This may be a question that is impossible to answer, but I thought I’d try to see if any of you could help me. I am a new owner of a 1987 Cafe Racer. The manual says the draft is 32” with the drives down at the rear. I am on the St. Lawrence River where the water levels vary quite considerably ever since they adopted a new water management plan in 2014. This year the waters are very low. My dock has 42” of water at the deep end so I know the drives are ok. However, the drop off into the shore is pretty aggressive and I am concerned about the front. Does anyone have any feel for the amount of water needed at the front or middle of the boat. I can measure the water at different points, but I have no idea what is necessary. I’ve seen plenty of pictures where Cigarettes are pulled up onto the beach in sand. This isn’t sand. It’s rocks and sticks. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

Mark your water line with a grease pen while boat is in the water. Put the boat on the trailer and straight and out from the keel to the chine and measure directly up to the grease pen. That'll tell you the draft of the hull at that point. It's not much though.

Excellent idea! Thanks very much. I will have to see if the marina can do that for me as I don’t have a trailer anymore.

Can you add a section of floating dock extending out farther into deeper water off of what you have?

I’m not sure, but the way things are now I doubt I could get a floating dock or have anyone build something. Then there is the permitting. Even on a good year, things like that are pretty limited around here. My next door neighbor has a floating dock anchored to a metal pile he had driven in to keep the front in place just like you’re talking about. It took him a long time after getting the floating dock to get the pile driven. I do have the option of putting it across the front of the boathouse, but once the river gets busy the waves coming in are fairly constant. That’s probably my main concern about the low water. It might be alright now, but the weekends may be too rough. Thanks for the idea, I will look into it just in case it is possible.

All the depth is in the rear. I can't quantify it, but I've inadvertently had the boat sitting in about 2 feet of water or less, with the drives cocked way up and it still never touched bottom......

Ok. Thanks. So, nothing to be concerned with in your opinion.

I just measured the water at various points along the dock End 42” 10’ in 34” 15’ in 26.5” 20’ in 21.5” 25’ in 16.5” 30’ in 11.5” It should be ok I would think? Here is a picture of the boat on the dock from last year. Any further thoughts or comments would be great.

I’d say you need to just wait til it’s low tide and then play with it. You can also push the cafe back a bit so it’s not to far up or like we do at the river, tie the boat long ways at the end instead of going in. We have the same problem at my buddies place on the Colorado river tide goes way up and way down. So I just started tying up at a 40 degree angle.

this is what we’re dealing with at certain times of the year!