>thread hijack<
I think that the central problem of cruising the Great Loop is that the various segments of it place conflicting demands on the boat. On the river portions, the mast and the
keel just get in the way. What you really want is a nice Gibson houseboat, which will draw less than 3', cost less, have more room, and give you the choice of the the flybridge or the inside controls. And at 16' they fit under the bridges. They will also give you the choice of going faster when you're willing to use the
fuel.
https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/197.../United-States
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...ibson-Spec.pdf
You can take those anywhere on the rivers, because of the
shallow draft and the relatively low vertical clearance. You can take them on extended side trips where the extra speed helps you get upriver in the
current. You can carry a little skiff or 'yak or canoe for a
dinghy if you want to run up smaller streams.
Another fact to consider, for river cruising, is that sailboats lose a good deal of their roll stability with the
sails down and more of it with the mast down. In congested areas where high speed operation is permitted, you'll get wake from overtaking boats that will really throw the boat around.
The problem is that houseboats aren't suitable for the
Great Lakes, or for the coast, because they aren't stable or
seaworthy enough. Besides, those are places where most people would want to be able to sail.
On the other hand, with a typical 38'-40' cruising yacht, you'll need 48' to 55' bridge clearance even if you take off your
VHF antenna and windex, depending on the boat. In practice what most of the loopers with these boats do is unstep the mast at Chicago and leave it down until they get to Mobile, because there aren't enough sailing opportunities between Chicago and Mobile to be with the stress and aggravation of dealing with a dozen bridges that you're going to miss by a matter of inches, or not, depending on the
water level that day. Then they unstep again for the Erie
Canal.
I'm told that it's no big deal to step and unstep and that the rates are reasonable. The received wisdom is that there's nothing about sailing on the Tenn-Tom, that is so compelling that you would want to choose a boat with a 51' mast instead of a boat with a 53' mast, just because you could put the mast up in, say, Cairo, rather than Mobile.
Which leads us to the question of how badly you want the Great Loop to be a circular journey on a
single boat. I am starting to think of the "Great Loop" as a series of explorations. Explore the rivers in a riverboat, explore the
Great Lakes and the coasts in a sailboat.
You can rent boats for specific portions of the journey:
https://midlakesnav.com/canalboat-boats#lock42 - Erie
canal
https://www.bigrideaulakeboatrentals...severence.html - Rideau waterway
It's OK to make U-turns. You can motorsail up the
Hudson with plenty of clearance, 150 miles past
New York Harbor to Troy, then turn around and go back and see the river from a different angle. Or leave the boat in a slip for a week or two and see the Erie Canal in a rented boat.
You can use the high-clearance routes, not only the Welland but also the Lower
Mississippi. You can have your boat trucked. So for example, your loop starting on the
East Coast could be the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Great Lakes,
haul out at Green Bay, truck to Stillwater, then you've got 60' of clearance all the way to
New Orleans.
As you've mentioned, the looper resources tend to be powerboat-oriented. The Capt. John website is particularly focused on taking the trip at low speed in a "powerboat with a mast" where the sail is little used, which is far from a universally held best practice. More focus on the
ICW and less on going
offshore. The looper resources are also organized around making it a "loop" and as a result downplay some potential side trips that are seasonally inconvenient.
Hope this helps.
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