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Everything you need to know about Great Loop boats
Many factors make a boat feasible for the Great Loop. Like most things in life, there is “no perfect boat.” Boats are a series of compromises, and Great Loop boats are no exception. We’ve compiled everything you need to know about Great Loop boats, including the minimum requirements, the top current Great Loop boats, how to determine the best one for you, and more!
Great Loop Boat Requirements
There are two hard requirements for a boat to complete the Great Loop. The first is height. To complete the Great Loop, you must be able to fit under a bridge south of Chicago that is 19 feet 6 in high and located at mile 300.6 on the Illinois River. If you’re considering traveling the entire length of the Erie Canal, the lowest clearance for the Westward part is 15 feet 6 inches. Not all boats need to meet this height requirement, as there are other routes boats can take.
The second requirement for Great Loop boats is the travel distance under one tank of fuel. This is less of a hard requirement because you can use fuel canisters to extend your range, but from Hoppies, Missouri, to Paducah, Kentucky (over 200 miles), there are no places to refuel.
The other important requirement for Great Loop boats that you will want to consider is draft. The colloquial idea is that you will not want a boat with a draft more than 6 ft. You will go through many waterways with varying depths. The more shallow boats are capable of going through waterways with less concern compared to boats with a deep keel. The counter to this argument is that boats with a deeper draft or larger keel make for a more seaworthy boat.
Width isn’t a challenge for most boats as you will first run into height or draft restrictions when you get larger. The one exception to this statement is for de-masted catamarans. If boaters are interested in taking their boat through the Trent-Severn Waterway in Canada, the narrowest lock is 23 feet wide.
The Best Boats for the Great Loop
Fundamentally, the best boats for the Great Loop are the boats completing the Loop! Here are the statistics for the last two years.
We can see that trawlers are the most popular, followed by cruisers, with catamarans and trailerable trawlers also making the list! The largest boat to complete the Loop in recent years is 59’, the smallest was 12’ (a PWC), and the average size is 40-41 feet.
Can you do the great loop in a sailboat?
You may notice that no sailboats are on the list above, and they are much rarer, but it is possible. Firstly, boaters must remove their mast for both the Erie Canal and Mid-West waterways (some companies can help ship your mast). Secondly, sailboats frequently come with higher than recommended drafts, depending on the boat. All this said, many people do the loop in a sailboat.
The Best Great Loop Boats
Every boat is a series of compromises, so to determine your best Great Loop boat, you should get acquainted with other popular Great Loop boats. Here are some of the best Great Loop boats, as we saw during our 2021-2022 Great Loop.
Kicking off at number 1, our boat Pivot! Pivot is a 34’ Marine Trader DC with two cabins, two heads, a single engine, and a bow thruster! You can read all about her here.
During our time living aboard our boat for two and a half years, we saw a lot of boats on America’s Great Loop. Great Loop boats come in various shapes, sizes, configurations, engine types, and styles. Here are some of the many boats we saw during our Great Loop journey:
Trawlers on the Loop
It is obvious why trawlers are the most common boats on the Loop. They are spacious, fuel-efficient, and can be found on a budget. They typically cruise around 6-8 knots, have large fuel tanks, and have great visibility due to a flybridge.
Cruisers on the Loop
Cruisers are fantastic Great Loop Boats because they are spacious like trawlers and can go slow to conserve fuel. However, they also have the capability to travel fast and sometimes by plane. This does come with the tradeoff of a very high fuel burn.
Trailerable Boats on the Loop
Trailerable vessels are fantastic boats for the Great Loop because you can complete the Loop in sections. You can trailer your boat and complete whichever section you want next. The idea of taking your time and not feeling pressured to keep up with the seasons allows you to travel at your own pace.
Catamarans on the Loop
Catamarans are a popular choice on the Loop because you get the increased space from having a wider vessel, typically have shallow drafts, allowing you to travel any waterway on the Loop, and can have a stable cruise from the two hulls, depending upon the weather conditions.
Best Great Loop Boat For You
To determine the best great loop boat for you, you must answer a few questions to narrow the search.
Budget
Like most things, your budget will be the first determining factor. You don’t need that much money to complete the Loop; check out our expense report to see how much it cost us!
There are 3 main factors that your boat will impact with respect to how much your Loop will Cost.
- Purchase Price.
- You can buy a Loop-ready boat for as little as 30k, or the sky is the limit, and you can spend millions.
- Overall Length.
- If you plan to spend time at marinas, nights are billed by LOA. Typically, as a ratio per foot, $2 per foot is average.
- Fuel burn per mile.
- One of the constants of America’s Great Loop is the distance. Your boat will need to traverse around 6,000 miles and will burn fuel to do that.
Don’t let the budget be too overwhelming. Check out our budget calculator to give you a head start!
Route
Depending on your goal route, your vessel needs certain characteristics. Here are the main qualifiers:
The Trent-Severn Canal
The Trent-Severn Canal in Canada has a maximum draft of 5 ft and a maximum width of 20ft. Larger vessels and wide power catamarans will not be able to transit what many consider to be not only a historic waterway but also the gateway to some of the most beautiful waters of the Loop.
The Chicago River
Cruising downtown, the Chicago River was one of our favorite moments of the entire Loop. The constraining factor here is a bridge height of 17 feet. If your boat meets the 19’6″ foot clearance for the overall Great Loop but doesn’t meet the 17-foot clearance, you’ll have to skip cruising down the Chicago River and go down the Cal-Sag instead.
Crystal River from Florida’s Big Bend
Crystal River, a haven when transiting the Big Bend on Florida’s Panhandle, is a unique spot to see Manatees. The entry canal to this harbor is pretty shallow, and you will not want a draft of more than 4.5 ft to visit this section. The other option is do bypass this destination or do the Gulf Crossing.
Goals
Finally, to narrow down the best great loop boat for you, you must consider your goals and requirements for the Loop. Here are some questions to prompt your analysis:
- How many people will be living aboard? Will you complete it solo, with a partner, or with family and friends?
- How long do you have to complete the Loop? Are you doing it in sections or all at once?
- What are your plans with the boat after the Loop?
- Will you stay at marinas more often, or do you prefer to anchor out?
- Do you want more safety features built in, like railings?
- Do you want to spend more time in destinations (which a “go fast boat” will allow for) or enjoy the moments in between (which a “go slow boat” will allow you to enjoy more of the journey between the destinations)?
Read next: 15 Tips for Boating on a Budget!
Thoughts from two Gold Loopers
As we just completed the Loop, there are a few must-haves for us on our next boat!
- A Fast Boat is a Safe Boat
- As the saying goes, a fast boat is a safe boat. We prefer to travel slowly but would have liked the option to go fast. If we don’t get a boat that has the option to go fast, we’ll definitely get stabilizers.
- Also, we had a bow thruster that really helped maneuverability on the Loop, and we wouldn’t do the Loop without one (or twin engines, at least).
- Get the Smallest Boat that Fits your Needs
- The conventional wisdom is to get the smallest boat that fits your criteria. While we have two bedrooms and two heads, making Pivot great for a family or guests, we only had guests a handful of times. We could have had a smaller boat and been a bit cramped a few times over the years instead of moving a lot of empty space for 6k miles.
- Your Great Loop Boat doesn’t have to be your forever boat
- When planning for retirement, many people try and pick one boat to handle all scenarios. Unfortunately, boats are a series of tradeoffs, and great loop restrictions may not be restrictions you want after becoming Gold Loopers. For example, many cruisers enjoy spending time in the Bahamas. In this case, with ocean hops, the most seaworthy boats have a deeper draft or stabilizers, something you might not have on your Loop Boat.
How to Find a Great Loop Boat
It’s never been easier to find a great loop boat than it is today. Our first suggestion to find a great loop boat is to try some out! You can rent boats for a week and try different ones, and if you go to an AGLCA Rendezvous, you can tour current Loopers boats! The benefit here is that you will learn what other people currently doing the Great Loop like and don’t like about their own boats, answering questions you didn’t even know you had!
If you live on the East Coast, you can visit practically any boatyard and see many boats for sale. This can be a great introductory way to see different boat types or possibly find a boat for sale.
Great Loop Boats for Sale
We bought and sold our boat by owner, without a broker, and we found Pivot by searching our local boat yard! You can often find boats from Loopers that just completed, so we recommend keeping an eye on the AGLCA forum. If you find the type of boat you like, message the owners!
If you want to buy through a broker, there are two main brokers in the Great Loop niche: Curtis Stokes and America’s Great Yacht Sales.
All in all, there are a variety of Great Loop Boats, and we hope you have used the information in this post to help determine which is best for you. Leave us a comment below if you have any other questions. We’re happy to help!
Watch our Great Loop Boat Tour on YouTube
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22 responses to “Everything you need to know about Great Loop boats”
Can you tell me how much your bought the boat for? Did you have a survey done?
Hi Charlie!
We purchased our boat for under 50k, and yes, we had a survey done. We highly recommend a survey, but do your research and find a qualified surveyor. Try not to use the seller’s surveyor (if they have one) just to try and be as impartial as possible. They will look for things you don’t know, and if you plan on getting insurance, it’s required, so you’ll need it anyway.
You can see similar boats here, but in general, our boat needed some work and had been sitting on the hard for a while, so we got a good deal!
https://www.yachtworld.com/boats-for-sale/make-marine-trader/model-34/
Cheers – E
When you sold your boat, did you break even?
It depends on what you mean by “break-even”. If you mean the money we bought the boat + materials and equipment, then yes! If you consider the time involved, especially when redoing the decks, then not even close. So everything is relative!
Cheers –
What is the best way or website to find a boat to rent for a week?
Hi Bill,
Personally, I would look for “charters” in your area. This way you can stay local. For example, in Oriental NC here is a charter but its sailboats only: https://www.bowtosternboating.com/rentals?c=sailboats-over-20 .
In Cape Coral, Florida, here is a trawler charter company: http://smtp.swfyachts.com/webpages/power_rates.htm
Best of luck!
ElliotWhat is your opinion/thoughts on doing the Erie Canal, Trent Severn and the 1000 Island areas “solo” or “singlehanded” in a trawler similar to Pivot.
Specifically, a Monk 36 with bow and stern thrusters (with remote control fob), single engine.
Locks, Docks, etc.
Thanks!Great question, Paul! I think it’d be challenging and require a solid process with preparing the boat ahead of each lock. Its much easier to lock with two people but still doable with one person. You do have a good set up for it, so I think you could do it! You’d just have to double check each lock system’s rules about single handling – ensuring that it is allowed!
Cheers!
Thanks! Just the kind if info I’ve been looking for!
Sailing Life on Jupiter has a YouTube channel and they did the loop on a 48 ft. catamaran two years ago. Their boat is 25 ft. wide, 48 ft. long, with a shallow depth and a low height. I guess they took the main route but I know that they didn’t go into Canada. I’m also planning on doing this trip and will most likely get a boat like yours and then sell it when done.
I am in the planning stages of building a 42 ft or 44 ft catamaran and the beam is 22 ft so I can transit The Trent Severn Waterway, the Rideau Canal (Ottawa to Kingston), the Chambly Canal in Richelieu River between the Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River as the Trent and Chambly have a max width of 23 ft. Rivière Saguenay off of the St Lawrence is fantastic place to see Beluga whales and sometimes Greenland sharks. Rivière Saguenay also has the only navigable fjord in North America. Plus heading west on the St Lawrence I will be stopping at Quebec City and Montreal. Before heading up the Ottawa River to the start of the Rideau Canal which starts with eight stairstep locks all together.
What companies are providing insurance for these type boats? Im in the early beginning stages of curiosity of the whole process, so just doing the research.
Hi Curtis! Great question. There are many different insurance options available. Many will have different requirements and premiums.
There are so many determining factors, like if your going to live aboard full time, going to go out of country, and where you’ll be for hurricane season. A lot depends on you’re background too, for example, some may require you to have experience with a similar size boat before, others require safety certifications, etc.
We recommend first trying your standard insurers like Geico (we had Geico), State Farm, Progressive and see if you can get a quote. Otherwise we know of many people that get an boat insurance broker to help them navigate.
Good luck!
I took an 80′ ketch motor sailor on what y’all now call the Great Loop. I’d never heard the term Great Loop so I called it “Circumnavigating the East Coast of the United States”.
We dropped the masts in Chicago and the main extended beyond the boat fore and aft. Put them back up in St Pete, after doing the ICW to Apalachicola. It was a Grand Adventure, I almost began to believe I was Huck Finn.That’s awesome. It must have been much more difficult back then without all our available resources. It is still an amazing journey, regardless!
Right now I’m trying to find the right boat to do it again, but this time alone. So far is just a shade above what I can spend, or too expensive to operate on a trip like that.
Do you have a short list of boats you’re interested in? What’s your budget? Perhaps we can give some specific advice!
Good luck!
Hello, How much interior floor space did Pivot have including the fly bridge? Thanks
Is it hard to schedule mechanical work while sailing The Great loop?
? Do any of the Marinas Cater to the loopers? How hard is it to find a turn key Vessel that is ready to go?Great questions! It’s not hard to schedule maintenance as long as its routine. If you have a particular issue and need specific parts and expertise, that can be a bit harder, but not impossible. Many Loopers deal with this every single year, and there are some marinas that are very popular for getting service done. Finding a turnkey vessel is relatively easy, just search for Loop boats that have just finished. They will be in good working order, and as long as maintenance is upkept, they should be ready for another loop. Boats are meant to be used, and as long as you don’t find one that has been sitting around there are many!
Assuming I were to take this trip in a go fast boat, what would a rough ballpark travel time be from Lake Michigan to the coast of Louisiana?
Including no wake & limited speed zones, fuel, food, travel breaks and overnight stops, but not including point of interest stops.
Basically wondering if I’m looking at weeks or months.
My gut says it’s in the order of weeks, not months! Most of your downtime will be waiting for locks and commercial traffic, but with a go-fast boat you can make some really good time. I bet it could be done in 3 weeks if fuel prices weren’t a concern! It’s a beautiful area, so if you have the time to enjoy then we would definitely recommend that!
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