Would you do the Loop in an A-25?

[DesertAlbin736]

We traveled to Maine by RV in 2017 to visit a cousin & a since deceased elderly aunt in Bar Harbor. Its is a beautiful area. Would be great to do a Down East windjammer cruise someday. But it's just a fact of geography that the Salish Sea, Sunshine Coast, and Inside Passage are hard to beat.

[SalishAire]

We haven't had our A 25 on the water long enough yet to claim to be experts about its capabilities but have been pleased with how it handled everything we have thrown at it so far. As to small boat cruising, our first long trip was 1000 NM from Vancouver BC to Skagway AK in a MacGregor 26X which is one of the lightest boats made. We blogged as we went along using a stylus on a PalmPilot and plugging into land lines for internet access along the way when we had a chance. Years later we learned that there was a group of 26X owners back home reading the blog and placing bets on our chances of success. What we did learn was that a small boat can handle most waters as long as the crew has the patience to wait for weather windows. Every section of the trip we saw locals in skiffs going out to fish on waters that we had been told were much "too big" for a light 26 ft boat. Go For IT!

[Burton]

"Boring"is an interesting subject. It takes us two days to get out of Hood Canal on the water. But we get views of the Olympic mountains that are stunning, if it is not raining. We go under the ends of the floating bridge, past the nuclear sub base, try to avoid the gunboats with the 50 caliber guns, get in water over 800 feet deep. And it is somewhat boring...it's all in our heads! We're on the boat.

The Starfleet Commander wants to rent a slip over near Bremerton for the summer months. My counter-argument is that that will be when we are on the boat and gone to the Gulf Islands or Desolation Sound or just to see friends in Canada, or if w're really down on our luck, the San Juan Islands! What's a couple more days on the boat in a glacier carved fjord?

The coast of Maine must be gorgeous. Can you make it to Newfoundland or whatever else is up there? I want to see fifty foot tides one of these years.

Similar thought: Slow Motion, at the float dock in the tiny Ellsworth, Maine harbor, is on the way to my office. It is pure joy for me to leave the office, row out to the float dock where no one can get to me, put out the cushions plus a big one for my back and settle down with a good book or the guitarlele. Or take a lunch, settle down and watch the world drive by off on Water Street. Plus, there is huge entertainment watching the activity at the launch, the birds, or like seeing the tiny lobster boat when the owner got his new steering cables wrong and was going left when he steered right, me grabbing a boat hook and pushing him away from crashing into the other boats at the float dock. There is always someone coming through that should not own a boat, or at a minimum needs to take a power squadron course but hasn't, and is on the wrong side of the buoys and gets on the rocks. But best of all is the usual tranquility of just being on the water and "messing about " in the boat. But I do think I was expecting some sort of amazing situation with the canals, having never been through a lock or on a canal.

Yes, it is gorgeous here. (See Acadia National Park on the 'net.) Newfoundland? In local response, "You can't get they-uh from hee-ah". Sure you can, but you might want to do part of it at 55 mph. Our tides are only about eleven feet or so here. Further Downeast, like the Bay of Fundy, then you've got some tides. Even here...going through a narrow spot and you know the water is moving unless it is slack tide! After being on the Pacific off Oregon, the waves here are very different: steep and close together. But, one can often take a canoe right off the shore. In summer, sun means wind, wind means waves-- but our boats handle it fine. One must dodge the lobster buoys to avoid the pot warp, but at 7 knots it is easy-- just learn which way the rope is going.

[PlanB]

Doing the loop is my plan! Getting ready to renovate my Albin 25 with the goal being the loop. Will start with several local trips and loops. I have been boating and sailing for many years. I never get bored. Sometimes the goal is to be bored but then something interesting comes around the bend. Might start sooner by doing it in segments taking off a month out of the year. From all of my loop reading and meditation i think an A-25 is the perfect boat. Esp. Considering a Ranger Tug 25 is $200,000 plus! Remember it has a full keel and is offered as a sailing boat so initial stability is quite good.
Big boats need big crews and big budgets. Thats awesome for the folks that can roll like that. I will enjoy looking at their lovely yachts all along the way.

[Andrew cook]

Without reservation if I were younger. I’ve followed many an Albin 25’s blog of their loop adventures, as well as those in a variety of 25-27 power and or sail pocket cruisers. In particular a web site “Florida-family.net” also includes an A-25 gulf to Atlantic to Bahamas adventure as well as a loop memoir.

I’ve been offshore in gales sledding (in sheer terror) down the backside in our Albin 25 “Resolve”, Not on purpose and un-avoidably. The boat can take a range of conditions I’d never deliberately encounter, if it is well outfitted, and maintained.

We spent a decade in Penobscot Bay with one excursion to Acadia. We only got to half the places we could have. Andrew

[DesertAlbin736]

Albin 25 owners are a special fraternity (with sisters too).

[hetek]

You got me thinking…

Would I do the Loop? Actually, I thought about it and formed a very simple plan.

First, retire. That way I have time to do what I want. If I don’t retire, my plan might still work in an altered form.

Simply put, start the trip and stop when it is either not fun, too boring, too expensive, too uncomfortable, weather stinks beyond belief, catastrophic mechanical failure… or any combination of the above.

Set out and stop whenever and wherever I am, for whatever reason. That’s it. Leave the boat at a safe place where it is. Maybe it can stay there longer term, or not.

Take an Amtrak or flight home. Maybe take the trailer to go pick the boat up or else go back and continue the trip at a later date.

I’d make the Loop into a LOT of single day trips.

Now where did I put that AARP application?

[Ed422]

I’d make the Loop into a LOT of single day trips.

By default, the Loop is a series of single day trips isn't it?

Ed

[DCatSea]

I refer you to the Albin-God of the ICW - Smacksman; who did much of it in a sight-unseen C-list A27 equipped with a Walmart Shower screen bimini and a used bicycle. Check his trip out on Youtube.

[hetek]

I’d make the Loop into a LOT of single day trips.

By default, the Loop is a series of single day trips isn't it?

Ed

Yes, but it’s also a state of mind. It could be overwhelming if you think of it as a whole.

My “stop at any time” also gives me an exit ramp.

…But, yes, you are correct.

[SalishAire]

When we bought Hyacinth (A25) it was with The Loop (which we haven't done) and even the Sea of Cortez (which we are very familiar with) in mind. This spring we are tentatively planning to combine our grandson's high school graduation in Ontario (just north of Niagara Falls) and boating in the Thousand Islands area of Lake Ontario, the Trent Severn Waterway and the Rideau Canal. This will involve towing her across the country from Washington (State) and camping in the boat (we've done this before) and then ramp launching into Lake Ontario. It's not the main part of The Loop but our friends who have looped a couple of times tell us we are in for a wonderful cruise and have just the right boat. The prep work is underway with the biggest thing being to upgrade the trailer to electric over hydraulic brakes.

[tribologist]

I been thinking of coastal Maine too but i think it would need to be a trailer thing and stay in the inshore areas but jump between them. There are some crazy cool places up in NB too. Will take some planning.. I thought getting into old port in montreal was fun with 8 kt current against..

[SalishAire]

I believe our friends did part of the loop in a Ranger 25 before doing the whole loop in a Ranger 29. John has written a book about the loop that provides current information for SMALL boat owners. You can order a hard copy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Serendip ... 689&sr=8-1 or get a Kindle copy for free if you are subscribed to Kindle Unlimited. Or you can reach out to John and Laurie at johnlgray425@icloud.com

[trbeau]

I am in the process of preparing a 1977 Albin 25 Deluxe for continuing the Loop. We are selling a 21 foot Bruce Roberts designed Long Boat 21 because we've decided a little bigger boat will suit us better for longer parts of the Loop. Small galley and a real head make my wife smile. We've traveled the Loop from Deltaville, VA to Amelia Island, FL. That took four trips dropping off truck and trailer then returning in rental car for trip home. We've hit some fairly rough water in the Bruce Roberts but only scary crossing Charleston Harbor and a few other places. Weather wise we had to post up a couple times but much larger boats we're doing the same. Careful weather and route planning, along with Plan A, B and C reduce anxiety and increase safety.
BTW, speed limit on Dismal Swamp Canal is 5 knots or mph. For the most part there's simply no reason or opportunity to pass.
My wife was thrown into the deck when a larger boat surprised us in an overtake and waked us hard approaching the Alligator River Bridge in NC.
The reasons for purchasing an Albin 25 include 8'6" beam can be towed in 47 states, not too expensive to purchase, economical fuel usage, plenty of storage, seaworthy hull design and built tough with solid fiberglass hull.

[Thumper74]

I refer you to the Albin-God of the ICW - Smacksman; who did much of it in a sight-unseen C-list A27 equipped with a Walmart Shower screen bimini and a used bicycle. Check his trip out on Youtube.

I like him. And how he tells the “”tale””. Even when he misses the turn off. He did the Oceanside. Not sure if he did the inland rivers. But his videos show he had a hoot..