Wanted - Crew Needed in NJ for May 6

[KJson]

Seeking assistance in sailing/motoring my Hunter 27 from Forked River, NJ to Atlantic City, NJ on May 6th, rain or shine. No experience necessary but be forewarned, I have no experience either! Just looking for someone to help motor and navigate an older boat about 50 miles down intercoastal. If you have experience, I'll gladly pay a reasonable fee for you to captain. If no experience, please feel free to come along and learn with me.

If interested, please e-mail and I'll contact you with further information.

kjsonnenberg@yahoo.com

K

[hellosailor]

Looks like that could be a very ambitious trip for a day. Without checking that the distance is 50 miles (nautical or statute?), the portion from Little Egg Inlet down the IC to AC pretty much will require the motor, and would best be done in daylight. I'm showing more like 54 nautical miles from a rough run, the last 24 of them from the inlet down which you'd want to run in daylight, with some reserve daylight time.
Assuming a reliable engine and fuel and a 5 knot speed, that's five hours. If you were willing to pinch daylight and arrive at 7PM (which doesn't allow much) you'd need to be crossing the inlet by 2PM, leaving Forked River not later than six hours before that, 10AM literally off the dock and gone, at the latest. And that's assuming motoring all the way to keep up the 5 knots, not relying on wind.
That's without looking at the time for current in LE Inlet, or weather.

So a big question is...have you had the boat out before? How certain are you of the mechanical condition, fuel for ten hours of motoring? Do you have PFD's, nav lights, VHF, and the expected USCG gear & safety gear onboard, or is this a maiden trip for the boat?

Personally, if I thought the boat was in good shape and the wx was good, I think I'd rather head out Barnegat Inlet and then come back in AC Inlet directly. (Both can require good wx and timing.) It would save five hours of threading the needle in the intracoastal coming into AC from the north, but again require that the sails and engine be in good shape.

Either way it is the kind of trip that either goes very well or very badly--a long day in a small boat.<G> Preparing to tay aboard overnight and finish the trip on Sunday would be a good contingency plan.

How would you get your delivery crew back north from AC to Forked River afterwards?

[KJson]

Thank you for the consideration. The boat is fully outfitted with all the required safety equipment (I have one pfd - type V available for crew member) and I have a vhf below deck, a handheld vhf and gps. She is an 1981 and needs work on the inside but the hull and rigging is very sound. I have not had the sails up and I had planned to only motor her down to AC, in the interest of time and due to my limited knowledge. The engine is in nice shape and I had her out very briefly last weekend, just to make sure all was working properly. It will be my maiden trip with the boat. To be perfectly honest, the engine sounded great and worked well as far as I could tell, but I know very little about desiel engines. I had the boat surveyed last month and the engine gone over well. The surveyor said the engine is solid and should make the trip with no problems. So whatever that is worth (not that much I realize) it checks out fine. I don't want to mislead you though, I am relying heavily on the word of others that it is sound. This is exactly why I am inquiring about crew. My need for a crew arises mostly out of a concern for safety due to my lack of experience. I have had a difficult time getting anyone to return my calls as far as hiring someone to take the boat south for me. Those that I have talked to give the rational of it being a busy time of year and being all booked up. Apparently delivery crew are not too eager to jump on an older, small sail boat and motor down the Jersey shore!

The schedule you laid out is right along the lines of what I was thinking. I would like to plan on leaving by 10AM and heading out Barnegat Inlet. If conditions are cooperative, 6 to 7 hours should do it. Certainly if the need arises, doing it in two days is not a problem as far as I am concerned but I'd rather get the deed done in one.

I would drive the crew back to Forked River after the trip. My car will be in AC by the time I get there.

Let me know if you are interested in delivery or if you need further information. If I have completely scared you or any other potential crew, advice is certainly appreciated.

Thank you!

[hellosailor]

I'd call the 6-7 hours way overoptimistic. I checked the route with plotting software, I'm showing 54 nautical miles (without knowing your precise end points) and without knowing your cruiding speed, I can't think you'll make over 5 knots consistantly. That makes it a very firm 10 hour trip--not allowing for current and timing across the inlet, other traffic in the ICW, or *any* kind of incident. Running an engine for ten hours gives it more opportunities to have a probem than just taking it out for an hour or so. For instance, the system clogging from gunk in the fuel tank that works loose after five or six hours. That's when you find out you'd better have at least one spare fuel filter on board, and know how to bleed the engine. (And some need new crush washers when you bleed them, too.) Tusting an unknown, not-in-use, diesel to make a ten-hour run without delay? Optimistic.

Motoring down makes sense if you haven't sailed the boat, but ten hours with the last five spent VERY carefully following channel markers will be a long day, assuming the weather co-operates. Leaving at 8AM, which gives you just two hours of "just in case" en route, would be a better idea.

(And leave a float plan with someone.)

A Type5 PFD...welll...great, if you are familiar with them and check them out. (I use what would be a Type5 today but it predates their legal issue.<G>) But if you plan to have any friends on board? Get a couple of Type3's. Even those aren't worth much if you are in the water, but they don't require maintenance, they're reliable and inexpensive.

You probably also want charts for the trip, because even if all the markers are in the right place, they won't tell you water depth and there are some places--and some potential wrong turns<G>--where the water is thinner than you might think.

Too many hours on the road for me to daytrip with you, even without the gas costs these days, much as I'd otherwise like to. I think the "pros" probably are afraid to hit you with a number, since it could be a long day or two, and getting back and forth from Forked River and AC would only add to that. (The long day and the costs.)

If you at all can, I'd suggest taking the boat out for a couple of hours first to make sure of how reliable it will be, or at leaast taking notes about where you can put it to break the day if it acts up.