Member bucktalley and I just got back from picking up his new to him Cape Dory 28 trawler and moving it from Martha's Vinyard to the mainland for subsequent shipment home to Virginia.
Bucktalley considered several other schemes, but all required first getting the boat to the mainland: buying or renting his own trailer to haul it home (too expensive), cruising the whole way home by water (too late in the season), truck shipment to Virginia, etc. He finally chose what I think is the best solution: bringing it across from MV to a yard near Providence which will truck it down to Virginia for him.
I volunteered to help with the MV passage, and this is a rather long report on that successful trip.
We did a lot of planning by phone, mostly what to bring and the logistics of the trip and it paid off with a no problems trip. He first drove to NW Connecticut where I live and the next day we drove to the boatyard in Warren, RI just SE of Providence where he left his car. Then we took an Uber to the Woods Hole ferry terminal and then the ferry to Vineyard Haven where we met the PO on the boat at a dock there.
He gave us a quick rundown of the boat and its systems and left us to ourselves for the rest of the day. We had brought what I thought were the necessary spares for the trip the next day: spare filters, impellers, etc but we couldn't get spare belts until we got there and saw what it had and matched them up at a nearby Napa store.
The alternator belt was very accessible and looked brand new. But the raw water pump was below the alternator down below the engine and it I couldn't easily find the mounting bolts (all by feel because I couldn't see them directly) to loosen them and remove the belt. The belt was ok so we decided to go without spare ones for the trip over.
So, we topped off the fuel tank for our crack of dawn departure the next morning. The wind had died as expected that morning and was only a few kts when we pulled out of Vineyard Haven. The first few hours were easy as we rounded West Chop and made our way down Vineyard Sound. But as we approached Cutty Hunk and the open ocean, the residual swells from the previous day's high winds started thrashing us around. We were easily rolling 30 degrees or more back and forth, but the Cape Dory held up fine, although my stomach was sure feeling it.
But after a couple of hours of that, it slowly abated and as we got to the inlet to Narragansett Bay it settled down completely. We weren't sure about its maximum cruising speed or the effect of currents but were pleasantly surprised that we had averaged about 7.5 kts and it looked like we were early.
So, we pulled into Newport Harbor for a quick look around. I had anchored or moored there a dozen times before but bucktalley had never been. It was nothing like the middle of the summer. The mooring field and most dock slips were empty. This was a Friday and I expect some weekend cruisers would show up on Saturday (today) as it is a gorgeous day. But the contrast from the middle of summer to mid fall was rather dramatic.
After that detour we made our way north and ended up at Ginalski's Yard in Warren a bit after 4:00 PM. The yard owner met us to help us tie up and we broke out the bourbon for a toast to completing our short delivery of about 60 NM.
The yard will haul the boat in a few days and the owner's sun will truck it down to Virginia in a week or so. We fully winterized the boat before we left.
This short but complex delivery went off without a hitch due to careful planning and a boat that was well cared for by the PO. All went very well.
Oh, a hats off to Aqua Map for navigating us there without a hitch. The boat had no navigation equipment aboard, so we used Aqua Map on my iPad propped up near the compass to navigate by. It worked great and the little blue boat icons nicely showed the expected current, which ranged up to 2 kts.
David
Bucktalley considered several other schemes, but all required first getting the boat to the mainland: buying or renting his own trailer to haul it home (too expensive), cruising the whole way home by water (too late in the season), truck shipment to Virginia, etc. He finally chose what I think is the best solution: bringing it across from MV to a yard near Providence which will truck it down to Virginia for him.
I volunteered to help with the MV passage, and this is a rather long report on that successful trip.
We did a lot of planning by phone, mostly what to bring and the logistics of the trip and it paid off with a no problems trip. He first drove to NW Connecticut where I live and the next day we drove to the boatyard in Warren, RI just SE of Providence where he left his car. Then we took an Uber to the Woods Hole ferry terminal and then the ferry to Vineyard Haven where we met the PO on the boat at a dock there.
He gave us a quick rundown of the boat and its systems and left us to ourselves for the rest of the day. We had brought what I thought were the necessary spares for the trip the next day: spare filters, impellers, etc but we couldn't get spare belts until we got there and saw what it had and matched them up at a nearby Napa store.
The alternator belt was very accessible and looked brand new. But the raw water pump was below the alternator down below the engine and it I couldn't easily find the mounting bolts (all by feel because I couldn't see them directly) to loosen them and remove the belt. The belt was ok so we decided to go without spare ones for the trip over.
So, we topped off the fuel tank for our crack of dawn departure the next morning. The wind had died as expected that morning and was only a few kts when we pulled out of Vineyard Haven. The first few hours were easy as we rounded West Chop and made our way down Vineyard Sound. But as we approached Cutty Hunk and the open ocean, the residual swells from the previous day's high winds started thrashing us around. We were easily rolling 30 degrees or more back and forth, but the Cape Dory held up fine, although my stomach was sure feeling it.
But after a couple of hours of that, it slowly abated and as we got to the inlet to Narragansett Bay it settled down completely. We weren't sure about its maximum cruising speed or the effect of currents but were pleasantly surprised that we had averaged about 7.5 kts and it looked like we were early.
So, we pulled into Newport Harbor for a quick look around. I had anchored or moored there a dozen times before but bucktalley had never been. It was nothing like the middle of the summer. The mooring field and most dock slips were empty. This was a Friday and I expect some weekend cruisers would show up on Saturday (today) as it is a gorgeous day. But the contrast from the middle of summer to mid fall was rather dramatic.
After that detour we made our way north and ended up at Ginalski's Yard in Warren a bit after 4:00 PM. The yard owner met us to help us tie up and we broke out the bourbon for a toast to completing our short delivery of about 60 NM.
The yard will haul the boat in a few days and the owner's sun will truck it down to Virginia in a week or so. We fully winterized the boat before we left.
This short but complex delivery went off without a hitch due to careful planning and a boat that was well cared for by the PO. All went very well.
Oh, a hats off to Aqua Map for navigating us there without a hitch. The boat had no navigation equipment aboard, so we used Aqua Map on my iPad propped up near the compass to navigate by. It worked great and the little blue boat icons nicely showed the expected current, which ranged up to 2 kts.
David
