BoatBanter.com - Best craft for Inside Passage? Your view, please!

Danlw wrote:
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
ups.com...

Dan wrote:
I seek to plumb the collective wisdom of this group.

Good luck.

(1) What is the optimum power craft for a couple's four-week trip up
the Inner Passage, in your opinion? Specify length, beam, hull
material, propulsion, essential features.

Your question is too general. It implies that only a certain type of
craft would be ideal for this relatively easy cruise. In fact, boats
from a wide spectrum would be capable of making the voyage safely,
comfortably, and reliably- so while there are going be a few obvious
concerns (like range, for example) the "optimum" choice will be at
least as subjective as objective. A boat that you didn't like very much
would be a poor choice compared to something that was 99% as
"seaworthy" but that appealed to you quite a lot. It's like walking
into the finest restaurant in town and asking the waiter, "What would I
like best from your menu?"

I would make this run in a diesel trawler. 36-feet is a comfortable
"couples cruiser" and more than enough boat to handle anything a
sensible boater would deliberately set out in. But that's the same boat
I use for everything else. :-)

There would be nothing wrong with a guy deciding to do the Inside
Passage in a 30-foot
express cruiser, a 50-foot motoryacht, you name it.

(2) What is the most *minimal* power craft in which you'd feel safe and
comfortable making such a trip?

It's done all the time in boats as small as trailerables, provided that
the boaters are willing to wait for a "weather window". If you check
th C-Dory website, I believe there are accounts of making a cruise like
this in a C-Dory. I know that regional author Dale Petersen has taken
his C-Dory "Day by Day" to Alaska and back, sort of. He has never made
the entire cruise in a single shot, but trailered to different points
to begin various legs. He has covered all the water for the entire
distance, but not in a single 3-4 week jaunt.

Well, I did it in a 21' boat back in the 80s. And I didn't listen to a tape
every day like Peterson. In "Day by Day to ALaska" he went in a Bayliner
that leaked a lot. Did it change into a C-Dory when it grew up? Also, I do
not understand why anyone would want to make the trip the way he did--never
did stop to enjoy anything, just blast past lots of beautiful places with
lots of days of hard running.

However, it does point out you can go in most any boat if you do a bit of
planning.

Regards Dan (danlw7)

You're right. Peterson did run a Bayliner. Brain fart. Sorry. :-)