Finding the Right Boat
March to August 2007
Finding the right boat is part of the adventure and the journey. The decision to go with a used Krogen started over 20 years before we made the plunge and plunked down the cash. Actually it started earlier than that, back in the late 80’s when Karen and I saw our first Kadey-Krogen 42’ trawler. A mini-ship I thought at the time. After doing some research on the design, I became more intrigued with the idea and shortly after joined the “Krogen Cruisers” owners association to receive the quarterly news-letter. I think I was the longest standing “wanna-be” in the association!
I love the looks and lay-out of the 42’, but after some serious soul searching about what we really wanted to do with the boat and discussions with my accountant (Karen), the decision to go with a Kadey-Krogen Manatee bubbled to the surface. So, by 2004 or so I started looking half seriously at Manatees. By late 2006 when I broke the news to Karen that the search was on, it was received with mixed emotions. We had all of the usual stuff going on in a family with 4 kids (3 of them off the “payroll”), the youngest in his last year at Culver Military Academy, college plans to resolve, final stages of selling our business, etc., etc., that buying a boat that we didn’t have time to use was loco. Not to mention that the Manatee was more than a bit funny looking. But sanity persevered (I convinced her) and we forged ahead with the search.
In March of 2007, our youngest, Travis, was looking at colleges on the east coast, with one of them being the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY (he was doing this to placate me – a Mass. Maritime Academy graduate). Plans were made to visit the Academy in late March and I set about to make my plans to spend the day doing other things as he was interviewing and touring the school. Four days before we left to visit the school, a Manatee named “Patti K” came up on Yachtworld.com and it was located about a 30 minute drive from the Academy. Fate, karma, call it what you wish, but there was a reason for all this to happen. Travis decided that the USMMA was not for him, but Roger decided that this Manatee was the one. Original owner boat in fairly good condition, low hours on the engine, no additional equipment had been added (that was actually a plus) and no big rush to get the deal done once the price was agreed to. The “no big rush” eventually became a problem as we rushed to finalize surveys and repairs but by mid-August we were finalizing the plans to bring the boat to it’s new homeport on Lake Michigan. The time commitment required to bring the boat from Long Island, NY to Lake Michigan precluded us from doing the trip ourselves, so an exhaustive search was done (I posted a question on the Krogen Cruisers list) for a suitable delivery captain, preferably one with Krogen experience. We found Captain Mike Carter of FL to handle the delivery and he even had previous Manatee experience – a plus. As it turned out we couldn’t have picked a better delivery captain and between he and his crew / mate (Chepa), they delivered the boat to Winthrop Harbor, Lake Michigan (on the IL / WI border) in about 21 days. A great accomplishment given a couple weather and mechanical delays.
About a month later, Travis and I made the 65 mile trip down the lake to Michigan City on a day that we had no business being out in with the boat rolling greatly in 6’ seas and water coming up over the bow and occasionally over the pilothouse roof. We were glad to make port 12 hours later. We then prepped the boat for winter storage and the real work was about to begin.
The Re-Fit Project - 2008
In October 2007, Karen and I attended the Krogen Owners Rendezvous in Solomons Island, MD, which happened to also be the 30th Anniversary celebration of Krogen Yachts. It was a great rendezvous and very well attended with over 60 Krogen yachts that came to Solomons and over 175 people. Meeting many of these owners that I knew by name from the newsletters I had been reading for 20 years was almost as good as seeing their boats and the many things they had done to them to make them more comfortable for cruising and living aboard. Karen and I came away from the rendezvous with lots of pictures and ideas of what to do with our Krogen during the planned refit in 2008.
Lining up the right people to do the major refit work on the boat was a bit difficult, but in the end we picked the right company to do the major installs. Much of this work was completed during the winter and spring of 2008. Details on what we did ourselves or had done are listed at the end of this post for those that are interested in that kind of detail. Suffice it to say that it was a lot more work than we initially anticipated and it took 2 to 3 times as long to complete as we originally planned. Which then again, shouldn’t have been a big surprise.
On the personal front, Karen and I had many irons in the fire and not the least of which was our impending transition to “retired folks” as we were selling our business at the end of 2008. Initially in 2007, we thought we would have everything under control by mid 2008, from a personal, business and boat refit project standpoint. However, by mid 2008, the economy was in turmoil, we were behind on the work to be done to the boat and although the business was doing great and the new owners were ready to go, we weren’t comfortable taking the time off work that we needed to do, to get the boat from Lake Michigan to FL, our first cruising goal. So the planned departure in Sept. 2008 was put off for one more year. After we launched the boat in May, we proceeded to work on the boat every weekend, adding equipment, fixing things, sorting problems out, etc. We had no time to cruise on the boat and all I could say was that “it’s a good thing we got an extra year’s run on this thing” given everything that was getting in the way of our cruising plans. When we layed the boat up for one more winter, I vowed to Karen that it was the last time I was going to do this (winterize the boat)! One way or another, Sept. 2009 was going to see the boat start the trip south, come hell or high water (and I hope neither one makes an appearance!).
Here’s the work and equipment that we completed in 2008. The big items like generator, air conditioning, toilet system and electrical equipment upgrades were handled by the company we contracted with – Captains Orders of Valparaiso IN (they did a first class job) and the rest we mostly did ourselves:
- Kohler 6kw Generator with sound-shield, digital gauge and remote, Odyssey start battery and all other required accessories for new install
- Victron 3kW Inverter/Charger with remote gauge and lockout switch for electrical panel
- Xantrex Battery Monitor
- Additional 8D battery to go with the other two 8D’s already installed
- Marine Air 16k BTU Heat and A/C
- Allantes Freedom fresh water flush toilet with all new odor free sanitation plumbing and including new Ronco holding tank
- 10’ Walker Bay RIB with 9.9 Merc 4 stroke
- Martek dinghy davits (2009)
- Lewmar Claw anchor with new chain and rode for both anchors
- Tundra Refrigerator to replace original Norcold
- Garmin 4212 Chartplotter, 4kW Radar and Digital Fishfinder all networked together
- (2) VHF radios and antennas
- Todd Helm chair in Pilothouse
- Sony music system with Boston Acoustic speakers in salon and waterproof speakers in Pilothouse
- Replaced all bedding and cushions in stateroom, salon and pilothouse
- (2) Lazyboy leather recliners
- Wooden blinds in salon, galley and head
- 24” Flat screen TV, mount and Glomex antenna (2009)
- New center pilothouse window
- New pilothouse enclosure and screens
- Replaced all overhead light fixtures and reading lights
- Fluorescent light in galley
- Single handle faucets in galley and head (2009)
- Drinking water filter / third faucet in galley (2009)
- Caframo fans in stateroom, salon and pilothouse
- Oil exchange system (2009)
- Installed spare variable speed fresh water pump (2009)
- Deck furniture for cockpit and boat deck
- (2) Downtube folding bikes
- Phantom screen door for salon doors
- Stern mounted swim ladder
- Entire boat buffed and waxed and most of the teak was refinished with Honey Teak (2009)
- And other projects I can’t even remember!
Preparing for Departure - 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The reality of selling our business in 2008 as well as the economic events that turned the world upside-down, caused us to rethink and adjust our plans going into 2009. On the business front, both Karen and I came to the realization that neither one of us was ready to give up working entirely. We were so accustomed to giving our all to whatever business we were in that we decided to set up a consulting practice that we could work at on a somewhat part-time basis for the next few years or at least until it wasn’t fun anymore. And like many others in our situation, the extra income from the consulting work would be very welcome. So we launched the business in late 2008 and by Feb. 1st we had two clients to keep us busy through the winter months in Indianapolis. Our initial plans to spend the winter in FL didn’t materialize since we had not sold our home in Indy and the consulting project with one of the clients kept us close to home. We settled into a comfortable routine and truth be told we were happy with the circumstances although we would have been much happier and less stressed if we had been able to sell our home.
Spring arrived and we began to get the boat ready for the water. Some of the projects noted on the previous blog were completed in 2009 before we launched and others were done after we put the boat in the water. We managed to work out a routine of working on the consulting projects and working on the boat, but at this point there was finally light at the end of the tunnel on boat work. We found ourselves spending more and more time on the boat and less and less time in Indy. Karen was still very active with her tennis leagues, so she spent more time in Indy than me. But, there was finally a planned departure date to take the boat south. A goal was set to have the boat in FL for the Christmas holidays, so a departure date for early Sept. to move the boat from Lake Michigan and head south down the rivers was agreed upon. For those of you unfamiliar with this kind of trip, boats heading out of the Great Lakes for warmer climes, generally plan the departure from Chicago (the western exit route) in Sept., so the fall months are spent heading south when weather and river conditions are generally at their best.
The map shown on the back cover illustrates the trip we will be taking and more specifically the entire trip known as the “Great Loop”, which we hope to complete in a couple years time. Basically for the first part of the trip, we will travel from Chicago through the Chicago River, into the Illinois River and follow it all the way to the Mississippi River, which we will travel on for about 250 miles, then travel up the Ohio River for 70 miles to where the Cumberland River comes into it. Jump on the Cumberland River to the Tennessee River, follow it south to the Tom-Bigbee Waterway, to the Black Warrior River and eventually come out in Mobile Bay. Then east on the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway across the FL panhandle, then cut across the Gulf of Mexico to the west coast of FL near Tarpon Springs and south down the coast to St. Pete, where we plan to spend a month or two this winter. All told, the mileage is about 1300 miles and we hope to do it in two legs. The first one from Chicago to someplace around Pickwick Lake in TN, where we will leave the boat for a month or two and the second leg from there to St. Pete. The second leg will start after Nov. 1st, as our insurance requirements are such that we must stay above the 32nd Parallel until after that date (the official date when hurricane season ends).
The first leg begins on Aug. 25th, weather permitting. We backed up our departure date a couple of weeks as we have a business trip to Europe planned for late Sept., so we need to allow time for weather and mechanical delays (which we hope we won’t have) and at 50 to 60 miles per day (our boat speed is about 7 MPH) a little cushion is necessary.
Last Weekend at “Home
Friday, August 21 – Sunday, August 23
Hi! It’s Karen writing now, which you would probably be able to figure out two sentences into this.
On Friday, we left our home, which is still for sale by the way. Travis drove us to the Michigan City, Indiana marina, where we’ve kept our boat for 2 years (it’s about 3 hours north of Indy) on Lake Michigan.
After Travis left, I cried. I was sad for all that we were leaving behind and a little fearful of the unknown that is ahead of us. On the drive up, we saw the most magnificent rainbow – actually 2 rainbows. One was huge and the other was next to it, but smaller. It’s been years since we have seen a rainbow at all, and now to see two of them while we are embarking on our adventure, we took it as a good omen!
Over the weekend, our friends at the marina were wonderful. Alexia & Al Castenada drove us for one more grocery run (since Travis had to leave us
car-less!). We had a cold & rainy cookout on Saturday night, followed by a celebration on their boat. Alexia & Al and their “Naughty Buoys” – Alex, Andrew, and Allen – plus friend Massimo and the Carey’s – Karin, Wendell, Arthur and Alainna – toasted us Bon Voyage with champagne and cake and a special rum that Wendell pulled out! How lucky we have been to get to know them and our other dock neighbors there!
