Tampa to Galveston NEED Advice...

[soul searcher]

Curtis,
NO and it drives me nuts. we cant go west either The brooks bridge in FWB and the Navarre bridge are both 50 feet. A LOT of the bboats around here have had there mast CUT DOWN, I aint goin there so ill have to keep goin out at Panama city.

[markpj23]

And further west in Houma LA is another 50ft span. We had to go out Belle Pass and back in Pt AuFer...

From there at least it's clear all the way to Laguna Madre.

[CaptainK]

Fort Walton Beach. And Navarre Beach.

Those places have alot of boats around there. So does Pensacola.

Mark.

Have you looked into Pensacola?

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by soul searcher

Curtis,
NO and it drives me nuts. we cant go west either The brooks bridge in FWB and the Navarre bridge are both 50 feet. A LOT of the bboats around here have had there mast CUT DOWN, I aint goin there so ill have to keep goin out at Panama city.

Any word on when/if they are planning on replacing those bridges?

I grew up in the area and still have family on the water in Niceville. It's great to sail up and let the kids visit grandparents but going in and out of PC is a hassle.

Regarding cutting down the mast, I agree with you. When I was a kid, I worked for Tucker at The Boat. We commissioned several new boats(I think the biggest was an Irwin 46) and cut long sections of mast out. Made a mediocre sailing boat even worse!

[Talbot]

The solution might be to change the sail configuration.

One that has been shown on film (Waterworld) is the telescopic mast. but to the best of my knowledge the boat that they used with the telescopic mast was never actually used for sailing.

Therefore you will need to change to a rig that allows more sailcloth lower down, a gaff rigged topsail cutter comes to mind, preferably with a top mast that can be easily rigged and lowered.

Alternatively , the addition of a mizzen mast would also allow heightt of mast reduction.