How long is your boat commute?

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CalebD

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Jun 27, 2006
1,479
Tartan 27' 1967 Nyack, NY
For those of us that do most of it ourselves it is usually quite important how long it takes to get to your vessel to work on it or use it. This question is directed mostly at those of you who do NOT pull your boat on a trailer into your driveway or garage for the winter but keep your vessels in a boat yard, marina or other remote location when it is on the 'hard' (if ever). This question does apply to everyone concerning how far your residence is from your place of boating activities (trailers included of course). The questions are these: 1) How far, as the crow flies, in nautical or landwise miles, is your boat from your home? 2) How long it usually takes to commute to your boat by car? 3) What has been the longest amount of time commuting (excluding stops for shopping)? 4) Once out of your harbor, what size body of water are you on (how many miles till the first tack or course change is required)? A lake, ocean or estuary name would suffice. I am asking these questions because I live in a fair sized city (NY) and it can take up to an hours drive for me to get up to Nyack, NY from lower Manhattan to do the 25 +/- nautical miles to get there. The driving mileage is more like 40 +/- but it has taken me nearly 2 hours in the peak of summer traffic when the traffic really sucks and blows (sounds like a whale of a time but it is not). The irony of this question for me is that it takes me an average of an hour to drive from Nyack to Long Island (which is the hypotenuse of a theorhetical triangle) but it takes me a half day to sail around Manhattan into the LI Sound. Of course wind and tidal currents play a big part in the trip planning through the East River as most voyages do.
 

Manny

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Oct 5, 2006
978
Hunter 82? 37 Cutter Wherever the wind takes me
too far :{

1) How far, as the crow flies, in nautical or landwise miles, is your boat from your home? Fifty five miles driving (not sure of straight line - probably about 40) 2) How long it usually takes to commute to your boat by car? One hour normal, an hour and a half in rush hour 3) What has been the longest amount of time commuting (excluding stops for shopping)? Two hours 4) Once out of your harbor, what size body of water... The Delaware River - It's not very wide in my area. First tack is usually is very quick. Under a quarter mile? It's very rare to get a beam reach or even a true run, so constant tacking is the order of the day. Good practice but very tiresome. The best I've gotten is possibly a mile without tacking... Geez I want to get my boat down to the Chesapeake Bay. Manny
 

gpd955

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Feb 22, 2006
1,164
Catalina 310 Cape May, NJ
Not too bad

1) 46 land miles 2) 35-50 minutes, depending on traffic 3) 50 minutes 4) Atlantic Ocean. Where we're at, we rarely have to tack. Wind is very predictable and usually remains steady. Jack Manning s/v Victim of Fate Atlantic City, NJ
 
B

Brad

my travel time

-about 8 miles -20 minutes without traffic and the Ballard Bridge isn't up. -40 minutes if traffic coming home. -if we head west as usual out of the small private marina, we are about a 1/4 mile to the Hiram Chittenden Locks (Seattle). Getting through can be as quick as 15 minutes or as much as 45 minutes to an hour wait on summer weekends. The worse would be 5pm returning through the locks on july 4th. I wouldn't even want to try. if we head east, it's about a mile or less along the canal to Lake Union and a good 40 minutes with another bridge raise to wait for the get to Lake Washington. Once on Lake Washington we're cruising by Bill Gates house in no time! We prefer to motor out the lock to Puget Sound and day sail there, although there's a fair amount of tacking we do. This summer we're planning to head up to the San Juan Islands for some overnights but we have concerns about mooring space. I'm hoping to move the boat to a slip in West Seattle (right off of Elliot Bay - downtown) it would be only 5 min. from the house and no lock to deal with. The trade off is that inside the lock it's fresh water (better for the engine and bottom). I have sailed Long Island sound....always loved it!
 
May 1, 2005
107
Beneteau Oceanis Boca Raton, FL
About 5 miles

Takes 10 to fifteen minutes to get to the boat. Takes another fifteen to get to the Atlantic if I time the inlet bridge right, another 10 to fifteen if I don't. Had a wonderful three hour cruise with the Admiral sunday . One tack for the entire trip.
 
Dec 2, 2003
208
Hunter 34 Forked River, NJ
100 miles

Our trip to the boat takes 2 hours, drive there Friday morning and leave for home late Monday. We have a 40 minute motor to Barnegat Bay from our slip, an additional hour and a half to the Atlantic ocean. This is our 17th season, crazy or what!
 
T

Tom

Three Hours

It takes us exactly 3 hours to drive from our front door to our slip. Leave Friday afternoon and come home Sunday night...every weekend (hopefully) from May to October. We live in southwest Ohio and sail on Lake Erie. It is about 200 miles one way. Once at our slip it takes about 10 minutes to motor to open water...if we time the draw bridge correctly...don't need to take until we hit Put-in-Bay. Believe it or not, this is the shortest we have ever driven for our boat...We use to commute 4.5 hours every weekend. It is amazing what we will do for our boats. Someday I will really appreciate living close to my slip, but for now we simply endure the drive.
 

AndyK

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Mar 10, 2004
195
Hunter 33 Salem, MA
Under 5 minutes

One of the main reasons my wife and I bought a boat is because we live so close to water (Salem, MA). 5 minute drive to marina 10 minutes for the launch ride 10 minutes to prep the boat and clear the fairway Of course the universe is balanced out because I have a 75-90 minute commute to work - each way ;-) Andy
 
Sep 21, 2006
280
-Hunter 35.5 Washington, NC
How Far

It's about 25 miles from the house or office to the marina. Usually takes about 35-40 minutes to get on the boat. Once out of the slip I sail on the Pamlico River east of Washington, NC.
 
Feb 6, 1998
11,665
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
It depends...

It depends, for me, because I have an early / late season mooring in front of the house and then another one that is 1.2 miles down the road with launch service. If it's early spring or late fall the boat is usually in front of the house so my commute is a 30 yard walk and a short row. During the season we keep her at the boat yard on another mooring where we have launch service which sure beats dragging the dinghy up and down the beach. To get to the boat yard I mostly ride my bike unless I'm bringing guests. I can't fathom living two + hours from my boat that has to be tough. Once sailing we have no commute at all as both of our moorings are on Casco Bay where we can sail right off the mooring. Casco Bay is approx 18 miles wide from Cape Elizabeth to Small Point and by 15 miles long with close to a hundred islands and several hundred miles of coastline. The town of Harpswell alone has over 250 miles of coast line. This is the longest of any town in the contiguous US. We are right at the beginning of where Maine cruising gets good and Casco Bay is the first large cruising bay you come to as you go North. The Maine coast has over three thousand miles of coast line, 3478 to be a little more precise, 3000+ islands, more peninsulas than one can count and more gunkholes than anywhere other than the BC coast or Alaska. There are actually more islands in the Maine archipelago than in the Caribbean, more than in Polynesia or on the Dalmatian Coast. IF you would like to see pictures of our beautiful chosen sailing waters click the link to our Maine Coast Photo Galleries below: http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising We made the decision right out of college that we wanted to live to boat so we bought where we would have deeded mooring rights that could never be yanked out from underneath us. My winter boat commute, for projects, is a lot longer at almost 3.5 miles. I know that seems short but when you forget a tool it can be a royal PITA. Now my commute for winter sports is another story at two hours and fifteen minutes but my skis don't sit on a mooring or in a slip and they can come and go with me.. My job gets even with me though as I drive over 75k per year and most of my postings are from my "mobile office" or my car via my PDA phone or my laptop with mobile broadband. I still would not trade my office for a corner office desk job!
 
Apr 26, 2005
286
Beneteau Oceanis 390 Tsehum Harbour, BC, Canada
600 Long Miles

I live in Calgary Alberta Canada and my boat is on Vancouver Island. I always fly and the flight is one hour 20 minutes. Sail right now about 50 days a year and yearn for the day when I can sail full time. The boat is 8 minutes by cab from the airport. I have a boat-sitter who fixes stuff. From the dock, sailing paradise is a few minutes away. Some of you guys have a commuter's dream.
 
W

wclfol

My Anti-depressant

We, my wife and I, have about 5 minutes by car ride then a fifteen minute motoring through the canal that is minimum wake due to a manatee zone. We often see manatees and dolphins so it is a pleasant commute to sailing waters. Our marina is between the Banana River and the Indian River Lagoon on the Barge canal in Brevard County Florida. So if we need to go to Port Canaveral or the Banana River we must hail the draw bridge which opens on the half hour and hold in place. During holding we watch birds fish and dolphins dive and Manatee surface. Our commute is Prozac.
 
Aug 9, 2005
772
Hunter 28.5 Palm Coast, FL
just behind my house...100ft

they say that if you're lucky enough to live on the water you're lucky enough.
 
Feb 12, 2007
259
Ericson 25 Oshkosh, WI
Four Minutes

I am very fortunate that my boat is harbored four minutes from my house and six minutes from work. One time it took me seven minutes to get home because a guy in front of me rear ended a short bus out on a field trip. After my long exhausting drive down to the boat, I can be clear of the sea wall and unfurling the headsail in seven minutes. I get alot of cruises in that last no longer than an hour. I sail on Lake Winnebago, it is 38 miles long with its width at 14 miles. Oshkosh is located on the west side. The only wind that makes me tack quickly, is a straight dead east wind. A week or so you asked about how we like our Marina? This is only thing I like about my Marina. I have no bridges or no-wake zones to deal with. If I was to move the boat to another Marina if they had an opening, there is no way I would be out on the water as much. Rob Hessenius
 
Mar 18, 2006
147
Catalina 25 Standard/Fin Keel Grand Lake, OK
Now and Then

1) How far, as the crow flies, in nautical or landwise miles, is your boat from your home? Right now it is 75 miles from our home. 2) How long it usually takes to commute to your boat by car? One hour and 10 minutes. This will change in July/August when we move to our new home that is being built. It will be only 40 miles from the lake and 45 minutes by car. Can't wait. 3) What has been the longest amount of time commuting (excluding stops for shopping)? One hour 15 minutes. Got stopped at a train crossing in one of the small towns we go through. 4) Once out of your harbor, what size body of water... We are on Grand Lake in northeast Oklahoma. It is 65 miles long with over 1300 miles of coastline. When tacking, it is completely up to the wind direction. If it is out of the South (which is fairly common)we tack about every 10 minutes going up the lake to the dam. Then we can run down wind all the way back to the marina. This is tough to answer. I am off on vacation today and I am supposed to take my son and nephew sailing. It is now 41 degrees and will top out at only 55 today. Still, it is doable. We are leaving for the lake at about 10:00am and will see what conditions are once we get there. I do have a few maintenance items to do before we decide, so I might just do them instead.
 
W

Warren Milberg

This is a great question

I chose the marina I'm in mostly due to it being the closest I could find from where I live/commute from to a decent marina near the Chesapeake Bay. Traffic in and around the Wash, DC, metro area is getting to about the worst in the nation. I'm lucky to be able to pick and choose when I want to sail so my commute to the boat, about 44 miles of mostly interstate or divided highway, typically runs around 50-55 minutes. Once I'm at the boat, I need to motor out of a longish channel (+/- 1,000 yards or so) and I'm in deep enough water of the Chesapeake Bay to raise sails and not have to tack (depends on where the wind is coming from)until I'm on the other side of the bay -- some 14 miles away. On some days, that means one tack out and one tack back, and it don't never get no better'n that....
 

NYSail

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Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
Commute

7 minutes to the boat, another 5 minutes out of the harbor (Mt. Sinai) and sailing in the Long Island Sound. Typically head to Ct. sail for 3-5 hrs and then turn around and sail back.... Greg
 

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
The boat is in Perryville and we are in

Fountain Green just about three miles east of Bel Air. The GPS says that we are 10 miles due west of the boat but we must drive 16.8 miles to get to the parking lot at the marina, then we must walk about 200 yards to the boat. These are rural roads so the time is determined by the speed limits but usually we can be out of the slip a half hour after we close our front door. Since we are at the head of the Chesapeake bay we have some limits on sailing near the marina. There is an Amtrak bridge just south of us and a large island (200 acres) in the river in front of the marina. Once clear of those there is a couple of miles of open water north and south of the bridge. There is a six mile channel from the river to the open bay and once past Specutia Island we have the entire bay open to us. With 57 named rivers and about ten thousand miles of tidal shoreline the bay is a place where you really can get away from the world.
 
Dec 3, 2003
2,101
Hunter Legend 37 Portsmouth, RI
Did it Saturday...

...Only 25 mins via highway. Because of our local geography, it is surprising how many people actually live near the water, but still live 1+ hours from their boats. This is indicative of all boatowners from the coast of Maine to the coast of CT and the commute they must make to their boats.
 
Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
168 miles & 2.5 - 3.0 hrs.

We make the trip from Carson City, NV over the mountain to Hidden Harbor. It is 168 miles and takes us between 2.5 hrs to 3 hrs depending on the traffic and what time we leave. The later we leave the better time we can make. The traffic through Sacramento can be brutal at 4 pm on Friday.
 
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