I was just goofing and I found this really sweet boat up on Lake Michigan.
I started to wonder ?? How, what route, canals? whatever .... how would I
go to sail the boat from up on Lake Michigan to Casco Bay, Maine.

Anyone???

Thanks,,

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 03:07:20 GMT, "Thomas Wentworth"
wrote:

I was just goofing and I found this really sweet boat up on Lake Michigan.
I started to wonder ?? How, what route, canals? whatever .... how would I
go to sail the boat from up on Lake Michigan to Casco Bay, Maine.

It's a long trip and only doable in warm weather of course. Ask Roger
Long who went through the same decision process and ended up sailing
it on a truck. Not a bad choice in my opinion.

The basic water route is north on Lake Michigan, south on Lake Huron
to either the Trent-Svern canal system in Canada, or Lake Erie.
Either way you end up in Lake Ontario at Oswego where it is south to
New York City via the NYS Barge Canal and Hudson River. From NYC it
is about 300 miles up the coast to Casco Bay. The whole trip is well
over 1,200 miles and would be quite an adventure in a new untested
boat.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 03:07:20 GMT, "Thomas Wentworth"
wrote:

I was just goofing and I found this really sweet boat up on Lake Michigan.
I started to wonder ?? How, what route, canals? whatever .... how would I
go to sail the boat from up on Lake Michigan to Casco Bay, Maine.

It's a long trip and only doable in warm weather of course. Ask Roger
Long who went through the same decision process and ended up sailing
it on a truck. Not a bad choice in my opinion.

The basic water route is north on Lake Michigan, south on Lake Huron
to either the Trent-Svern canal system in Canada, or Lake Erie.
Either way you end up in Lake Ontario at Oswego where it is south to
New York City via the NYS Barge Canal and Hudson River. From NYC it
is about 300 miles up the coast to Casco Bay. The whole trip is well
over 1,200 miles and would be quite an adventure in a new untested
boat.


What's the difference between the NYS barge Canal and the Erie Canal? I
assume they both join the Hudson river? Is there a map that shows the
canals in New York State?

"ted" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 03:07:20 GMT, "Thomas Wentworth"
wrote:

I was just goofing and I found this really sweet boat up on Lake
Michigan.
I started to wonder ?? How, what route, canals? whatever .... how would
I
go to sail the boat from up on Lake Michigan to Casco Bay, Maine.

It's a long trip and only doable in warm weather of course. Ask Roger
Long who went through the same decision process and ended up sailing
it on a truck. Not a bad choice in my opinion.

The basic water route is north on Lake Michigan, south on Lake Huron
to either the Trent-Svern canal system in Canada, or Lake Erie.
Either way you end up in Lake Ontario at Oswego where it is south to
New York City via the NYS Barge Canal and Hudson River. From NYC it
is about 300 miles up the coast to Casco Bay. The whole trip is well
over 1,200 miles and would be quite an adventure in a new untested
boat.


What's the difference between the NYS barge Canal and the Erie Canal? I
assume they both join the Hudson river? Is there a map that shows the
canals in New York State?

found a few maps.

http://www.eriecanal.org/maps/canal_map2.jpg

http://www.eriecanal.org/maps/canal_system-1903.jpg

http://www.eriecanal.org/maps/NYSCanalSystem-1987.jpg

"ted" wrote
"ted" wrote
"Wayne.B" wrote
"Thomas Wentworth" wrote

I started to wonder ?? How, what route, canals? whatever .... how would
I go to sail the boat from up on Lake Michigan to Casco Bay, Maine.

The basic water route is north on Lake Michigan, south on Lake Huron
to either the Trent-Svern canal system in Canada, or Lake Erie.
Either way you end up in Lake Ontario at Oswego where it is south to
New York City via the NYS Barge Canal and Hudson River. From NYC it
is about 300 miles up the coast to Casco Bay. The whole trip is well
over 1,200 miles and would be quite an adventure in a new untested
boat.

found a few maps.

http://www.eriecanal.org/maps/canal_map2.jpg

http://www.eriecanal.org/maps/canal_system-1903.jpg

http://www.eriecanal.org/maps/NYSCanalSystem-1987.jpg


This one says its the "official" new york state map of the canal.

http://www.canals.state.ny.us/maps/index.html

I had a good (and out of print) planning map of the Erie Canal on my
web site but just took it down in a reorganization. Let me know and
I'll email it to you. I'm in Cape Elizabeth BTW so give me a holler.

I can't recommend strongly enough buying a boat in that part of the
world. The 1980 boat we bought in Detroit is effectively half or
three quarters the age for not having the salt water exposure. The
difference in prices between the coast and inland easily covered the
transportation cost. It was the best decision we ever made. Having it
trucked instead of sailing it was the second best.

You can read the whole story he

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

This boat had been lovingly cared for, lived aboard for three months a
year, and had a great survey. I've done some surveying so I could
confirm this when I went out to look at it myself. If ever there was
a boat that I could just go out, dump in the water, and sail back to
Maine, this was it.

Our schedule of other things for the spring and summer was tight
however and the trip would have needed to be done in stages. When I
started totaling up airfare, motel while outfitting the boat, marina
costs, lost work, fuel, etc., the cost of the trip got very close to
the truck. It would have been a great trip but, let's face it, you can
start out in Portland and have a better one. That time and money
commitment would get you to the far end of Nova Scotia. Let's face it.
That part of the world is a whole lot prettier and more interesting
than Ohio and upstate New York.

As it turns out, our boat had been lovingly cared for but by a world
class jury rigger. The boatyard was utterly incompetent. If I had
gone out there expecting to sail it back, I would have been living in
a motel for about six weeks while the completely bozo locals tried to
get the engine running. Then I would have had it trucked back and
flown home to meet with the divorce lawyers. If I'd gotten out of
Detroit, I would have been stuck for six weeks somewhere along the
line. There are some things you just can't tell about a boat when it's
covered up in the snow.

Instead, the boat arrived early in the spring and I was able to work
on it for five weeks here in a good yard with the support of my home
workshop. We started our sailing with it in good shape and some
upgrades instead of worn out and beaten by a long trip. You should
read the last part of the story carefully to get an idea of what you
could be in for even with a "sweet" boat that was not a fixer upper.

Downeast Marine Transport in Addison, Maine, 207-483-2816. Highly
recommended. Saved my boat, saved my marriage.

--

Roger Long



"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:ILXAf.21202$nQ3.20437@trndny03...
I was just goofing and I found this really sweet boat up on Lake
Michigan. I started to wonder ?? How, what route, canals? whatever
.... how would I go to sail the boat from up on Lake Michigan to
Casco Bay, Maine.

Anyone???

Thanks,,

A friend of mine did all those canal and has a great website about it.
Lots of pictures. Read through the site, look at the pictures, then
truck your boat, fix it up, and head downeast and over to Nova Scotia.
(See other post)

http://plsntcov.8m.com/Albin/TripLog.htm

--

Roger Long



"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:ILXAf.21202$nQ3.20437@trndny03...
I was just goofing and I found this really sweet boat up on Lake
Michigan. I started to wonder ?? How, what route, canals? whatever
.... how would I go to sail the boat from up on Lake Michigan to
Casco Bay, Maine.

Anyone???

Thanks,,

"Roger Long" wrote in message
.. .
As it turns out, our boat had been lovingly cared for but by a world class
jury rigger. The boatyard was utterly incompetent. If I had gone out
there expecting to sail it back, I would have been living in a motel for
about six weeks while the completely bozo locals tried to get the engine
running. Then I would have had it trucked back and flown home to meet
with the divorce lawyers. If I'd gotten out of Detroit, I would have been
stuck for six weeks somewhere along the line. There are some things you
just can't tell about a boat when it's covered up in the snow.

Instead, the boat arrived early in the spring and I was able to work on it
for five weeks here in a good yard with the support of my home workshop.
We started our sailing with it in good shape and some upgrades instead of
worn out and beaten by a long trip. You should read the last part of the
story carefully to get an idea of what you could be in for even with a
"sweet" boat that was not a fixer upper.



Roger, I'm sure you don't know it, but I used your story (back then, when
you posted it) to illustrate why our "ready to go around the world" new
purchase had just eaten through its third decaboatbuck. And I didn't do
nearly as much as you, let alone in the tiny time you had available to you!
If only the contractors I'd had put out even a quarter of the work you did!

So, now double that, we're approaching the end. Of course, in our case, the
bulk of the big bux wasn't in repairing someone else' kludgery - though, it
turned out, there were plenty of things needing repair - but, instead,
markedly changing her to "our" boat.

To the OP, unless it's brand new, and under warranty, you can just about be
guaranteed that whatever you think you've bought won't, quite, be what you
expected. Unless this is the n+3 or more boat you've bought, I also know
that you can't - in your wildest nightmares - anticipate the time and money
bringing something up to your standards will consume. There have been lots
of Sailnet/Sailjazz/GoodOldBoat and others articles written on the folly of
estimating time and money in a project. Even the vaunted guru, Jim Casey,
takes what he thinks, after breaking down any project into tiny bites of
what must be done, and multiplies times three. He sez that usually works
out fairly close - but then, he's the one giving all the advice, based on
all the work he's done. If an expert is that far off, imagine you and me...

So, I'm with Roger. Get it to where you can use it in the fastest fashion -
which would be a truck, particularly suited to this time of year. Have it
somewhere that you can actually work on it, and have competent help
available.

L8R

Skip, rehabbing furiously - and getting close! - so I can refit finally

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Tom,

If you're reading this, I strongly urge you to spend only half of the
money available on the initial purchase, no matter how good the survey
and how good the boat looks.

--

Roger Long

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 04:35:55 GMT, "ted" wrote:

This one says its the "official" new york state map of the canal.

http://www.canals.state.ny.us/maps/index.html

That's the one you want, and by all means purchase their cruising
guide if you are even remotely interested:

http://www.canals.state.ny.us/exvac/cguide/index.html

To answer your first question, the Erie canal no longer exists, just
the remains of it in some places. It was built for much smaller
boats, pulled by mules along a tow path, and with hand operated locks.