350 Mariner and the Great Circle

[Nautidog]

The wife and I have been talking (ok dreaming over a glass of wine) about cruising most of the Great Circle (maybe skipping the trip down the Mississippi) in a few years. The thought before the market hit me for 40% in the fall of '07 was a mid size trawler in the 47 – 55 range. Now that doesn't seem realistic so we're thinking if our Nautidog ('98 350 Mariner w/ gas 7.4L Mercs) is up to the task. We would do the trip without a formal timetable, we don't want to have to push it in case of bad weather or if we're somewhere we really enjoy and want to stay awhile. We would have to make several upgrades to the boat such as:
Autopilot
Chart plotter / radar
Track vision (Sat TV)
Maybe enclose the cockpit with screens / glass for extra room outside.

I think we would spend 5 – 6 nights on the boat then 1 or 2 off to give ourselves a bit of a break. This is several years off at this point but this is the first time I've had good access to Carver owners and wanted to get some ideas / feedback and it may make for an interesting thread.

Any thoughts??

Thanks

 

[awboater]

I might recommend installing an AIS (Automatic Identification System).

There are two types, Class A which is required for all commercial shipping over a certain length, and Class B which is optional for recreational craft. Class B is rather new for the US and has only been available for a short time.

Both of these AIS systems receive and transmit. So you would be identified to all shipping traffic by a transmitter on VHF that is designated to one of two AIS exclusive frequencies. The AIS transmitter on your boat would send out position information about you. A ship could then see that you were a recreational craft.

A cheaper alternative is to purchase an AIS receiver only. In this setup, you could see where all of the commercial shipping is, their heading and speed, but they could not see any data from you.

The beauty of the AIS is that it can interface with many of today's MFD, including chartplotter or radar displays.

AIS receive systems start out at about $300, and Class B transmit systems can cost up to $2,000.

I put an AIS receive-only system on my boat as we have several freighters scooting in and out of my home port during the week, and when they go through the river, I can see then they come in and leave so that I can stay out of their way. My system is one of the $300 setups, and for that price, it works pretty darned good.

This screen shows my RayMarine C-80 with 3 AIS targets on the screen. The triangles show the current heading of each ship, and the little line in front of the triangle gets longer as the ship goes faster.

The triangle to the left has a little right-facing hook at the end, which means the ship is turning.

Notice that the ship's speed is shown, as well as the distance and time to the closest approach between it and my vessel.

How this works is that my AIS receiver simply receives data from each ship. Ships are required to transmit heading and position info once every 30 seconds. They also transmit other info once every 6 minutes, such as the ship's name, cargo, its destination port, and so on.

On my RayMarine display, it can be setup to alarm if one of the AIS targets gets too close as well.

Anyway, when doing the Great Circle, you'll get into areas with commercial shipping, and it would be nice to know about that barge coming up on you from behind before they run you over.

 

[Nautidog]

Thanks Awboater, that's a great idea about AIS, it's on the list. I think I might have to add night vision as well.

ND

 

[Maycpa]

NautiDog, you don't have to go down the Mississippi. You can go through Tennesse, TennTom and Tombigby water ways to Mobile Bay.

 

[PascalG]

i'm not so sure AIS and an auto pilot is that critical on the loop since you're goign to be mostly in channels and rivers... A big barge coming at you down the river is a big barge coming at you down the river...

adding an inverter and an inverter bank is probably a far more important upgrade so that you dont' have to run the genny all the time. teh gasers are going to use enough fuel as it is...

 

[cwms]

I know people who have done it and had a great time. Although everyone I know had diesels. Gassers are going to hit you in the pocketbook.

(most people call it the great loop)

 

[Woodsong]

if you factor in the expense of selling your carver and buying a replacement, etc. the cost savings on having diesels may be a mute point. I agree with Pacal- first thing I'd be adding to my boat if doing the great loop would be a good battery bank and power inverter. Include in that GPS, radar, and trackvision TV and a good little dingy or something and you should be good to go. I am dying to go do this myself!

 

[vriceflyer]

The “Loop” is about 6000 miles on our boat, a 2001 34’ Sundancer with gas 7.4s, we would burn about 7000 gallons or with diesels about 4000 gallons. We get about .78 MPG at 26 MPH or about 1.6 MPG at 7 MPH. 3000 gallons do not add up to the expense of trading up to a diesel boat. I would think our boat and your Carver 35 Mariner are close to the same in fuel burn. Although for fuel economy “range” and the added safety of diesel “not as explosive”, diesel would be nice. We would prefer to do the trip on a 40’ diesel sedan bridge or aft cabin.

However there are all types of situations such as a friend here in town did the Loop on his new 37’ Nordic Tug. He bragged on his fuel economy at times up to 5 MPG at slow cruise. I do not know why he needed to save money on fuel or even cared when he did not mind paying over $400k for the boat.

 

[Nautidog]

Thanks for the feedback. Great point Maycpa about cruising the Tenn Tom and bypassing the Mississippi. Sounds like a better route. Another excellent idea PascalG regarding the inverter, as usual space will drive a lot choices but the inverter will be high on the list.

I know the twin gassers are not the best choice cwms for the Loop but it’s either use what I have or take a BIG step up (47 – 50 trawler). You're right vriceflyer that's about what I currently burn. Right now, the object of the game is to see if I can use what I have with some strong upgrades / modifications or step up.

A friend of mine attempted the Loop in a 37’ gas Mainship. They made it from AL to MD and raised the white flag. A few things that I learned from him were:

• Get an autopilot. Even though he was on rivers and the ICW a lot, he said he was very uncomfortable at the end of the day having to steer the boat all of the time (BTW his First Mate hardly operated the boat to give him a break). This did surprise me a little given that he loves to take long car trips and drove a truck in his younger days.
• You don’t need to pack / provision for the entire trip. They waster too much time and effort loading up the boat prior to the trip (to the point it was listing). They said they hit either a Wal Mart or grocery store every few days.
• Give yourself a break and get off the boat. They never spent a night off the boat and at 37’ I think it may have been a little too much.
• Have a First Mate (ok Captain) that knows how to operate the boat for obvious reasons. He didn’t have much help.
• Don’t have a strict schedule. They did and it took away from some of the enjoyment.

ND

 

[Captain Buddha]

Nautidog, I've got your same boat, well a '99 w/ 5.7 MPI Mag Mercs...but it's something I'd like to do someday. Sounds like a BLAST!

 

[Nautidog]

Hey Buddha, they are a nice boat. Right now the trip is in the future but planning is half the fun.

ND