Great Lakes Sailors?

[jdoe71]

Originally Posted by DWT

Can you sail from the St. Lawrence seaway all the way to Lake Superior in a Cat or Tri, beam approx. 24'?

This ship:
Paul R. Tregurtha (Interlake Steamship Company):
Length: 1,013 feet, 6 inches
Depth: 56 feet
Capacity: 68,000 tons
Launch Date: February 4, 1981

Can make it through the Soo locks. The locks at the Welland Canal are not quite that big, but Salties make it up to the upper lakes no problem.

[S Campbell]

We have had so much snow in Northern Ontario this winter, when I look at my boat in the yard I figure I can sail it to the marina when it melts !

[Thegirlis]

We have a Potter 19 and a Rhodes 22, and we sail out for Sandusky Bay. Nothing like island hopping in Lake Erie....

[thomed]

Well, this is probably way too late to be of help, but I took my 76' Lazzara motoryacht (enclosed bridge, yet) through the Erie Canal system on it's way from Delray Beach, FL to Michigan City, IN, on Lake Michigan. By taking the Oswego canal, you get about 20' bridge clearance. I had everything removed from my hardtop, sat dome, liferaft, antennae "wings", etc., and barely cleared several bridges. One of the lowest is the last one of the Oswego, as I recall. If you don't make it, backtrack the 100 plus miles of the Oswego, Erie, then Hudson, go north to St. Lawrence. I cleared some bridgs by inches. Yikes! But, if you do make it, you save about 1200 n. mi.

Tom Dogan

PS It was a great trip, I'd like to do it again.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by DWT

Can you sail from the St. Lawrence seaway all the way to Lake Superior in a Cat or Tri, beam approx. 24'?

Yes, you should be able to squeeze through.
As noted the Soo locks are larger than the Welland Canal Locks, whose maximum permitted vessel dimensions are:
length 222.5 m - 730 feet
beam 23.8 m - 78 feet
draught 8 m - 26 feet
air draught 35.5 m (135 feet height above water level)

The term SeawayMax refers to vessels which are the maximum size that can fit through the canal locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Seawaymax vessels are 740 feet in length, 78 feet wide, and have a draft of 26 feet.

➥ http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/pdf/welland.pdf

The Paul R. Tregurtha (largest on the Lakes) only transits the upper lakes, usually between Duluth & Detroit.

[S&S]

Hi
We're out of Waukegan. Boat is a 1963 "one off" S&S yawl.

[Eventually]

Hi everybody,

I'll be getting married in Charlevoix this weekend (June 18th) and I was wondering if there are any live aboards or extended cruisers that wouldn't mind showing us around their rigs. We'll be in town June 16th through the 21st. We'll have our non-live aboard pontoon in at the marina also. We plan on eventually living aboard and we'd love to meet some people that are way ahead of us.

Thanks!

-Sean

[cblubaugh]

I got my 19 footer two weeks ago. Not in the water yet. Sailing around Cleveland, Ohio.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, cblubaugh and Eventually.

Congratulations on the nuptials, Sean.

[Eventually]

Thanks for the welcome! We had a beautiful wedding weekend and we fell in love with Charlevoix. What an amazing city! I think that will become our home base for our cruising future. Met some great cruisers while we were there and fell in love with more than one boat. Really enjoyed cruising through Round Lake, Lake Charlevoix, and even Lake Michigan on the pontoon. That was some of the clearest waters I've ever seen.

[Still_Sailing]

Congratulations Eventually!

Glad you had a great trip. I'm getting ready to sail my new, old boat from Chicago to Freeport Harbor. I have not sailed Lake Michigan before. Any places I should not miss or I should avoid? It looks like the East side has more marinas. How is cell phone coverage? I am planning on using an "Aircard" modem to keep in touch. I occurred to me that if we don't have cell phone coverage in many places I had better make some other arrangements.

Jerry

[Ketchgould]

Gould's from St. Paul have been sailing the Apostle Islands since 2002 on our 1961 Rhodes 32' Chesapeake sloop.

[gunkylump]

Good stuff!

We sail a 1985 Bayfield 29 Cutter rig, she has extensive experience in the North Channel of Lake Huron, and even spent two years in the Caribbean. She was sailed single handed to the Carib and back...wish it was me that did it!

We purchased Kewalo last year, and sailed her around the North Channel for a few days, then sailed her home. Sailed on Lake St. Clair most of last year, and then headed to Leamington marina on Lake Erie, where we'll spend our time this year...although we'd really rather be in the North Channel....time constraints kill that idea though! Not much hope for a rendezvous for us! But, we will see the tall ships here on Lake Erie this year.

gunk

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Ketchgould

Gould's from St. Paul have been sailing the Apostle Islands since 2002 on our 1961 Rhodes 32' Chesapeake sloop.

Hi Ketchgould, it's great to see more Superior sailors on forum. Welcome! I'm based out of Thunder Bay, almost directly north of you. We've enjoyed the Apostles, and have spent many wonderful days in Bayfield and La Pointe. We've sailed in the waters of Isle Royale, but due to their restriction of pets (we sail with our cat) have never set foot there, although I'd like too.

If you haven't come north, I'd encourage you to do so. In my unbiased opinion we have some of the best cruising grounds to be found anywhere.

BTW, I will point out that you have revived a 2-year-old thread.

[campuscab]

Detroit MI here on the river. I have a CAL 20.