Ranger R29

[Nomad Willy]

-- Edited by nomadwilly on Thursday 20th of January 2011 11:06:07 PM

-- Edited by nomadwilly on Thursday 20th of January 2011 11:36:19 PM

 

[Marin]

nomadwilly wrote:

Well Marin I suppose I could raise hell about what you're call'in me....

I wasn't questioning what you related, I'm questioning what the boat owner told you.* No need to remove your post.* Others might*have heard the same thing from somebody else although I have to admit this is a*"show me" claim with regards to the Commander owner's statement.

The company website makes no statement or claim*about any sort of "miracle" gel coat and in fact lists "bottom paint" as a factory-applied option on it's spec sheets.

Carey speculated they kept their boat out of the water a lot and if so, that could account for what they were claiming.* Being a fast planing boat, it's possible that they "polished off" any growth that got started when the boat was in the water when they ran the boat, and then had the boat out of the water for the longer periods of no use.* Or perhaps the boat spent a lot of time in fresh water although that's no*guarantee of no growth.* And*we don't know how long they kept it in the water in Everett.* Which is in*a river, by the way, so probably has brackish water or fresh water on top much of the time like Bellingham marina which could slow growth.

Our Arima has no bottom paint on it either and it's never had a spec of growth on the bottom.** Of course it spends most of its days sitting on its trailer in the back yard

-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 20th of January 2011 11:21:27 PM

 

[Nomad Willy]

Let's just forget about it. The guy moored the boat all the time at Evertt and cruised every summer way up the coast of northern BC. I think he said he waxed it but I'm not sure. If wax worked I'd do my 19' OB but I'd prolly be sorry when I wanted to paint it.
I thought the Camander thing would be interesting. Let's just forget about it.
The more I think about it I think he said he hauled it once a year, pressure washed it and then waxed it.

-- Edited by nomadwilly on Friday 21st of January 2011 07:10:52 PM

 

[FF]

All that being said , today with good weather info easily obtained , and a flexible sked there would not be that big a hassle IF the boat was quick, and had the required range at speed .

FL to the Caribbean only has one open water spot , tip of Hispanolia to PR. that would be a consideration.

Can the boat run 200miles at 20K or so?

 

[denny-o]

As a Ranger Tug owner I noted this thread with interest...

It is true these tugs do not have the fuel range needed for passagemaking and are neither designed as such nor marketed as such...
Mine holds 75 gallons... At 6 knots I burn 1 gallon per hour making my economy range some 400+ miles... It will do some 19 knots, though the range certainly goes down at those speeds...
It is intended to be trailered and mine is, having been to New York, down to Virginia, down to Florida and back to Virginia, then North to Michigan, down to Ohio, back to Florida and back to Michigan... Here in Michigan it has been on Lakes Huron and Superior the past two summers...

I see an opinion that the boat is too light to be trusted more than a couple miles offshore... That opinion does not match my experience out in the Gulf Of Mexico and especially in the Detour Passage between Superior and Huron... There we spent nearly three hours bashing into a measured (by electronic buoys) 35 knot wind against the current coming off Lake Superior, pushing up 7 footer absolutely vertical waves on a 7 second period... Now, I know you salt sailors will scoff at 7 foot claiming that is a dead calm on the ocean... Those of you who have sailed the Great Lakes will recognize that this steep a water wall on a 7 second cycle will beat you to death pitching the boat in well excess of 45 degrees twice every 7 seconds... The Tug absolutely could not have cared less.. The diesel hummed along at 1200 rpm and never varied in either the tach reading or the sound of the engine as every item in the boat was ejected from cabinets in a thunderous clatter (yes, the cabinet doors are not up to blue water status) the bedding ejected from the forward cabin and scrambled knee deep in the companion way, leaving our dog in hysterics and my wife folded over and a deep shade of green... I on the other hand was thrilled at the solid feel and response to the wheel that gave me confidence... While I would never go out on Gitche Gumee in the storms of November I have confidence that if caught in a blow like we were that day I have a good chance of reaching port...

There are a few things I would change on our tug (isn't there always) but Ranger has done an admirable job of crafting a boat that fills a niche for folks who want to travel with their boat and still have a craft that will handle reasonable wave and wind... Surely I would like a boat built as stout as a Nordhaven, with a big slow turning mechanical diesel, huge fuel tanks, etc. but then it would be impractical to trailer it... This is a high quality pocket cruiser that meets the needs of a niche group of sailors... While I admire your big, heavy, blue water cruisers I chose a pocket trawler that follows me to new waters at the drop of a hat...

cheers,
denny-o in Michigan (until the crops are off, then look out baby here we go again)

 

[Codger2]

denny-o wrote:
This is a high quality pocket cruiser that meets the needs of a niche group of sailors... While I admire your big, heavy, blue water cruisers I chose a pocket trawler that follows me to new waters at the drop of a hat...

******* Well written and I agree with your statements. I have never cruised a Ranger 29 but have been on one 3 times! I'm fascinated by the layout and how they fit all the goodies into this boat. Not to mention its salty good looks.


-- Edited by SeaHorse II on Saturday 10th of September 2011 03:20:25 PM

 

[Nomad Willy]

We had a couple here in Thorne Bay this summer that I had a very very good time meeting. They were very adventurous green horns to boating and were way over their heads cruising to Alaska but the only real problem as I saw it was thier Wallace stove. There was a bit of soot on everything in their new boat. Sadly they shipped the boat home.

As to the R29s seaworthiness light flat bottomed boats have been comming up here to SE for many many decades. Old Chris Crafts of all sizes come to mind. And they were not only light but rather narrow. We have people running open skiffs long distances over waters that have terrible reputations for bad weather and bad seas. I have a friend that has property in Petersburg and Tennake Springs and she does not always take the ferry. At times she runs Chatham Strait in her 13' Boston Whaler w a 25hp Yamaha. And before anybody starts in about how seaworthy a Whaler is consider the fact that most others in SE do the same type of thing in aluminum skiffs. Going out in big seas w a light boat does not prove it's seaworthiness most of the time. Consider the 22' boat whose lines aren't that different than the R29 and that boat crossed the Atlantic. Most of the time taking a light boat into heavy seas amounts to a lot of discomfort but for more or less obvious reasons that can result in loss of boats and even lives.

 

[bfloyd4445]

Eric, it's not so much the wind but the 15- to 20-foot seas such winds can create that are the issue.* By the way, I've already*run aground six times, including four times one night.

*

four times one night??? R u a sail boater? Geez...have u considered a new hobby, like maybe chess?

I ran aground once while a fellow experianced mariner was at the helm and since that day that bunch has named me Captain hard aground! I got even though i made them get into the water and pull the boat. They were worried cause i told them we had an out going tide and they were almost out of beer. The tide was incomming and we really were not hard aground haveing only passed one duck blind but in tulies.

 

[markpierce]

four times one night??? R u a sail boater? Geez...have u considered a new hobby, like maybe chess?

I'm not a fan of chess. ... The four-time episode happened some fifty years ago when I solo-motored my dad's 28.5-foot sloop from a boatyard in San Rafael, California across the bay to the boat's berth in Oakland. It was at night and there were no visible navigational markers along the very narrow channel exiting San Rafael. Fortunately, the tide was rising, so relied on compass and kept a-going after floating off each time.

 

[bfloyd4445]

I'm not a fan of chess. ... The four-time episode happened some fifty years ago when I solo-motored my dad's 28.5-foot sloop from a boatyard in San Rafael, California across the bay to the boat's berth in Oakland. It was at night and there were no visible navigational markers along the very narrow channel exiting San Rafael. Fortunately, the tide was rising, so relied on compass and kept a-going after floating off each time.

chuckle.....sorry, i know those waters and thats why i mentioned sail. a sloop? oopps.. When out fishing in the winter i used to love listening to the distress calls from mud stickers calling the coast gaurd for help. My one sorta grounding was in the flats in Grizzly Bay up by the mothball fleet.

 

[markpierce]

chuckle.....sorry, i know those waters and thats why i mentioned sail. a sloop? oopps.. When out fishing in the winter i used to love listening to the distress calls from mud stickers calling the coast gaurd for help. My one sorta grounding was in the flats in Grizzly Bay up by the mothball fleet.

Radio?! Had no way to make calls. That's why families had 3, 4, or more children. Children were disposable. My parents handed me more responsibility (my life in my hands) than I can now comprehend.

 

[bfloyd4445]

Radio?! Had no way to make calls. That's why families had 3, 4, or more children. Children were disposable. My parents handed me more responsibility (my life in my hands) than I can now comprehend.

.....no vhf radio on yer sloop?...you know, i can believe that, sailboater don't like to part with bucks so put thmeselves in Gods hands everytime they go sailing praying for wind. Me, I pray for no wind

there was a time when the average family was 9 kids for that reason. I'm 65 and some of my friends long since having moved on told me many stories of annual or biannual brothers and sisters in the old days. Still seems to be that way with new imigrants where i live in ca.

 

[Marin]

.....no vhf radio on yer sloop?...you know, i can believe that, sailboater don't like to part with bucks so put thmeselves in Gods hands everytime they go sailing praying for wind. Me, I pray for no wind

.

Mark's talking the 1960s here and I suspect in those days a VHF was considered a yachting accessory, not something you put on a small sailboat. I fished for years during the 70s on a 28' Uniflite in Hawaii and it didn't have a radio. We'd go 30-40 miles out off the north shore of Oahu but a radio never seemed to us to be something we'd need. The owner of the boat owned the flight school where I flew and of course all his planes had radios. But a radio in a small boat? Never occured to us or any of the other local fishermen that a radio might be worth having.

 

[bfloyd4445]

sixties were highschool college vietnam years for me but i had one in the early seventies on my 16 foot seaswirl i used in the delta. I've always considered them essential. Today i notice many of my friends do not have vhf radios relying upon cell phones. thats crazy to me

 

[Marin]

Depending on where you are it's possible to have better mobile phone coverage than VHF coverage. I think the issue today is more what's monitored than the coverage.

A disadvantage of mobile use is that nobody near you will hear you. So while you might have better luck connecting to the Coast Guard with a mobile, the boat right around the point from you won't know you've got a problem.

Best solution I think is to have both. When we cruise with another boat we almost always communicate by phone rather than the radio. The coverage is pretty good in the islands and we're not dependent on line-of-sight. Likewise when communicating with marinas and harbormasters we'll use the phone until we're actually approaching the facility at which point we use the radio.

Unless we're going to use it we usually leave the radio on dual watch between VTS and the commercial ship-to-ship channel used in the area we happen to be boating in.

 

[bfloyd4445]

i got in the habit of leaveing my radio on scan untill i need to monitor something or call. What about roaming charges in the islands? i got stuck with that on Friday Harbour last week? I suppose one can pay the monthly charge for Canada to avoid that.