Recent content by Gulfcoast John

Consider you may not ever need a dinghy. It takes up too much room, even inflatables. You can beach in 4 or 5 inches of water. A dinghy can beach in 4 or 5 inches of water. Beach and wade ashore as needed. That's what we do over 45 years. It's a very small boat, and perhaps you don't need...

Hi friends, This summers' Adventure is completing our Great Loop segments in only ten years (yes, we're rushing it). A link to our Find Penguins site is below. If you choose to 'Follow' you'll get an email notice when I've posted a new footprint, but I usually don't complete one until a day...

Hi, We’ve been doing one-way segment cruising for 20 years and are on a six week one-way cruise now. Any storage near water is often expensive (for obvious reasons). We almost always use Neighbor.com and never had any problems. Here are current choices for aAacortes...

Hmmm. If both props rotate 'outwards' then they are rotating in opposite directions like you'd expect, right? As far as which position the CR engine takes for best performance seems debated a bit. Agree I haven't heard of C-Dory approving higher than 175 HP, 4-cyl repowers. When we repowered...

Hi Don, In your case it’s perfectly reasonable to take some time (i.e. cruising years) to decide what you really need, what you really want, and to then decide on some compromise between the two. We’ve met many experienced, smart long distance cruisers and Loopers who navigate with just a big...

Congrads, you're smart and figure things out. Whatever works for you is what you should choose. I chose a Pecron 3800 + acc battery 'power station' to power the whole boat AC demand on Canada lock and town walls without 'hydro'. Safe Travels! John

This Dometic Traveler is pretty standard if it looks like this on top a 8g blackwater tank with a Y valve macerator DC or deck pumpout outlet...

14 weeks would be plenty for us on that cruise (we averaged over 35 MPH on the Great Lakes, but were incredibly lucky with calm conditions). For trailer boats, that’s where the weather risk is. Like trying to cross the Gulf in winter, you might be stuck for two weeks, or not at all. By the...

Hi Scott and Barb, We’ve been cruising one-way Segments of the Loop since 2016, and will also finish this summer after only ten years…yes, we’re ‘rushing it.’ I assume you plan to launch near Waterford/Troy and head up to Lake Champlain to do the Triangle Loop backwards (against the current)...

Hi Capt Scott, It is a 25.5 ft LOA trailer boat with a very low bridgedeck clearance (almost none at rest, and less than none with a six-pack of 300 pound Good Ol’ Boys PAX if you have that license). I wouldn’t waste money on that item. Take fewer PAX, move them into the cabin, and adjust...

Galley Extension board: Underway, this lives under the Nav seat cushion, cut so that it doesn’t interfere with the snaps which keep it in place when underway (roughly 29.5 x 24” birch with Gloss varnish). I didn’t want to screw it into the teak trim so attached a trim piece to that for the...

Hi AnchoredOut, For the same reasons, I bought a Pecron 3800 and accessory battery, which together should supply ALL our 120v needs for three nights or more, plus the existing but totally separate three Group 31 AGM batteries plus 100w Renogy glued’down panel has proven to be enough for three...

Hi Colby, When we took a scouting cruise on the David B in Sept 2022, south of the Ketchikan start point there was Verizon coverage every third stop (each stop is listed in that trip report below, and each was lovely for a C-Dory). From the top of the Inside Passage at Vancouver Island...

Welcome all these new TC255 owners, and they’re just the ones I know about! Dan and Jennie Skelly (south Louisiana) once got a tour of Cat O’ Mine, so naturally they had to have one built (Catalyst) then tow a new trailer up to the factory, tour the PNW and bring her home. They were signed up...

Hi Rob! Congrats on a great boat, you’re going to love it! I can’t measure at post-op day #3 after major surgery; doctor’s orders no climbing around on the boat for six weeks. I plan to wait until the day after tomorrow for that. I’m a terrible patient. Anyhows, we glued down a Renogy 100...