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I thought the purpose of a transom saver was to reduce the twisting force of the motor on the top of the transom and the tilt mechanism if the motor is carried tilted up and the road is bouncy. If the boat is securely strapped to the trailer (which it should be), and the transom saver securely...

On New Moon's trailer I had a jack with the flat plate bottom, as did Dr Bob. Much sturdier than the swiveling wheeled types. Worked for 15 years on my ~12,000 lb boat/trailer. Every fall I would run some fresh water through the innards and add some new grease to the bevel gears. Here's one...

FWIW, On my 26-footer, I replaced an older basic FW pump with a variable speed one. Eliminated the "hammering" of the basic pump, replacing it with a smooth and even flow. A nice improvement. Just replaced one on my current boat with a Shurflo Aqua King II. Works really well. The 4gpm...

Our kickers have saved our C-Dory twice and our 26-foot cruiser once from disaster on rocky lee shores, when kelp had blocked the water intakes and caused the main to overheat. Another time when we spun a prop crossing Taku Inlet near Juneau in windy conditions. And twice brought us back from...

Hi Pat, FWIW, for Puget Sound up through SE Alaska, I'd suggest your 25' boat would work well with 50' of chain (or a bit more), spliced to 250-300' of rope. We anchored our 11,000 lb 26-footer hundreds of nights over 18 summers of cruising the Inside Passage with 40-42' of 1/4" HT chain and...

Our boat's slip (where I have been hanging out since March 1, the route to Alaska being closed) is in Poulsbo, on the Kitsap peninsula. Not quite as much in the rain shadow as Sequim, but often considerably less gray sky and rain than Seattle. Less isolated and more shopping etc than the...

Or maybe devastated. Nitpick/peeve: Decimation's original meaning was the Roman Legion's brutal punishment of killing one of every ten soldiers. It's often misused these days to suggest devastation far exceeding ten percent - which was the case when Europeans brought diseases like smallpox to...

Don't know about lanolin. I used Permatex anti-seize paste on New Moon's trailer's lugs. Considerably more effective than just clean with a bit of oil. That trailer had 6 wheels, six lugs each. I would replace a lug nut whenever it no longer went on easily, usually a few every year.

Related to my question: I've been on Dream Catcher, in her slip in Poulsbo, for more than a month now. Meant to spend a couple of weeks doing chores, then head back home to Utah and get ready to point the boat toward Alaska in May. Covid, border closings, and stay at home changed my plans...

I'd suggest the Douglass guide "Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia"

I've had AGM's for starting (and house batts) since ~2002. Very good results. Optima spiral-wound AGM's for starting my boat's 260hp Volvo diesel lasted 7 years. Sears Platinum (Odyssey) g34 AGM's several years, still going strong when I sold it. Optima's in my Cummins diesel truck, which...

FWIW, We towed our 22 Cruiser all over the west with an 89 Pathfinder rated IIRC for 3500 lb. Our 22 was lighter than some, with a two-stroke Yamaha 90 main weighing only about 275 lb. Manual transmission, higher-grade off-road suspension, good brakes, good shocks, good tires pumped to their...

My Scotty pulls ~20lb pots at 350' with ease. My cruising buddy pulls strings of two such.

You'll probably need a flatter-pitched prop, or even two. Our 22 with a Yamaha 90 2-cycle had one prop for sea level, another for Lake Powell (3,700 feet), and another even flatter-pitched for higher lakes like Flaming Gorge (6,000) and Yellowstone (7,700).

Hi Colby, Don't know about Verizon, but near many towns, even small ones, AT&T cell coverage is often workable. There are many more remote stretches where there's no coverage, but we find ourselves in covered areas fairly often. Some are pleasant surprises, like: Icy Strait south of the...

I'm on my way back from working on Dream Catcher for a couple of weeks. It was well up in the 70's in Poulsbo three days in a row. I was feeling spoiled. Peanut (our Border Terrier) was not yet acclimated to that much warmth - had to stop a few times and lie in cool shaded grass when we were...

Hi Colby, I followed the mfr Pettit's recommendations exactly - which is what I'd suggest for any bottom paint. Don't remember the timing between coats, but it was pretty specific in their directions. Between the two coats of primer was something like two hours, or maybe four - you need to do...

Hi Colby, Here's a post about it I made three years ago: Ten years ago this spring, I decided to bottom paint my 8-year-old boat. After some research, I chose Pettit Hydrocoat. Power-washed and scrubbed thoroughly, used a solvent to make sure no wax remained, and applied a sandless primer (2...

FWIW, I applied water-based Pettit Hydrocoat to New Moon myself in 2006, after getting very tired of major accumulations in 2-3-month Inside Passage trips. Noticeable slowing underway, and multi-day cleanup after each cruise. New Moon spent ~ 9 months each year on its trailer, and ~ 3 months...

Hi Kurt, Our 26-footer (heavier than your TomCat) came with a 7.5kg Bruce. Over many summers cruising BC and SE Alaska, it worked well in most situations. We switched to a 10kg (22lb) Rocna, which was a great improvement - quicker and surer setting, especially in kelpy areas. I'd say a 10kg...