For those of you that don't know it Don has a 41' Catamaran Cruiser houseboat with a 115 HP outboard.

Our opinion is that this is a dangerous undertaking and you won't be able to get insurance to cover it. Do you have enough gas tankage to cover the longest runs?

If you have to do this we would urge you to truck your boat around the open areas and enjoy the protected portions. Your boat is easy to haul and it shouldn't be that expensive.

IMHO A professional captain that would take on those areas in your boat would have to have brass b***s. Professionalism would be suspect.

Would be a good idea to wait til after hurricane season. We'll say a prayer for you.

Keep us up to date.


OLD HOUSEBOATER38877.9029166667

I have 80 gal in installed fuel tankage. I plan on either buying a marine 20 gal tank with fuel line for the Yamaha or just carrying several 5 gal jerry cans as an emergency reserve.

I am also getting a NAVMAN GPS with fuel fuel transmitter so I can find out just what my usage and effective range is. Supposily the boat gets near 3 mpg which would give me plenty of range. I personally would be happy with 2 mpg which would give me a 160 sm range which would be plenty. If the burn ends up less than 2 mpg I will have to definitely do some fine planning. As much windage as is on the boat would lead me to believe that a headwind would effect mileage pretty strongly.

I also have a 75 pound thrust bow mounted wireless trolling motor for use as a bow thruster or as emergency thrust - hopefully enough to waddle to safety. I also bought a TOWBOAT membership.

I have no dingy as of yet. I would like a nice inflatable with a 10 - 25 hp motor. The trouble besides the cost of purchase is that I don't want to tow anything on a 1300 mile trip. God knows what it would do to gas mileage. So I will probably buy a little rowboat or maybe something with a 2 or 3 hp motor that I could easily stow on board.

As one who's reckless enough to climb in a small (single-engine, yet) airplane, fly it by myself, at night, in clouds, and over mountains, I do understand the dilemma of Joy-vs.Absolute-Safety, and obviously, err on the side of the former, to the mystification of most everybody I know. Also, as one who's helping build a crazy, no-plans 48' houseboat from scratch, I appreciate all the well-meaning warnings to give the whole thing up as a really bad idea, and very much hope the boat will prove to handle well enough not to be limited to a duck pond.

We will, at least, enjoy the luxury of time to hunker down in bad weather, and have many twisty little backwaters nearby that should make good hurricane holes.

So we'll be following your adventures with interest-- I do hope to hear encouraging words from you about how a conservative houseboater might sensibly stray from her own backyard just a little.

If you're looking for a bad example to be better than, Google 'Son of Town Hall' and see the trashheap a crazy bunch sailed across the Atlantic.

Amelia

The Joy is in the Journey.

Old Houseboater is well meaning.

But I am not the pioneer in this.

A retired couple had a 35 footer Catamaran Cruiser which they sailed around the great circle and to the Bahamas.

There is a place which rents these Catamaran Cruisers in the Bahamas. They sail them there.

A professional captain/surveyor offered to take my boat down to Florida for me. He has 30 plus years of experiance and he thought the boat would be fine to sail down without any problems.

Yeah, it has a 115 hp outboard, but it is absolutely enough power. I'd rather have a 150 for a higher top speed, but it is fine.

I will be careful, but I doubt I am cheating death with the endeavor.

[QUOTE=dc9loser]
Frankly, the main risk you take going down the intercoastal is to your insurance carrier. Unless you are reckless any mishap would at most result in a big insurance

It's this kind of irresponsible thinking that makes getting insurance so difficult and expensive.

What is so hard about getting insurance? I had no problems getting it.

Since they have started building catamaran cruisers they have never had one sink or tip over. And that is after 4500 boats.

Sounds like a pretty good bet for any insurance company.

What in your definition would be a adequate boat for the trip?

When I was a kid I read a book called the "Dove". True story of a 16 year old kid who circumnavigated the earth (over 5 years) in a 24 foot sailboat. He had some rough times but made it. I am not challanging the Southern Ocean, I am navigating down a glorified canal.

The intercoastal waterway and the Gulf of Mexico do not compare to the real ocean. I grew up sailing in the Pacific. We'd regularly get 10 to 12 foot waves in our 21 foot boat. Winds would blow 30 mph on many days. And I have sailed across the North Pacific on a helicopter carrier in 80 foot waves. Please do not pretend that the intercoastal is comparable. I would not think of taking my boat into the Pacific. But it is adequate for the Gulf and the Intercoastal about 95% of the time. I can hide in some port the other 5%.

Frankly, if you think that my boat is inadequate for a cautious, weather watching, slow cruise down the intercoastal I would have to question your judgement. I'd think a 12 foot row boat would be fully adequate for such a trip much less a sturdy 41 foot catamaran.

Excuse me, I have to take a look at my hurricaine preparations. My house is 6.5 feet above sea level. We have a high tide at 3 AM and they are saying a 4 or 5 foot storm surge due to Alberto. No I'm not leaving my house and making a run for it. I expect to either escape any damage or worst case a foot of water in the house. I've sandbagged and sealed the house for an extra 18 inches. Should be OK. And yes I have flood insurance. I love living here, no I am not moving, does that make me irresponsible in your book too?

Yeah we have a tropical storm off the coast and we still don't have bad waves here. Physics. The water is too shallow. On the other hand the shallow water can lead to some really bad storm surge... basically the water just rises.

Luck beats common sense, right???

Lucky is of course good.

What we are discussing here is just what is common sense. If I were to buy a used conventional cabin cruiser that you would consider seaworthy would that be common sense.

In my opinion it would be really dumb. The seaworthy boat may be able to take some rough weather better. Rough weather that occurs maybe 5% of the time and is easily avoidable.

I got a boat which is good for 95% of the weather here and where I plan to use it.

I decided to get the boat for the following reasons:

1. It will get twice to three times the gas mileage. Although it is no speed demon it is supposed to get near 3 mpg. Compared to around 1 mpg on a conventional cabin cruiser. Look at fuel prices lately?

2. Low draft. It will float in 20 inches of water while the conventional boat needs 40 to 60 inches depending on which boat. If ya ever operated in Florida you'd know how important low draft is. I will get 5 times the usage and enjoyment out of a low draft beachable boat then if I had a boat which forced me to open water. In fact because of its low draft it is safer - I can travel in covered areas that the conventional boat could not. I can operate and anchor in more safe harbors.

3. Cost. I certainly could have gotten a used cabin cruiser for about the same money. But at that price level it would have been a pretty sorry boat. And it would have forced me to spend money (20K?) on dredging to accomidate its draft.

4. Deck space. The boat has a ton of deck space that you are not going to have on a cabin cruiser.

5. Maintenance. A conventional cabin cruiser probably would have been about 4 or 5 times more expensive to maintain. This boat has one outboard. It will be easy to care for. Most of the interior can be refitted at the local home depot.

So if your common sense is for me to buy a gas guzzling boat which only allows me to operate in marked channels or open deep water during high tide and has a high maintenance tab and whose only advantage is that it can take the weather 98% of the time rather than 95% of the time..... well I just would not agree with you that that is common sense.