Danielson

Hi Guys,

I would like to buy a 30 foot Baja Outlaw with Twin Engines and plan to take it to Puerto Rico on the 900-1000 nm trip. From boattest.com I see that I should get around 1.4 MPG at cruise speed of around 35-40 mph. Are these numbers realistic for this type of boat during the trip?

My plan is to move to Puerto Rico and instead of shipping the boat I would like to bring it there and experience this trip of a lifetime.

Has anyone done a long trip like this / any tips?

Thank you,

Daniel

pstorti

iTrader: (2)

no your MPG will drop significantly when you get out in the waves of the open ocean. if you do it in the summer and island hop your way down it can be done though

glenncal1

Daniel- don't quote me on this, but I think there are a couple of long (~180-200 mile) open water stretches on that trip. There are a lot of books on cruising the Carribean, go to the library or Amazon and do some reading.

Raylar

You might want to PM Bobthebuilder here on OSO. e has made a lot of long distance trips all around the Carribean in his boat and could probably give you some realistic input of possibilities and feasibility.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

Downtown42

What you going to do if you break down? I'd suggest a Nordhavn.

http://www.nordhavn.com/

bcschoe

I ran down in a non performance 47 ft work boat with no accommodations onboard and I believe Bob the Boat builder did it in his 50 NorTech.

The boat I took down had a range of 200NM at 20kts. The longest open ocean run is from Provo to Puerto Plata at 163nm. I did all the runs at night so we had more island time. Great stay overs in the outer Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.

You do need to be able to wait our weather so make sure you have plenty of time set aside.

Cheers
Brad

jayboat

iTrader: (1)

I'm sure Bob will chime in here the minute he sees this thread.

I rode with him last summer from Great Exhuma to BVI. We covered 1200 miles with stops in Provo, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in his 50 Nor-Tech powered by three Yanmar diesels.

While I admire your imagination, personally, I wouldn't even think about it in a boat that size. There are a couple of very long runs on this trip, and in addition to fuel considerations, if you encounter any kind of sporty water you could have bigger problems than fuel.

We were very lucky in that we had some perfect weather and water for most of the trip except for that one 90-mile stretch of 10-ft snot into a blinding thunderstorm. You sure you wanna try something like that in a 30 foot boat?

It's all easy to contemplate when you are sitting in your living room looking at maps on a computer screen, but when you are in open ocean a hundred miles from anything things can be very different. You are right, it is the trip of a lifetime and I am not trying to discourage you, but you should ship this boat over.

Here's the photo gallery from the trip.

Castle Rock - if you are here, you are a very long way from home.

Bobthebuilder

Hi Daniel. While it would be a trip of a lifetime, I have to advise you against it in a 30' boat. While it could be done, your biggest problem once you solve the fuel range problem will be finding a weather window of several good days that will let you go all the way thru once you get started. Here is a link to my trip from Ft Lauderdale to BVI in May 2010. http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...adventure.html We had also tried it in may of 2009 and with the constant trade winds out of the SE could not get beyond the southern Bahamas and returned to FLL. May 2010 we were extremely lucky and found the window needed and blasted right on thru. Summer months would be your best opportunity as the wind and seas tend to lay down more. The problem will be you will need to wait for the right conditions to be able to cross the Gulf stream to Bahamas. Once there, there is lots of protection from the many islands and fuel / distance will not be a problem in Bahamas. Your next challenge will be over 300 miles of open water from southern BA to T & Caicos. From there almost 200 miles of open water to Porto Plata, DR. Then run the exposed north shore of DR and cross the infamous Mona Passage to PR. To do those distances you must first of all know your boats capabilities, but also have confidence in it. Can you have that kind of confidence in a boat you will have just bought and know little about ?? Before we did our run to Cancun, even tho the boat was new we, tested, tested and tested some more until I had the confidence it could be done and done safely.

So my advise is ship the boat ( the cost will be less than your fuel bill ) and enjoy you boat in the islands. There is lots and lots of great boating within easy range of wherever you are in PR. Come over to BVI in May and join us when we do the BVI Leverick Bay poker run on Memorial weekend. I will be back here again for the 3rd year in a row. Lots of boats come out from PR and surrounding islands for that. I can put you in touch with them.

If you decide not to take my advise to ship and try to do the trip, let me know as there is a lot more detailed info you will need. Be glad to help any way I can.

Good luck, and let us know what you end up doing.

Bob

Danielson

Hi all,

Last night, when you guys mentioned that Bob The Builder had done long range trips, I found his Key West to Cancun World Record thread here and read it from post #1 to the end. It was awesome to be able to read it, and follow it like if it was happening today. Thanks Raylar for pointing me to that!

Thanks Jayboat for letting me know about the trip from FFL to BVI with Bob last year! I was able to read that thread as well, and it was almost like going on the adventure with you guys. Thanks so much for documenting the trips in such detail. It was like reading the best book I have read in my life.

From reading about your experiences, I can tell that this trip is a serious undertaking that takes a lot of courage and experience to be able to get to the destination. I can also see all the good times you had during the trip and that's a mayor part of making me want to take this journey. I would like to see all those beautiful islands a long the way.

Bob / Jayboat - Thanks for pointing out that the size of boat issue! It has made me think twice about doing the trip on this boat. I'm assuming that since the nose/length of the boat is smaller, in bad weather more water will come into the cockpit by the crashing waves. Also, since a 50 footer is probably heavier it could stay more hooked up to the sea while going over waves and the 30 footer could be more out of the water more often. Not to mention the greatly improved fuel range of the bigger boat. Are my assumptions correct? I've never been on a Powerboat before, so these are my best guesses.


Bob - Thanks for taking the time to respond and inform me about the major obstacles on my way in a such a trip. Your experience and knowledge are invaluable! As I mentioned above, I read both the Key West to Cancun World Record thread and FLL to BVI from start to finish! I enjoyed reading them and looking at all the wonderful pictures that you guys took during the trip.

The Baja 30 outlaw doesn't have half the range of your awesome 50 foot Nor Tech boat. The Predator is a dream boat and I'm really glad you can enjoy it as much as you do! Assuming that I have the perfect weather window, I will still need to do more fuel stops along the way. Could I refuel at Cockburn Town (Turk and Caicos capital) and head south to DR from there? The jump directly from Provo to DR could only be done in this boat with perfect 1-2 foot seas and is pushing it very close.

Thanks everyone who responded for sharing your tips and experience with me.
I appreciate you taking the time and will be taking them all into consideration.

Even though this was my first post, I can tell that this forum is full of great people!

Will keep you posted if I get to purchase the boat and decide to take the trip.

Shipping it to Puerto Rico doesn't sound like a bad option either as Bob and Jay suggested and is probably the better decision.

Best Regards and Happy Holidays to all!

Daniel

TWIN-SPINS

like we told the germans in battle of the bulge,,,NUTS