Last November we rented a 43' Grand Banks out of Sarasota for a week (to see how well we liked that sort of thing) and took the inter coastal down to Sanibel and back. It was cool, but it was much too slow for me. The scenery just doesn't change that fast at 8 mph, and there was plenty to look at. I would think that on the great loop there would be stretches of hundreds of miles that could be pretty boring. Even a boat that planed out at 30 or 40 mph would be better, in my opinion. That said, a boat that would do that would be plenty cozy so maybe it would not be worth it.

Renting a trawler for a week or to to test the waters is a whole lot better than buying one and then finding out that it is not for you.

FWIW:
www.greatloop.com
www.greatloop.org
www.captainjohn.org

The lower Mississippi, from memphis Tenn. and south, seems to be where there is a lack of fuel/marinas-according to the websites listed. I think it is great that Bob has done most of it. Perhaps he can chime in on Marinas/fuel in these areas?

back in 96 my parents had a 56' Bluewater cruiser and we found classes and a group of people that were going to navigate the great loop the next year. we attended the classes and added extra fuel tanks to the boat but then the trip was canceled do to storms that were happening at the time the trip was supposed to start so we never ended up doing it. Our route was going to take around two months to get from Memphis, tn to New York city then leave the boat there till the next year and do the rest of the loop. Seeing a lot of the sites along the way. Would have been a cool trip to do.

What is the speed record around the loop?
If someone wants to do the great loop in a fast boat and pay the expenses me and chris will take them on the trip and they can be with us setting the speed record around the great loop.

If it is around 5,000 miles and we could average 80 mph when running the trip could be done in around 3-4 days. I'm sure the record is probably a month or more, so we could run 8-10 hours a day stop several places to see sights stay in hotels each night and have a few days of just stopped taking a break and could still do it in less then two weeks and set the record.

What would be really cool is to find a poker run one weekend in New Orleans or somewhere around that area and then find one in new York, Chicago, Detroit or that area the next weekend and hit both of them on the way.

Tyson, that is not a speed run. Bring lots of bail money as you will end up in jail every day. LOL The locks will just kill your average speed and will look more like 20 MPH instead of 80. LOL Any poker runs would only make up 2% of the total mileage. Forget that and get on with breaking my KW - Cancun - KW record or San Fran to LA or Chicago to Detroit would be more meaningful.

Bob

Expenses:
The great loop around 5000 miles
add 500 miles for scenic detours to see stuff and spend 10-14 days doing the trip staying at hotels.

5500 miles at 1.5 mpg= 3,666 gallons * $5.00 per gallon diesel just to be safe. $18,333
dockage 13 nights $50.00 per night average. (some free, some expensive) $ 650
Hotels 13 nights 3 rooms $150.00 per night average. (some cheep, some more). $ 5,850
Food drinks ect. (stopping at restaurants for lunch and dinner) snacks on boat ect. $ 4,200
sites, tours, museums ect. on the way $ 1,000

total $30,000
3 seats / $30,000 = $10,000 per person.
or possibly four seats / $ 30,000 = $ 7,500 per person.

that would be a cool trip for 8-10k any takers?

the boat gets better mileage then that and fuel may not be that much but just figuring high..

we don't really care about setting it as a speed record, but would be a cool trip to do and i'm sure would be the speed record if we did it no matter how long the locks take. Do you want to go with us when we beat your kw-cancun record next year?

Big,
There is NO WAY you can do that trip in 10-14 days! The Erie canal alone has over 50 locks.
....but I would sign up for your trip

You sound pretty confident and I do believe you have the equipment to do it …. if and when you get your situation with the props sorted out. I have previously declined your invitation to go along on that ride and my answer is the same. No thanks. If you and Chris can do it then the record should be yours without me tagging along. All the best,

Bob

I did a little research on the locks, it looks like the record through the erie canal is around 31 hours, and people usually make it in 40-60 hour range because of waiting on locks. I had figured two days of getting through the locks but may have to add a day or two. but with out the locks the run could be done in 3-4 days so depending on how much site seeing someone wanted to do it could be done in 7 days if you tried hard enough. So a 14 day trip or maybe a few more days would be a nice pace.

keep in mind I was not posting this stuff trying to set a speed record, was just saying it would be a cool trip and would probably be the first reasonably fast boat to do it so It would be a record if we did it.

I called a few people that have done the loop, one that gives classes on it and the great loop association. looks like the record is 53 days. there was someone that did almost all of it in 20 days and then lost an engine with only 600 miles left going up the east coast.
the shortest distance someone has done the loop in was a little over 4,000 miles.
I would not go up the intercoastal unless it was at a place that made it shorter and did not have any no-wake zones so the only speed limits and no wake zones would be some of the erie canal and a few short stretches on the rivers.
There would be a few places you would want to add a few hundred miles, like Key West, you do not have to go that far down but would probably want too. Maybe Washington d.c. And probably run around some in new York city.

As far as records go I would say that there could be 2 different records around the shortest possible route, one would overall time to do the whole trip and the other could be shorted amount of hours on your engines. The second you could still stop and see the sites as your time would only be added while running, the other would be bragging rights. And if you could travel down the east coast with reasonable water conditions in a upper 30 or lower 40 footer you should be able cut a lot of time off the trip, right?

I foresee the longest part would obviously be the Erie Canal with all the locks.

I believe there was a story about 2 college girls that did the loop in a aluminum boat with a tent on it, it was in a boating magazine I subscribed to a long time ago, I'll have to see if I can dig it up.

This guy here did it from LSC to the Ft Myers area. 4 vids total. Quite a charter.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qHDqv7uBs3M