My planned transit of the Erie Canal by 32 foot sailboat this summer
is looking more difficult since the cruising guide arrived yesterday.
My plans require leaving the boat at a couple places, probably
Rochester and Syracuse, for one to two weeks and then returning to
continue the trip. There don't appear to be many places to do this.
Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on this?

A while ago, someone said that one of the two yards that take down
masts in Buffalo (where I also have to leave the boat for a while) was
to be avoided. I wouldn't want anyone to bad mouth a business but, can
anyone recommend which yard to use? There appear to be only two so I'll
draw my own conclusions.

When the mast comes down, will the marina have people with the skills
and materials to build a suitable rack to hold the mast? I'd like to
avoid trying to fly out with hammers, saws, drills, and lumber in my
luggage.

BTW I faxed an order to the canal corp the day before yesterday for
the cruising guide. I only specified and paid for standard delivery
but it arrived FedEx yesterday morning! This is incredible service
from a state agency. I didn't expect it for weeks. I've heard that
they are trying hard to attract boaters to the canal system. Maybe
good service is part of that.

--

Roger Long

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 11:41:04 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:
My planned transit of the Erie Canal by 32 foot sailboat this summer
is looking more difficult since the cruising guide arrived yesterday.
My plans require leaving the boat at a couple places, probably
Rochester and Syracuse, for one to two weeks and then returning to
continue the trip. There don't appear to be many places to do this.
Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on this?
==========
The canal does not go to Rochester and Syracuse, passing well to the
south of Rochester and to the north of Syracuse. Your best bet is to
leave it at a commercial marina. There is a town NE of Syracuse
called Brewerton that has several, but there are other possibilities
as well.

A while ago, someone said that one of the two yards that take down
masts in Buffalo (where I also have to leave the boat for a while) was
to be avoided. I wouldn't want anyone to bad mouth a business but, can
anyone recommend which yard to use? There appear to be only two so I'll
draw my own conclusions.
===============
No experience with that.

When the mast comes down, will the marina have people with the skills
and materials to build a suitable rack to hold the mast? I'd like to
avoid trying to fly out with hammers, saws, drills, and lumber in my
luggage.
===============
Probably possible but you will be paying top dollar for marina labor.

BTW I faxed an order to the canal corp the day before yesterday for
the cruising guide. I only specified and paid for standard delivery
but it arrived FedEx yesterday morning! This is incredible service
from a state agency. I didn't expect it for weeks. I've heard that
they are trying hard to attract boaters to the canal system. Maybe
good service is part of that.
==================

The canal guide is very good. Enjoy your trip, it can be very
pleasant. Consider making up a set of fender boards. They will help
to keep the side of your boat clean in the locks.

Roger Long wrote:

My planned transit of the Erie Canal by 32 foot sailboat this summer
is looking more difficult since the cruising guide arrived yesterday.
My plans require leaving the boat at a couple places, probably
Rochester and Syracuse, for one to two weeks and then returning to
continue the trip. There don't appear to be many places to do this.
Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on this?

A while ago, someone said that one of the two yards that take down
masts in Buffalo (where I also have to leave the boat for a while) was
to be avoided. I wouldn't want anyone to bad mouth a business but, can
anyone recommend which yard to use? There appear to be only two so I'll
draw my own conclusions.

When the mast comes down, will the marina have people with the skills
and materials to build a suitable rack to hold the mast? I'd like to
avoid trying to fly out with hammers, saws, drills, and lumber in my
luggage.


From the mid '90s be prepared to use lumber found at either end of the
canal near the gin pole and reciprocate by leaving it on the other end
when you hoist the mast back up. Fasteners may be another issue, and it
was a DIY job. No experience with hired help. Do a sturdy job, wakes
are a problem with 3% of other boats and it only takes one to spoil your
day... Also available were some scuzzy fenders - well suited to the
locks, we abandon them too at trip's end for recycling.

BTW I faxed an order to the canal corp the day before yesterday for
the cruising guide. I only specified and paid for standard delivery
but it arrived FedEx yesterday morning! This is incredible service
from a state agency. I didn't expect it for weeks. I've heard that
they are trying hard to attract boaters to the canal system. Maybe
good service is part of that.



On the plus side, the folks we met were delightful and the food was great.
Our platform was a CT-42, beginning at Oswego the last year of the
non-fee passage.
The boat preceding us at first up lock was the last (unverified)
commercial bulk carrier in the system.
She holed herself on that trip (scuttlebutt at later locks) and may have
been taken out of service that year (rumored later).
Rec vessels may be the only thing left?

Skip

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the weather affects the
locks. Obviously, they are closed in the Winter, but in the Spring they
can be closed due to both too much water and too little. The year we
went through ('99) there was a drought, and there was talk of reducing
the lockings (we were never affected), a year later there was too much
water and the system was shut down for a week or so with little notice.
Boats were stranded wherever they happened to be.

I don't mean to be alarmist, but you should check with the authorities
as the time approaches to find out if any problems are expected.

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:51:49 -0500, Jeff Morris
wrote:

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the weather affects the
locks. Obviously, they are closed in the Winter, but in the Spring they
can be closed due to both too much water and too little. The year we
went through ('99) there was a drought, and there was talk of reducing
the lockings (we were never affected), a year later there was too much
water and the system was shut down for a week or so with little notice.
Boats were stranded wherever they happened to be.

I don't mean to be alarmist, but you should check with the authorities
as the time approaches to find out if any problems are expected.

Alternatively, you can just sail straight to Oswego and lock down to
the Hudson. You didn't say whether you were going for the sake of the
canal trip itself, or to avoid Lake Ontario. If your aim is to get to
the Atlantic and then to Maine (as I recall), maybe transiting the
locks from Buffalo to NYC is an added complication, as there are
plenty of places to leave a boat on the south shore, and Oswego is
well-set-up to take down the stick for the escalator down to NYC.

Personally, I like to keep sailing as long as possible, but I
understand that time and your crew's schedules are a factor here.

R.

rhys wrote:
On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:51:49 -0500, Jeff Morris
wrote:


One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the weather affects the
locks. Obviously, they are closed in the Winter, but in the Spring they
can be closed due to both too much water and too little. The year we
went through ('99) there was a drought, and there was talk of reducing
the lockings (we were never affected), a year later there was too much
water and the system was shut down for a week or so with little notice.
Boats were stranded wherever they happened to be.

I don't mean to be alarmist, but you should check with the authorities
as the time approaches to find out if any problems are expected.


Alternatively, you can just sail straight to Oswego and lock down to
the Hudson.

FWIW, my friends who were "stranded" was at Oswego. They were simply
frustrated, but at least were in a town with nearby facilities - there
were others caught in the middle of nowhere.


You didn't say whether you were going for the sake of the
canal trip itself, or to avoid Lake Ontario. If your aim is to get to
the Atlantic and then to Maine (as I recall), maybe transiting the
locks from Buffalo to NYC is an added complication, as there are
plenty of places to leave a boat on the south shore, and Oswego is
well-set-up to take down the stick for the escalator down to NYC.

I'd second that - you can probably save a day, maybe two by going
through Oswego. The marina there has a manual mast crane, and I think
allows DIY operation - but you should check before making assumptions.

Roger,

I've been through the NY Barge canal 6 times in the past three years and
have a few general comments.

1. There are many places that you could seemingly arrange to leave a boat
for a week or two. I did so at the municipal marina in St Johnsville, and I
might also recommend you contact: Cayuga Boat works in Cayuga (on Cayuga
Lake, but not more than a couple miles out of the way. ) Coopers marina in
Baldwinsville - http://www.coopersmarina.com/, or one of the marinas in
Oneida lake. Many of the marina's are very small with limited dock space so
I'd call ahead and ask about rates and reservations. Folks were generally
friendly and you might be able negotiate a deal for longer stays.

2. Sailing or motoring directly to Oswego through Lake Ontario is much
quicker if you are open to the idea. If the weather is good I think you
could make the trip from Buffalo to Oswego in three days, then three more
days to Albany.

3. Marina's at the entrance to the canal all seem to do a good business with
their gin poles. It may be easier to bite the bullet and let the "experts"
get you mast down quickly. You may find better deals but if you are on a
tight schedule it may not be worth the trouble.

4. Some sailboats carry their mast directly on their coachtop, bow and
stern pulpits, without a rack. It's not ideal but it's an option. A
simple rack could be built with 2 2x4's and 2 lag bolts. There's not much
to it. Secure it well with a couple lines tensioned to a winch to keep it
from wobbling when you encounter big wakes.

5. Pre-plan and carry an engine repair kit with a full set of spares.
Transiting the canal with a sailboat involves a lot of long days running at
nearly full speed. I feel that I can deal with most other eventualities
(price gouging marina's, rainy weather, big wakes) but a dead fuel pump will
ruin your day.

6. I never stay at marinas overnight. Stay at the lock walls or town docks.
They are free, usually nice, and you can get a good early start when they
open. Many towns have put in new free docks, some with electricity and
restrooms.

Good luck, enjoy the trip, and don't hesitate to let me know if I can be of
further assistance.

Jason
C&C 27 "Chaser"






"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
My planned transit of the Erie Canal by 32 foot sailboat this summer is
looking more difficult since the cruising guide arrived yesterday. My
plans require leaving the boat at a couple places, probably Rochester and
Syracuse, for one to two weeks and then returning to continue the trip.
There don't appear to be many places to do this. Does anyone have any
experience or recommendations on this?

A while ago, someone said that one of the two yards that take down masts
in Buffalo (where I also have to leave the boat for a while) was to be
avoided. I wouldn't want anyone to bad mouth a business but, can anyone
recommend which yard to use? There appear to be only two so I'll draw my
own conclusions.

When the mast comes down, will the marina have people with the skills and
materials to build a suitable rack to hold the mast? I'd like to avoid
trying to fly out with hammers, saws, drills, and lumber in my luggage.

BTW I faxed an order to the canal corp the day before yesterday for the
cruising guide. I only specified and paid for standard delivery but it
arrived FedEx yesterday morning! This is incredible service from a state
agency. I didn't expect it for weeks. I've heard that they are trying
hard to attract boaters to the canal system. Maybe good service is part
of that.

--

Roger Long

First, in response to other posts, the reason for going through the canal is
an enthusiasm for canals in general and the presence of both my and my
wife's family in New York. This means they can share some of the transit
and enjoy some time on the boat. Many of them would have no enthusiasm for
rolling around on the ocean.

That said, timing this long trip around all sorts of other family events and
commitments is very complex. I was pretty shook today when I called canal
information to inquire about the closures mentioned by other posters. They
basically said, "Oh yeah, we close all the time, sometimes for several days,
whenever it rains hard." Yikes, I don't mind (much) grinding along in the
rain but having the boat stranded somewhere could end in divorce. Then I'd
have to sell the boat.

I'm looking harder at the Oswego route since the shorter canal time reduces
the exposure to weather events. I've also got to find that "Old Farmer's
Almanac" that's been kicking around the house and see how wet a summer they
expect.

I've also worked out the St. Lawrence route again. If I found three other
people as nuts as I am, we could do it passage style in 11 days if we
averaged five knots. No family involvement though and there are a lot of
things I'd like to check out and toughen up before taking the boat out on
the ocean. One attraction of this route is that sails are a lot more
reliable than engines.

The Chambly / Champlain / Hudson route would be a good compromise, cutting
the moving time in half from Sorel and with minimum canal time. I'd like to
hear from anyone who has any intelligence about that route, especially the
Canadian part.

I know what my wife is going to say as soon as she hears all this, "Call a
truck and lets do our sailing in Maine!"

Say, I just noticed you are from Cornell. I designed their Isle of Shoals
research vessel and my brother and sister-in-law teach there.

--

Roger Long

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 23:04:33 GMT, wrote:

The Chambly / Champlain / Hudson route would be a good compromise, cutting
the moving time in half from Sorel and with minimum canal time. I'd like to
hear from anyone who has any intelligence about that route, especially the
Canadian part.

================================

I went down the Chambly/Champlain route 4 years ago in a 33 ft
sportfish. If you draw 4 ft or less the route is fine. There is a
low (15 ft) bridge at Fort Edwards that gave us some concern but would
not bother you with the mast down. There are some narrow spots on the
Chambly but we went through with 12 1/2 ft beam with no problem.

Lake Champlain is a big lake and it can get fairly rough with a
southerly or northerly blowing hard. The scenery is fantastic of
course. There are places where you can see both the White Mountains
of Vermont at the same time as the Adirondack Mts in New York.

The big adventure for us was going through the St Lawrence Seaway
locks at Montreal. There is no set schedule and the river freighters
get priority so you can wait longer than you'd like at times. We
ended up negotiating a strange part of the river in Montreal at night
because of lock delays.

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 11:41:04 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

When the mast comes down, will the marina have people with the skills
and materials to build a suitable rack to hold the mast? I'd like to
avoid trying to fly out with hammers, saws, drills, and lumber in my
luggage.

If you want to go the gold plated route, and the timing works for you,
consider the service offered by Collins Bay Marina to ship your mast
to the other end.

http://www.collinsbaymarina.com/stepping.asp

Ryk