Finding a Boat

The Journey of 10,000 miles begins with 10,000 websites!

The whole idea resurfaced one sunny afternoon while on a family vacation in Santa Maria Island in Florida. I had discovered the Great Loop as a concept nearly 20 years earlier and read the classic book, Honey, Let's Get a Boat. That book planted the idea of looping in an entire generation's consciousness and really popularized the concept. The idea of starting a multi year adventure while exploring the waterways of the United States and Canada was always a very attractive one but with the advent of Covid and the breakdown of civilized society now seemed a really good time to get a boat and get away.

What is the Great Loop?

The diagram above shows the most common pathways to accomplish the Great Loop journey. It's an approximate 6000 mile trip through the eastern half of the United States and Canada using the Intracoastal Waterway, bays, rivers, canals, the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico waters to complete a circular voyage returning the boat to the point of origin. The purpose is to explore the eastern half of the shoreline of North America at one's own pace and direction. There are about as many variations to the journey as there are travelers who complete it, as the map above partially reflects. When done properly, most boats depart from Florida in the spring, transit the New York and Canadian canal systems during the height of summer, explore the Great Lakes in late summer and early fall and head down the Southern rivers in the autumn, arriving back in Florida before winter. It's also referred to as 'following 80 degrees fahrenheit'.

Choosing a Boat

What's the best boat for the Loop? The essential requirements are no taller than 19.6 feet because the lowest unavoidable fixed bridge on the Great Loop is 19.6’ over water level and is located at mile 300.6 on the Illinois River. Any boat taller than 19.6' can't pass this bridge and would have to turn around unable to complete the Loop. The boat can't have a draft greater than 5' without requiring major route compromises and boat width (aka. beam) must be limited to 23' because of the width of locks in parts of the U.S. and Canada. Lastly, the boat must have at least a 200 mile range between fueling stops or it's a no-go.

Other considerations, of course, include comfort, size, cost of purchase, running and maintenance, safety, speed and availability. As we have arrived in our sixties, comfort has become more of an issue than previously.

The single most important consideration for a Loop boat is an air draft of less than 19 feet, 6 inches to clear the lowest unavoidable bridge on the journey.

The very big next step was to find a boat that meets our criteria. Our search began, of course, with the Internet and perusing different yacht brokerage sites. We also discovered an organization called America's Great Loop Cruiser Association (AGLCA) which has public pages that are quite helpful in describing the process of finding the boat that's right for your journey. After hours of looking at various listings we had narrowed our choices to a type of boat, a trawler. A trawler is a boat with a displacement hull, meaning that it tends to be slow and stable as opposed to a planing hall which has generally larger engines to push the boat to rise out of the water and go much faster. There are all kinds of considerations in choosing between these broad categories. Stability and fuel economy as well as usable space within the boat is what pushed us toward a trawler. That came down to a somewhat more limited group of vessel choices. From our time in the Pacific Northwest we were familiar with Grand Banks trawlers and researching that type of boat brought up a lot of listings for similar boats, most all of which are built overseas. We tried to look geographically so that we could make a limited trip to see the boats we placed on the short list.

Looking through the listings of the various yacht brokers was also educational. It was fairly easy to see the associations between the size, condition, age and price of the boat.

I Everything on a boat represents a compromise. A larger boat provides more interior space, improved livability and increased range but increases acquisition and operating costs, may limit where the boat can cruise or dock and cause problems with insurability, for example. Other considerations, such as the age of the boat, also play a major role in decision making. Older equals less expensive to acquire but more expensive to maintain and upgrade. also, a boat older than 25 years is very difficult or impossible to insure. Obtaining insurance for the boat was already anxiety producing as we had not previously owned a large vessel. Finally, we narrowed our interest to a Grand Banks Europa model, a Heritage trawler and these unusual boats we found on the internet, Great Harbour trawlers. We tried to look geographically so that we could make a limited trip to see the boats we placed on the short list. Of course, that meant Florida: Great Harbours are built in Gainesville, FL. and ground zero for seeing these boats is Port 32 Marina in Jacksonville where their owners tend to congregate. Our primary interest was in a used N-47 model, Journey (sister ship pictured), being offered for sale by the Great Harbour brokerage. We also identified a Heritage trawler for sale in Daytona Beach and a Grand Banks Europa in Ft. Lauderdale.

So, a few calls to brokers and owners and off we went at the height of Covid to see these vessels.

The Heritage trawler was a nice boat, although smaller. What eliminated it from our consideration was the very cramped engine room where just checking fluids entailed duck walking and a yoga class. Moving into our late 60s this did not seem to be a good idea.

The Europa was a beautiful boat, but but also with a cramped engine room, and a surprising lack of living space given the size of the boat. Also, the salon was very elegant, actually too elegant, and seemed to cater to people whose interests were more highbrow entertaining than cruising.

Then, a weird thing happened. We went on board the Great Harbour, N47 in Jacksonville which I very much liked. Unfortunately, just before we arrived in Florida, an offer was accepted on the boat. Not to worry, I had also spoken with the people at Mirage Manufacturing in Gainesville, about the possibility of commissioning a new N47 build. We drove up to Gainesville to look at the factory and talk with the owner and brokers about that possibility. But the timeframe for completion was likely to be 3 to 4 years and my disenchantment with, the practice of medicine during Covid would simply not allow that prolonged wait. Then, wonder of wonders, when we returned to the marina in Jacksonville for another look at the sold N47, the prospective owners were paying a visit so the broker parked us on a Great Harbour, GH 47, Seaglass, docked alongside. Seaglass was a much larger boat, but had been neglected for several years and clearly required significant work, mostly superficial on the exterior. However, it had an enormous amount of living space, and could easily accommodate 8 to 10 adults in a pinch, and it is the largest vessel that Great Harbour builds, so I knew we were screwed.

That's huge. We're screwed.

As soon as it became apparent that the boat would easily accommodate grandchildren and their parents, I knew the decision had been made, and would soon be communicated.