Impressive Trips in Small Boats

Doug4bass · Jul 21, 2015

Leeward Rail said:
I recently chanced upon a video on youtube, where a couple sail a Hunter 19 from the Shetlands to Norway. Sailboat: http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_ID=5260 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqW4h7tmZ5c Also... "Keep turning Left" is a great small boat series, also on youtube. Anyone else have some cool small boat videos or stories you can post ?

Shackleton, Bligh.

Roadking Larry · Jul 21, 2015

Shoot, Sumner's trip in his Macgergor 26S is a pretty decent story to read.

Joe Blizzard · Jul 22, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noKf0yQLOmQ

MrBill_FLL · Jul 22, 2015

there was a guy around here called mad mike. he turned an macgregor X into something very unique. outboard pontoons, 2 small gas OB's, watermaker that used the ballast as a holding tank, and 12v driven a/c.

boat when to alaska and south America. very impressive mods and trip reports.
-sadly archive search is not so great...

http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=72865

sadly pics are not hosted after some time lapse...

http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=72139

boat was zeno's arrow. you can read some of his descriptions (still)

Tom G P-21 · Jul 22, 2015

Sailing around England in a Wayfarer 16. They did it last year and were recently featured in the magazine "Messing About in Boats". It is stories like these that I subscribe to the magazine.

http://www.xtremedinghycruising.com/

srust58 · Jul 22, 2015

Robin Lee Graham 5 Year circumnavigation starting at age 16 in a 24 foot Ranger. Completed the last leg in a larger boat.

Webb Chiles 8 boats 6 wives 5 circumnavigations. His books "Open Boat Across the Pacific" and "The Ocean Waits" are great.

Sven Lundin small boat voyages crossing the Atlantic and to Cape Horn in boats he designed and built

Rory McDougal Atlantic crossing 21 foot Wharram cat

Tania Aebi circumnavigation 26 foot Contessa

John Guzzwell circumnavigation on the 20 foot Trekka

Geez how could I forget hometown guy Gerry Spiess across the Atlantic and Pacific in the home built 10 foot Yankee Girl.

Just a few names off the top of my head. You will have to google them yourself.

Here I will give you this cool site.

http://www.microcruising.com/

Alan Gomes · Jul 22, 2015

srust58 said:
Robin Lee Graham 5 Year circumnavigation starting at age 16 in a 24 foot Ranger. Completed the last leg in a larger boat.

Webb Chiles 8 boats 6 wives 5 circumnavigations. His books "Open Boat Across the Pacific" and "The Ocean Waits" are great.

Sven Lundin small boat voyages crossing the Atlantic and to Cape Horn in boats he designed and built

Rory McDougal Atlantic crossing 21 foot Wharram cat

Tania Aebi circumnavigation 26 foot Contessa

John Guzzwell circumnavigation on the 20 foot Trekka

Geez how could I forget hometown guy Gerry Spiess across the Atlantic and Pacific in the home built 10 foot Yankee Girl.

Just a few names off the top of my head. You will have to google them yourself.

Here I will give you this cool site.
http://www.microcruising.com/

Graham began his trip on a Lapworth 24, not a Ranger 24.

MrBill_FLL · Jul 22, 2015

http://macgregorsailors.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10442&start=45

here's some trip reports...

. maddmike bio

by Hamin' X » Sun May 18, 2008 11:02 pm
For those of you new to the board, here is a little bio on maddmike (Mike Dunn) from Lattitude 38 Magazine July 2006:

Cruise Notes:

We haven't heard from him for awhile, so we can't help but wonder what Mike Dunn of Lake Tahoe has been up to lately with his MacGregor 26X Zeno's Arrow. After all, he's probably done more wild adventure cruising with his 26X than even builder Roger MacGregor might have imagined possible:

"I started sailing my 26X in Baja in '96," he wrote. "In '97, I trailered her to Puget Sound, then visited the San Juan Islands, did the Inside Passage to Prince Rupert, and cruised the coast of Alaska to the Arctic Ocean and Inuvikt in the Northwest Territories. I then did the Arctic Red River, Norman Wells, Ft. Hope, Ft. Simpson, Great Slave Lake, Peace River, Athabaska River, and the Milk and Poplar Rivers. Back in the States, I took my boat down the Missouri River, the Mississippi River to New Orleans, then to Florida via the IntraCoastal Waterway. I then sailed to the Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgins, and all down the Leewards and Windwards to Venezuela. I also did Trinidad and the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers. In July of last year, I returned to Florida, bought a trailer, and drove my 26X back to Lake Tahoe." The last we heard, Dunn was planning to take off for Sri Lanka last November. And we'd be surprised if he didn't do it.

Before you think of trying the same thing, it's worth noting that Dunn's 26X isn't stock - and neither is he. "My boat has three four-stroke Nissan outboards, two of them 6 hp, and one of them 18 hp. She also has a modified keel that was cold-molded with carbon fiber. The rudder and mounts were modified with aluminum plate and 20 layers of CBX carbon fiber." Zeno's Arrow is also more extensively equipped than most sisterships, as she's equipped with a full-battened furling main and jib, watermaker, radar, microwave, two 1,000-watt inverters, an EPIRB, a Satphone with with data capabilities, and two autopilots. She also has articulating outriggers, an 8-ft Walker Bay dinghy with a 2 hp outboard, a dodger, bimini, and a 2-kw generator.

As for Dunn, his website reports, "It was once said that Mike has more degrees than a thermometer, exists in perpetual puberty, and spends more time practicing for Jeopardy while reaching closer to Nirvana - or further away, depending on your point of view - than anyone else." There's more. The site also advises that Dunn usually works as an expedition and adventure travel guide, but on his off days is an international management consultant. The product of schools in California, Hawaii, and England - including Cambridge University - he's travelled to pretty much every country, island group, and territory on the planet. He has led or participated in climbs on the highest mountains on all seven continents, including Mt. Everest, reached the South Pole, parachuted over the North Pole, and sailed around the world as an expedition leader on several different cruise ships. A skilled scuba diver, hang-glider pilot, whitewater boater, and fixed wing and helicopter pilot, he sold his share of a small Antarctic expedition and air charter service to help fund his own expeditions. His friends call him Slacker. Just kidding about that. But seriously, does anybody know if he took off for Sri Lanka? - jim 05/09/06

Rich---Hamin' X---N7ZH

Gene Neill · Jul 29, 2015

Doug4bass said:
Shackleton, Bligh.

My two favorites by far. I think Shackleton most of all.

And then there's this guy ... http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=169767

Jackdaw · Jul 30, 2015

MrBill_FLL said:
there was a guy around here called mad mike. he turned an macgregor X into something very unique. outboard pontoons, 2 small gas OB's, watermaker that used the ballast as a holding tank, and 12v driven a/c.

boat when to alaska and south America. very impressive mods and trip reports.
-sadly archive search is not so great...

Is there ANY actual proof that this guy did any of this? It so very impressive. I've seen pix of his boat in Tahoe, and nothing about suggests a real ocean going craft. I've seen lots of words, but no actual proof. The guy seems like a huge self-promoter, so why no pix? That Lat38 blurb has been cut and pasted so many times that people accept it as truth.

Sumner · Jul 30, 2015

My heroes are ....

..... Mike and Sandy and the trips they have taken with their Macgregor X, Chinook. They have taken smaller trips into Canada but also much longer ones. To Alaska and back from Seattle. The Sea of Cortez at least once. Twice to the Bahamas and one of those was a lot further out than what I did as they went past Georgetown to Long Island and then went north to Conception, Cat and Eleuthera on the way back.

They are starting on the Loop from Lake Michigan in August and will go back to the Bahamas during the winter part of the trip. I think they have also done some the ICW on the east coast before. Some amazing trips in a small boat. Most of the trips were documented but some have been lost. Their last Bahama trip report...

http://bwyachts.com/chinook/bahamas_2011/

... was a big help to me in my planing and I used some of their anchorages.

Then there is ....

.... Bucko who took a Macgregor 26 from California to Panama....

http://lbucko.tripod.com/index.html

.... and before that had taken a Macgregor 22 from California to Costa Rica.

Sumner

=======================================

1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac

Endeavour 37 Mods...

MacGregor 26-S Mods...

Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas

Bosman · Aug 5, 2015

Polish build Maxus 22 is currently circumnavigating the world. It is 100% production vessel, but it has been strengthened to handle the raw forces of the oceans.

Jackdaw, knowing his passion for birds, might appreciate the boat's name: Atlantic Puffin

More info on the journey can be found here:
http://www.zewoceanu.pl/About-our-projects
and here:
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.ca/2014/11/circumnavigating-on-small-coastal-boat.html
Boat's current location can be found here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zXRP0WqsgxrI.kf0-hG4jc7CI

Jackdaw · Aug 5, 2015

Bosman said:
Polish build Maxus 22 is currently circumnavigating the world. It is 100% production vessel, but it has been strengthened to handle the raw forces of the oceans.

Jackdaw, knowing his passion for birds, might appreciate the boat's name: Atlantic Puffin

Yea that's impressive. HUGE mods to that boat to make it ocean-worthy; boards replaced by a watertight hatch; re-worked rudder system etc. But all cool.

To me that is much more impressive trip than skipping down the coast. Once you are three days out into the ocean, you gotta take what comes. That's a totally different deal than ducking in and out of ports.

Bob 04 H260 · Aug 6, 2015

How about Frank Dye sailing a 16 ft Wayfarer from Scotland to Iceland and then to Norway. If I remember they capsized a few times.

He later sailed the boat from England to France, down the coast to do a circumnavigation of the Med. then shipped the boat to Fl Keys, sailed it up the East coast of US and Canada and around the Great Lakes.

His boat is in a national maritime museum in the UK.

http://youtu.be/NZ9Qh9hv8eQ
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7818796/Frank-Dye.html

Bob

Gene Neill · Aug 6, 2015

Bosman said:
Polish build Maxus 22 is currently circumnavigating the world. It is 100% production vessel, but it has been strengthened to handle the raw forces of the oceans.

Jackdaw, knowing his passion for birds, might appreciate the boat's name: Atlantic Puffin

More info on the journey can be found here:
http://www.zewoceanu.pl/About-our-projects
and here:
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.ca/2014/11/circumnavigating-on-small-coastal-boat.html
Boat's current location can be found here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zXRP0WqsgxrI.kf0-hG4jc7CI

Yeah ... I was gonna sail along with them in my C22 from Panama to Australia, but I knew they wouldn't be able to keep up. Didn't want to keep heaving to and waiting for them.