# Ditch running draft and height



## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

There are others I'm sure but I'm mostly interested in the icw and the tombigbee still not decided if it's going to be a Pocket trawler or a sailboat between 30 and 38 ft (I should live so long! LOL)


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

I believe 63ft tall is the hard limit on the ICW for some fixed bridges, which appear with some regularity, but it depends on how close you're willing to test that.

Draft depends on where. 5ft seems safe, to make the length of it, but I've heard of 6ft figuring it out. If you're going to be confined to a section of ICW, you could review those charts to see if there is more flexibility.

With your disdain for heat, how does the Tombigbee enter the picture? I had to look up where it was.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Thinking and actually doing is probably a cause of old age inactivity! I know I win a prize in that area!


Oh, the Tom Bigbee plays in because my daughters (and my Son RIP in a hillside in Hixson TN) live in the Chattanooga Tennessee area plus, it's all part of doing the big loop dream, not that I dream of being a looper.


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Motorsailer with a mast tabernacle maybe. I have spent a lot of time cruising ditches. Masts are in the way. Sure, you can wait for a lift, but who wants to when you can blast under at 5 knots. Invariably, ditches open into large reservoires and you could end up with several days of sailable water. Nice to have both options. I personally like displacement speed motorsailors, just because of fuel savings. Draft, usually the shallower the better.

I like something like the Nimble arctic for this sort of thing. https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/nimble-25-arctic

Couple of pics of my own boat in trawler mode, can step the mast on the water and be back under way in minutes.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Arcb said:


> Motorsailer with a mast tabernacle maybe. I have spent a lot of time cruising ditches. Masts are in the way. Sure, you can wait for a lift, but who wants to when you can blast under at 5 knots. Invariably, ditches open into large reservoires and you could end up with several days of sailable water. Nice to have both options. I personally like displacement speed motorsailors, just because of fuel savings. Draft, usually the shallower the better.
> 
> I like something like the Nimble arctic for this sort of thing. https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/nimble-25-arctic
> 
> ...


Funny I was just thinking on that because across the pond they have Tabernacle mast and twin keels as the most commonly accepted type boats they be sailing over there,


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

I just brought my O'day 35 to Rhode Island from Fort Myers along the AICW and the OWW. The O'day 35 has a 5.7' draft and a 47' air draft. You can read about the trip down here; Finding a new home? and the trip back here; Heading home

The air draft of the O'day 34/35 allows me to pass under the bridge on the Cape May canal and the 49' railroad bridge at Port Mayacca on the Okechobee Waterway.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

E! good to hear from you thank you! Running up the Jersey coast is what scares me always has and probably always will because I can't really afford to pay delivery captains but then who can.

Also I can't/ rather not do night time driving and sailing. Coming up on the big 73 this month! At least I got to drive across the country and back again off my bucket list!


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

deniseO30 said:


> E! good to hear from you thank you! Running up the Jersey coast is what scares me always has and probably always will because I can't really afford to pay delivery captains but then who can.
> 
> Also I can't/ rather not do night time driving and sailing. Coming up on the big 73 this month! At least I got to drive across the country and back again off my bucket list!


Nice to see that you're back too! I replied in your Catalina 36 thread too.

The 'Jersey coast, which I did in two hops (Cape May to Atlantic City and AC to Sandy Hook), was one of the least eventful parts of the journey. Pick a weather window, and go! The Delaware River from 9pm to 2am and Block Island Sound once past Fischer's Island were the worst parts of the journey north.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

ICW and Great Loop I would sink the sailboat and buy a trawler. (displacement trawler). 
This actually includes the north east USA too. It's all great fun on a sail boat, but by jingo, it's gotta be a hell of a lot easier on a trawler. 

Going down the ICW in my 6 ft draft sailing boat was difficult solo because I had to engage brain every bend to find the deep water. But a 4 ft draft 7 kt trawler where u sit on the fly bridge would be s dream.... And you can see over the bunds on the rivers.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

27 ft Albin is like a pilot House too small for a flying bridge but it does seem just about right for everything I'm thinking.
View attachment 139798
View attachment 139798


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

For travel on the ICW I highly recommend Aqua Maps with the US Army Corps of Engineers Survey overlays.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

I had navonics on my cell phone for a while lol


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

You can run Aqua Map on an iPhone or Android device.

This is an example (courtesy of Panbo.com) of what an ACOE survey overlay looks like on a chart:









Read more about it here; Aqua Map Master adds AIS, WiFi instrument data, USACE surveys and route explorer - Panbo


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

eherlihy said:


> You can run Aqua Map on an iPhone or Android device.
> 
> This is an example (courtesy of Panbo.com) of what an ACOE survey overlay looks like on a chart:
> 
> ...


Doesn't look too different from navonics!

This Albin 27 does seem to fit my needs and wants, I don't ever intend to be out in heavy weather, following seas or offshore. She only has like an 8 ft beam with a deep v semi-displacement propeller in the







keel, just like it's bigger sisters called lobster boats!


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> ICW and Great Loop I would sink the sailboat and buy a trawler. (displacement trawler).
> This actually includes the north east USA too.


Agreed, for the loop, but why would you think a trawler was necessary for NE USA?


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## capecodda (Oct 6, 2009)

Hey Denise, dangerous to mention this here, but we run a 28' down east power boat along with our sail boat. I have to admit as I get older, pressing the start button to get underway and sitting in an enclosed cockpit underway on a drizzly day with a cup of something hot in my hand has increasing appeal. One other observation, as a sailor stepping up to 8 knots seems pretty good, but 14-20 can be even better when you want to get someplace and it's a flat day and you can go outside. You can find that in a DE design, not in a displacement trawler. And I'd hate to admit how much time I've spent under power cruising Maine "under sail." The down side is these down easts are commanding big prices, especially due to the covid effect, when everyone seems to want a boat; however, I think there may be a backlash once they realize the true annual cost in $$'s and time of boat ownership. If I wanted to live on and cruise, I'd be thinking low 30-35', galley and salon up, head and sleeping below and forward. Yes, in the salon you can actually look out the window and see something outside whilst seated. Needless to say, IMHO go power.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Minnewaska said:


> Agreed, for the loop, but why would you think a trawler was necessary for NE USA?


I just love lobster boat design I don't know why. They do pretty well up in Maine most all of New England although they're much larger they're generally around me carrying tons of lobsters lol. The Chesapeake dead rise is about the same type of design BTW ..


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Going down the ICW in my 6 ft draft sailing boat was difficult solo because I had to engage brain every bend to find the deep water. But a 4 ft draft 7 kt trawler where u sit on the fly bridge would be s dream.... And you can see over the bunds on the rivers.


The funny thing about that is that in my 6'4" draft I haven't grounded on the ICW and I have done all but about 50 miles of it now. Meanwhile the 4' draft boats go aground all the time and most of the cautions in active captain on curves are from shallow draft boats because they don't stay in the channel and realize that if they are in 8' of water that they are NOT in the channel. Then they post a "shoaling" spot.


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Albin Trawler would be a very nice option.


deniseO30 said:


> Doesn't look too different from navonics!
> 
> This Albin 27 does seem to fit my needs and wants, I don't ever intend to be out in heavy weather, following seas or offshore. She only has like an 8 ft beam with a deep v semi-displacement propeller in the
> View attachment 139801
> keel, just like it's bigger sisters called lobster boats!


That looks like a nice option. Regular sailboats might be okay in the AICW but other parts of the loop, if that is a goal, they just aren't that great of an option. There are sections of the Florida Gulf ICW that are just bridge after bridge. Same thing in the NYS canals, Rideau Canal, Trent Severn Canal and Erie barge canal. On the AICW the option to go outside exists, but there is no place to go outside on the Mississippi. If the wind is from the wrong direction, you are motoring for days on end, so may as well have something that does it well and has decent site lines for locks.

Not sure if Nimble trawlers are your thing, but they are some of my favourite small trawlers. They range from about 21 feet to 32 feet. One kind of nifty feature is most of them were sold with auxillary sail rigs as an option. Here is an article on the biggest, the Nimble Wanderer.









Nimble Wanderer


Tom Neale reviews this 32-foot cruiser.




www.cruisingworld.com


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## Milfordadkins (Jun 21, 2021)

I have a 41ft morgan classic with swing keel. 4ft draft when keel is up. Plan on cruising up same route to ky lake till refit is complete and some big river and ohio river cruising after before i hit the big pond


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Arcb said:


> Albin Trawler would be a very nice option.
> 
> That looks like a nice option. Regular sailboats might be okay in the AICW but other parts of the loop, if that is a goal, they just aren't that great of an option. There are sections of the Florida Gulf ICW that are just bridge after bridge. Same thing in the NYS canals, Rideau Canal, Trent Severn Canal and Erie barge canal. On the AICW the option to go outside exists, but there is no place to go outside on the Mississippi. If the wind is from the wrong direction, you are motoring for days on end, so may as well have something that does it well and has decent site lines for locks.
> 
> ...


Nimbles are also hard to find I was actually searching for them a couple nights ago


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Minnewaska said:


> Agreed, for the loop, but why would you think a trawler was necessary for NE USA?


Where did I say 'necessary'? I didn't. So why do you make it up?

Mark


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> Where did I say 'necessary'? I didn't. So why do you make it up?
> 
> Mark


Ok. You said you would sink the sailboat and buy a trawler, for the ICW, the Loop and added NE USA. Why the NE?


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Well I received a text from the broker on the Catalina 36 they had a commission getting the bottom scrubbed but I still think I'm going to go for the little trailer it just seems to make sense at this time in life! I'll probably put a small mast and steady sail on it!


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Minnewaska said:


> Ok. You said you would sink the sailboat and buy a trawler, for the ICW, the Loop and added NE USA. Why the NE?


Probably an equation with the following : cheap fuel, fast currents and high tidal range, close marinas, lots of canals, rivers, waterways etc.

I would love to do it on a trawler. Or a cran boat refitted as a floating camper.



After 13 years on the boat I am certainly no sailing purist.

?


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## tbodine88 (Jul 3, 2014)

Minnewaska said:


> I believe 63ft tall is the hard limit on the ICW for some fixed bridges, which appear with some regularity, but it depends on how close you're willing to test that.
> 
> Draft depends on where. 5ft seems safe, to make the length of it, but I've heard of 6ft figuring it out. If you're going to be confined to a section of ICW, you could review those charts to see if there is more flexibility.
> 
> With your disdain for heat, how does the Tombigbee enter the picture? I had to look up where it was.


I motor sailed from ft lauderdale to Stuart Florida and then through the canal to Okichobee and on to Fort Meyers, Clearwater, and Tarpon springs. I had a 40 foot mast. I had to wait for bridges between Ft Lauderdale and Stuart. I cleared the bridge in the canal just before Okichobee


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