# Sailboats and the Great Circle Loop



## omaho5 (Jun 5, 2008)

I wanted to find someone or some info on Using a sailboat to do this cruise.
I rrealize that not MUCH actual sailing is done on the rivers/canals.
How about those parts on the Great Lakes ?
There is an Org that only blogs about the Loop.
However not much info on sailing and sailboats.


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## Cruisingdad (Jul 21, 2006)

Just drop your mast where it is low clearance. Sail the rest of the way. Seems like my dad's Tayana 42 came down from the lakes that way... mast was shipped seperate though IIRC, not put on the boat. He then stepped it in Pensacola and sailed across the gulf to SW FL.

Brian


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## cb32863 (Oct 5, 2009)

IIRC You can sail the entire great lakes without dropping your mast. There is thread here that discusses getting through to the Atlantic via the great lakes. Though you are going pretty far north at that point..... not sure your preferences on that.


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## PorFin (Sep 10, 2007)

Omaho,

We've done the loop in our Vagabond 39. You'll need to drop the mast to go through the Erie Canal. You'll also need the mast down to get off of Lake Michigan at Chicago (either downtown or through the Cal-Sag).

Depending on your mast height, you may want to leave it down until you get all the way down the inland rivers and restep it in/around Mobile. 

I'd be happy to field questions. 

We had a running discussion over on Anything Sailing this summer on various topics related to our passage -- you might want to search there as well.


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