Hello all you fellow Roamer lovers! I intend to cruise our 46' Roamer Riveria from Harrison Twp in Michigan to Pittsburgh, PA starting in June 2007. The Great Lakes 'ports-of-call' as currently planned are: Port Huron, Alpena, Mackinac Island, Menominee MI, Sheboygen WI, and Chicago IL. My intention is to cruise along the western shorlines, with the exception of Saginaw Bay, in order to minimize weather effects rolling off the flatlands and make speedy landfall if necessary. Then, due to height restrictions, we must take the Calumet River to gain access to the Illinois Waterway System. This would be running her twin 8V-71Ns at 1400-1500 RPM which produced 11 MPH SOG from Harrison Twp to Detroit across Lake St Clair prior to extensive hull restoration. Assuming that with a newly painted and properly faired aluminum hull (as I have been informed by the repairman) she might make an additional 3-4 MPH at 1400 RPM, who can tell me how realistic our goal of averaging 150 miles daily while cruising only during the daylight hours on Lakes Huron and Michigan could be? All suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Thank you, acellist
Lake st Clair Mi to Lkae City Mn We are taking a very similer trip, leaving Lake St Clair Monday June 11th..... Our intentions are to travel 100 miles a day, we intend on arriving in Chicago no later than June 17th Kip
We are grateful for your input and wish you an uneventful, relaxed voyage. Our cruise plan undergoes changes as my schedule settles and while we cannot be sure until the last four weeks before, it appears that the return to Harrison Twp., from dry-dock and repairs, should be around the 25th of June at which point we will prepare her for the delivery cruise to Pittsburgh starting on or about July 16th. Your trip should be easier since you have a newer Roamer (ours was made in 1968.) When are you returning? Perhaps we will see the Kip’s Ahoy II during our shakedown and preparation layover in Harrison Twp. The Ohio portion of our trip will be joined by three of my music students to act as crew and study ensemble playing in classical, rock, and country western styles. The plan is to give a short (one hour and a half) concert at each overnight marina that will have us. Your ‘hundred-miles-a-day’ estimate is very helpful since I factored extra days into the Lakes part of the trip. Going down the Illinois Waterway and the Mississippi can be predictable, however if there is a downpour anywhere upriver on the Ohio we can forget making even 75 miles daily against the downriver current heavy rain would generate. Thanks for your reply, Irvin K. Rent’s Due 1968 46’ Riviera Alum.
great lakes trip I can add my 2 cents - agreeing with the 100 miles per day. I have done the Lake Huron side many times and the most recent in a 44 trawler and past 32 Grand Banks. Both at 8 knots (9 MPH app.). 100 mile days are ambitious at those speeds. 12 mph should be do-able. 150 miles would be 'like a job'. Put in the hours and make the miles. Not a real vacation. Pick your ports of call based on the comforable cruise time per day. Note: Alpena is a hike out of the way - Rogers City and Cheboygan are more accessable and less industrial towns. Presque Isle Harbor is a natural anchorage. If you are comfortable anchoring out for the night, stop there - no town, but a fine new State Marina). Plan to arrive at MAC Island early AM (like 7 -8) It is very popular and dock used to be assigned by first come, first served. (this info is 15 years old - things might have changed, but the island remains the #1 destination in the GL. OK, so it was 4 cents - I'm long winded. Now I have a question: Who is doing your bottom job and what products are they using? How bad was the bottom beforehand? I think a 20% improvement sounds "too good to be true".
Hi and thanks for the input. We are thinking to skip Alpena and go to Presque Isle Harbor. I have included two photos, one each of the bottom before and after sandblasting and new paint job. I managed 11 mph (SOG) across Lake St Clair to Detroit through a wind ftom the West/Southwest with the bottom looking like the top picture. The top speed I could manage in a five minute burst was twenty mph SOG on the GPS. Perhaps the repairman's estimate of another three mph was based on the top speed, however I was speaking to him on the eleven mph I made across the lake at 1450 rpm. Thanks again and I shall post more, perhaps tonight since time has run out this morning. acellist
Wow, what an improvement! Who did the work? I'm from that area, and it would be nice to know a decent shop "just in case"
Stepped Hull? Have never (never) seen a stepped Roamer hull form before as shown in your "after" photo. What gives? Was that "stock" or perhaps just the area where the "form-fitting" trim tabs went.
Irvin, I think his improved speed estimate is a bit over enthusiastic. Depending on how hard and long you want to run each day, 100 miles is a good distance to run on the rivers. You will have to slow down for marinas and boat clubs, fishermen etc. otherwise you may end up with those little round 45 caliber holes in your new paint. And you can imagine what its like to have a sunken boat on a river like the Allegheny. [ Just kidding] Are you going to leave it in Pittsburgh? I hear they have a half decent Symphony orchestra there. A fiddle player
I'll believe it when I see it... Of course, until the water hits the grease, it all lies with why a bird cannot fly with but one wing - it's only a matter of a pinion!
Have you started this trip yet? I don't get to see many fellow roamers here in our pool of the Ohio and would love to see you come by.
After having been held up from starting the delivery of our Roamer to Pittsburgh as first, Frick and Frack worked on our diesels and genset, then Abbot and Costello practiced OJT on our electrical system (don't ask, you don't wanna know) we finally escaped in desperation, completed the trip, repairing the damages wrought, and did see a 37' Roamer downriver from the Blennerhassett Yacht Club at mile 183.5 on the Ohio River. Stupid me, was so intent on getting a fair shot of the Roamer, that I missed seeing the couple on the deck in all three shots. Boy, had I seen them we would have motored right on over and stopped to chat. I am attaching the two fair pictures: acellist
Good spot ..., she looks like a '69 or '70 Regal 38 (ST). ANd judging from the look of the owner - he knew you were a fellow Roamer. Next time, carry a bull horn - there's more Roamers out there than you know. Cheers! Eric pS - Howz the rest of the voyage going?
St or Al from the picture? How do you know? Eric, So how can you tell from that picture whether she is steel or aluminum? That is definately a 38', looks like mine, but is there a trick to knowing the material that I don't yet know? Does that transome have the picture frame?? Learning all the time Tim
Will you be passing Cincy? Hello Roaming Roamer Will you be passing by Cincy on your trip? You're already in the upper pool and I hope I didn't miss you. Here in the Cincinnati pool, there aren't too many roamers. Tim
Beauty contest judges,.. ...,all know: the true biggies hang a bit lower. Gravity, of course, wielding the final vote: steelies are heavier - ride "slightly" lower in the water; and were actually constructed with 2 more inches of draft (http://www.geocities.com/alloyed2sea/Riviera_Regal_38.html); and the tin men were also built with a few more inches of freeboard up top (http://www.geocities.com/alloyed2sea/Riviera_37.html . Go figure! Cheers, Eric
Back in Pittsburgh as to "Howz the rest of the voyage going?" Well, we pulled into our berth in Pittsburgh at 10:30 PM last Thursday, August 31. To tell you the truth, we spied a few Roamers here and there, such as the "Jamie II" in Mackinac City Marina, the one at the private dock on the Ohio, and a few others plus some very sharp late 60s Commanders, even went through a very well kept Conquerer from the 50s. The trip took 24 days averaging 10.5 mph and 100 miles per day. With over 6000 photos to examine and 2 hours of video, it's going to take some time to find all the Chris' Craft that we snapped. I regret that we missed contact, Roamertim, although we got some nice shots on your pool. I am going to attach a short synopsis from the rivers part. TrainWaiting: 17' and squeaking: Hunger driven mirage at Saint McLouis: Beautiful River Stadium at Cincinnati: No Mirages in Pomery, Ohio... The only McCourtesy Dock from Detroit to Pittsburgh:
