Buying First Boat as I Retire

NYCAP123 · Aug 27, 2014

Yep, know the procedure well. I built the stands for our arch. Compact, but heavy, and stows easily. What touches the boat is carpeted; We had the arch and the bimini up in 30 minutes. That brings us to 18'.
So far we've been able to find dockage every night, but it's been close at more than port. Electric's been sketchy some places, but we've managed.

Capt J · Aug 28, 2014

Capt J said: ↑

Yes it was a straight delivery. I tried to get the owner and his wife on board, even for the Erie canal or something like that, but no such luck.....why I don't know.....I ran the boat for almost a decade and would deliver it to various places and then the owner would run the boat himself with his large family. Sometimes I ran it with guests of his, but never with him or his family on board. I ran the boat to Chicago, left it there for the summer for the owner who lives in Chicago, then flew in and left Chicago October 15th for Fort Lauderdale. We did 1000 rpms- 10.3 knots at 13 gph (15 with generator) 95% of the time (or slower if we had to). In 5300 NM I burned 7500 gallons which included anchoring 3 out of 4 nights due to our size and running a gen 24/7.

We took the Erie Canal. The boat was a 1988 65' Hatteras MY with a 10' cockpit extension. It was actually easy to get it down in height. The radar arch was already hinged. We lowered that and supported it with 2 rubbermaid adjustable sawhorses, we then unbolted the mast heads 4 bolts and turned it 45-60 degrees (because the radar support then stuck up too high) and secured that on a rubbermaid type square adjustable table about 3'x3' (I think it was a table saw extender or something like that from H.D.). Then we just removed the Bimini top and folded the supports down. Windshield height was 18'6". We got it totally stripped down in about 3 hours and put back up in about 3hrs. Second time around it took half that time. You could also run it from the FB if you didn't mind the sun. BUT, we lost Sat tv, and use of the built in BBQ grill while it was down so we were in a big hurry to get it back up......We took it down in Troy, raised it in Oswego, NY. Then we took it down in Chicago, and raised it in this marina in ILLinois right outside of the canal on the Mississippi.
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At 75' + swim platform and 2-50amps, we were very limited with marina's and especially from Chicago South we ended up passing the marina we could fit into at 11am and kept going. We were able to find a good place to anchor, and I really pushed it and we were underway from sun-up to sunset....so it was easy......already on generator, pull over and drop anchor in 3 minutes and done.....next morning check oil on other gen, motors, fire those up......swap electric from one gen to the other one, let motors warm up 10 mins, pull the hook and gone........One of the mates I brought.....was formerly a chef at Shula's steakhouse and we had a full size built in firemagic propane grill.....so we ate very WELL.....also I had 2 mates because we had no thruster and the size and amount of locks....plus we did overnight runs when we could (in the ocean and lakes)......Ft. Laud to Beaufort NC straight shot 530NM, Norfolk to NYC overnight, I had a crew of 4 for the Beaufort leg.....we did Erie overnight and kept going the following day till St. Ignace/Macinaw and overnighted there. Then we did an overnight and day from Macinaw to Chicago......Same with Mobile to Clearwater.

Old Phart · Oct 15, 2014

K1W1 said: ↑

If no paper do not linger, Robinson Crusoe used his finger
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Certainly hope this is not the origin of the famous KFC saying.

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Buying First Boat as I Retire

NYCAP123 Senior Member

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Capt J Senior Member

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