybe?

I second the suggestion to time your passage to the current in the Hudson. Makes a big difference whether you are fighting the current or letting it push you along. I found the "Tidal Currents Trip Planner" app very helpful.

CaptGary said:

Shady Harbor Marina is a great stop just south of Albany and the Erie Canal. https://www.shadyharbormarina.com/

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+1
Wonderful people at this marina. I had a mechanical issue on my way to the Chesapeake last fall and ended up storing my boat on the hard for the winter here. Brian and his staff made an unfortunate situation quite tolerable. The food at the restaurant, alone, is worthy of a stop.

We did the Champlain canal several years ago during high water and just barely cleared the lowest bridge. The air draft was 16 1/2 feet to the top of the enclosure.

The lock operators apparently are able to lower the water level some if you are close to hitting. I wouldn't bother trying if you don't have at least 17' air draft. I did this trip from Champlain and the length of the Hudson and into Long Island Sound. We found Croton Point to be a good anchorage tucked in behind the "elbow". Catskill marina was also a good stop farther north. Waterford is a great stop, but we just stopped for lunch, not overnight. You might be surprised that there is a decent tidal current all the way to/from Albany, so best to time your travel favorably if you can. I can share more details on this route if anyone is interested. Including NYC and Hell's gate.