St. Johns–1st Trip (01/15-01/22/11)

We (my wife and I) arrived Saturday after dark at the Sanford Boat Works & Marina at the extreme southern end of the navigable portion of the 300+ mile long St. Johns River.  I couldn't get the lights on in the boat even though the panel showed the 120 volt power was working.  The lady, Debbie, in the next door houseboat brought us a flashlight and she and her husband, Tom, offered hints and ideas.  Finally, she said her brother had a tug boat on the Chesapeake and she'd call him for help...  Needless to say I ignored all this while moving about the boat with the flashlight trying to figure out the problem.  The Chesapeake fellow suggested that I should turn on the battery switch-–duh!  I do the same thing (forget the battery switch) in our camper every year.  Anyway we had lights, and two new friends, Debbie & Tom.  I referred to Debbie, as my hero after that experience!

Still, after the lights came on we found the boat full of the boxes of tools and stuff I had UPSed down in advance of our arrival, along with the huge bimini stainless U-shaped frame neatly tied up INSIDE the boat, instead of folded up outside attached to the rear cockpit where it belongs.  I guess the Mobile, AL canvas installer did not want it damaged in transit, but now we had to lug it out it the dark and tie it down outside the boat.  Boy were we beat–we collapsed in the V-berth and passed out from a long day.

ASIDE: I bought the canvas bimini and SS frame from King Marine in Washington state as they make the factory mounted biminis.  The cost was 45% of having a local canvas maker do it all as King has the templates and can knock out the bimini quickly.  Dave, King's owner, was great and accessible by cell phone and I had it professionally mounted in Mobile, AL as I was loath to drill holes in the boat.  It all came together nicely, was well made and fitted great.  For those of you with Rangers I'll post details and pictures of the frame on the TugNuts site in Alto's photo album eventually.

Here's Alto in her covered slip in her floating dock on Sunday:

Here she is from the rear.  A very cool thing is that the covering roof is attached to the docks, not the river bottom.  A couple years ago the river rose 6+ feet and would have crushed boats in berths under a roof attached to pilings driven into the river bed.  Also, since the roof always stays at the same height in relation to the dock, I don't have to lower the mast for fear of a rise in water pushing the boat up under the roof.

Note the Ranger Tug slight list to the left.  This is almost a trademark and is probably is due to the diesel generator and four batteries stowed on the left side of the cockpit.  I'll try to even out the boat with storage solutions, but others have tried before...  Below, from the cockpit looking aft you can see where we park our compact rental car next to the little bath house with a green roof.  I can see if its occupied from the boat, thus saving energy from a wasted walk!  The oval-like part in the rear plastic window allows me to zip the plastic and roll it up (holding it with the two hanging straps) to expose the screen.

We got friendly with the folks, Tom and Debbie (my hero), in the houseboat at the end of the dock shown below.  They live in Tampa and pay around $500/month to moor the houseboat where you see it.  They also own the pontoon boat between their house boat and Alto–it has a fold-up bathroom!  They have incredible views, especially from the roof (where there is a hot tub) down the river.  One wall of the houseboat is glass, looking out at the marina.  Not bad for $500/month.

They warned us of some little issues around the marina like the fact that occasionally an alligator will haul itself up on the floating docks, so we need to look before stepping off the boat each and every time.  Also we borrowed bug spray from them, at their strong recommendation, to spray the boat's perimeter as roaches (nicely called Palmetto Bugs in Fl) and other bugs get into the boats.  We learned about the wolf spider which grows to the size of your hand...  Blind Flies (a type of midge) can suddenly assault any object or structure on the St. Johns.  "Assault" isn't the right word, as they can swarm and die in an hour to the point where people use snow shovels to remove 6 inch+ piles of them from boats.  Then there are the routine mosquitoes and midges to deal with...  Gail was thrilled with all this, of course.  She reports over 40 itchy insect bites on her ankles upon our return home.

Here's a shot of the boat from the bathroom's (which I had just visited) door.  You can see Tom and Deb's houseboat to the right:

Here's a view off our starboard side.  You can see fixed docks with stationary (attached to the river bottom) roofs to the right.   You can just make out a white building under the State Highway 415 overpass in the middle of the picture at the back which is Gators bar right on the main river.  Its a giant deck covered with an awning and plastic windows that serves fresh seafood.  We could walk to it in a minute or two, but we drive to save our energy, of course.  Gators has live music a couple nights weekly, but only until 10 PM.  Bikers come on Sunday when they have music until 6 PM, not too many Hell's Angels show up.  Its generally pretty quiet in the marina.

The first two days (Sunday and Monday) we spent doing trips to Walmart and West Marine getting "stuff."  We had eight boxes of more "stuff" that I had pre-shipped via UPS to the marina folks who then stacked the boxes up inside the boat to wait for us.  We had to set up the bimini (canvas cover and stainless steel tubing that holds it up) too.  Gail stowed stuff in various places and then tried alterations.  We had to get a foam mattress topper from Walmart and cut it in the shape of a V (which I did on the houseboat's deck) since the V-berth mattress was too hard to sleep well on.  We were exhausted, but did get into the old part of Sanford for a dinner at a restaurant called Two Blondes and a Shrimp; don't even ask about how it got its name.  The food was excellent and we heard the chef's story of how her restaurant in the Keys washed away in a hurricane, so she became a New Jersey cop for five years, before teaching culinary arts, etc.  Since I first wrote this blog, Sanford became famous for the Zimmerman/Trayvon murder episode.  This blots out all the effort and expense Sanford has engaged in to make the downtown attractive to visitors.  They spend a fortune on the "River Walk" which includes a town marina all on Lake Munroe just north of our marina.  We enjoyed our time in Sanford, and my wife is "of color" as they say so I would encourage any and all to visit this neat little city.  Deland just to the north on the river is where Hontoon is and is also a great college town.  It's home to Stetson University, larged funded by the guy who invented the Stetson hat.

Here's the view from Alto's port side showing the dock access which we walk down to get to shore (the car and bathroom):

Directly in front of the Alto is a mint, restored 1988 Sea Ray with our new friends (Chuck and Evelyn) who just retired.  They live in Daytona, but often come to hang on their boat and fish.  In fact, they caught fish off the dock between our boats, fried it up and we all ate it along with the our friends on the houseboat, named $tock Option$', folks (Tom and Debbie) on the dock.  Evelyn, or Ev, gets cold ears so she wears ear muffs, which is a little weird in Florida, especially as we heard it was 20 degrees in Mass. at the time I took this picture.  Ev is getting ready to feed their dog, Bear who growls at me and Debbie whenever we walk by.  Tom and Debbie have three tiny dogs that stay on the houseboat.  The dock is sort of like a living room in the evening with tables and chairs...and midges around your ankles.

The weather had been cool with little rain showers, but Wednesday was beautiful.  T-shirt weather and clear skies with no wind (bad for sailing but good for power boating).  Chuck pushed us off and we motored into the channel towards Lake Monroe:

Soon after we entered Lake Monroe where we got the boat up to 15 knots for a spell and passed the town of Sanford which sits on the lake's western shore.   It has an "old" section in the center with brick streets and nice restaurants like the Two Blondes and a Shrimp, mentioned before.

We entered the lake's outflow channel which is the St. Johns River and had to wait for a railroad bridge to open.  We then followed the meandering river for about 15 miles North to the Hontoon State Park.  By meandering I mean it could turn to the point where we would be heading South again for periods of time.  We saw many manatee swimming by–actually, we saw their wake or bubbles as they pass like ghosts under the boat.  Alligators hang out on the shores or swim by, and there are amazing birds.  The shores are covered by trees with spanish moss hanging down with foot-in-diameter balls of mistletoe which mysteriously grow without roots in the tops of the trees.  Local folks shoot the mistletoe out of the trees with shot guns to sell around Christmas.

Our plan was to meet up with Frank & Cathy Forest who live in DeLand, FL which is a historic small city in "old Florida" and the home of Stetson University, which was founded with a donation from the Stetson hat maker.  Frank has a sistership tugboat to the Alto.  We had been in communication via the TugNuts chat/blog website for months when I decided to debut the boat on the St Johns and I found out he was already on the river.  He is a serious Ranger Tug Nut who knows much about the boats and the river and I was anxious to meet him and his wife.  I called him and he came "up" the river (heading south) while we went north and we met up.  I then followed him to the Hontoon Island area, here's us following him down river (remember the St. Johns flows north):

We decided to stay in his marina in a transient slip instead of in the state park marina which was about 500 feet away on the island to the left in this picture; in fact, you can see Hontoon Island a few hundred feet behind the boats in the picture, below.  We had electricity, water and access to the Hontoon Marina Resort (which had nice bathrooms) for $25 per night and the transient dock was adjacent to Frank's boat, as you see to the right of Alto below–sorry about the sun spot which is, luckily, on Ainokea rather than on Alto:

You can see we both have Phifertex front window covers which come in several colors which cut out about 90% of the sun from entering the boat.  Its a very heavy weave fabric.  They also function as privacy screens at night when on the dock although they work in reverse, too.  So if you have a light on inside the boat and its dark outside, then people can see in but you can't see out.

Detail oriented tug boat owners can see the forward folding mast (with radar on it) on Alto vs. the side-folding mast on Ainokea in the following picture.  Ainokea is Hawaiian for "I don't care" or "I do what I want."  Perfect!

Frank has attached a very cool barbecue on a removable post on his aft swim platform.  I had admired this addition on the TugNuts website where Frank has some pictures of the modifications he and Cathy have done to Ainokea.  I had bought a grill and post and had it shipped to Alto's marina and copied Frank and did the same installation (except I used a small round Magma grill) on Alto before we left Florida.  Frank made hamburgers and he, Cathy, Gail and I all had dinner in his boat, very comfortably and enjoyably, that night.

We really enjoyed the trip up to Hontoon and hanging out with Frank and Cathy.  Frank gave us a guided tour over the radio as we followed him up the river, often at idle speed  (ludicrously slow speed) in the Manatee zones.  Here's a better picture of Frank. 

The next day, Thursday, was as beautiful and perfect as the previous day.  We set out back up river heading south towards Sanford.  The trip took about 3.5 hours and we got home to our marina around 4.  Had dinner at Gators and crashed.  Friday was rainy so we spent it doing laundry at the yacht club (we had to join the club to get access to the washer and dryer) for $30/month.  I need to get a burgee as we are now official members of the Indian Mound Yacht Club; I'm going to see if I can get reciprocal mooring privileges at slightly more fancy clubs in Edgartown, Hyannisport, and at the New York Yacht Club.  Gail found a leak under the bathroom sink which I fixed with a great deal of contortion to get into the small spaces.  We spent the day fixing minor problems like mis-wiring of the stereo.

Organizing the boat took well into the night so we ate crackers and any remaining food on the boat and went to bed.  Up at six the next day, Saturday, to head to the airport in Orlando and back to Logan.  Gail's Jeep had a dead battery and the nice folks at Thrifty Parking tried their best to clean the terminals and fix it, but it wouldn't hold much of a charge.  I feared it would die when we slowed down to pay the toll to go through the Williams Tunnel so we had AAA come and replace the battery while we were waiting in the warm Thrifty office. Then a stop for dinner at Bertucci's in Hingham and home to see the cats!

Cody

Tiger

Panda

And, all our friends and family.  Stay tuned as the next trip in Alto is scheduled for February 15th.  We'll deal with suspect overheating, hopefully new voyage pictures, and (if you are lucky) lots of shots of our specially installed COMPOSTING TOILET, about which I'm very excited, I really must say!

The detachable urine container (euphemistically called "fluid" vs. the "solids" container) needs to emptied every 3 days, so we may have some shots of me walking the dock with the "pee bucket" as we choose to call it.  However, I'll never have to pump out a 30 gallon waste tank of you-know-what sloshing around in the back of the boat.  We empty the solids container once (that's ONCE) a yearly season, which yields a few coffee can sized hunks of compost which can be put on a garden or spread on the lawn without any smell.  More about all this later!

Alto Arrives on St. Johns River–About the River

Arrival:

Yesterday (01/06/11) Paul Sharp from Sharp Yacht Transport, Sharp Yachts Transport - Home who moves the Ranger Tugs from the factory to the sales brokers, arrived at Turner Marine in Mobile, AL to pickup the Alto for transport.  He came five days early, so we are ahead of schedule.  Alto is being moved over 8 hours to the Sanford Boat Works & Marina at the navigable beginning of the St. John's River in Florida–about 25 minutes north of Orlando.  Call Cory Sharp for any boat move, but the Sharp family specializes in Ranger Tugs; here's Cory moving two tugs at once!

On the St. Johns River we'll have 310 miles of river, although much of it below Sanford, FL is not navigable except by air boats.  Still, there are many miles of river and lakes to explore all the way up to Jacksonville where the St. Johns spills into the Atlantic Ocean and the intracoastal can be accessed.  There are many inlets and places to anchor and as the river moves 1 knot per hour, and there is no tide in the lower 2/3 of the river, it's a safe place to anchor.  I learned about the river from looking into renting a houseboat for an easy introduction to the water for my wife, Gail, who does not swim and is fearful of anything boat-like.  The Hontoon State Park is in the middle of the river.  There are loads of houseboat rentals, if you are seriously interested download a Cruising Guide & House Boat handbook here:  Holly Bluff Marina

Back to the story!  Paul Sharpe stopped and kindly loaded Alto up with diesel fuel from a gas station on the way (Alto holds 75 gallons of fuel) and dropped her in the water and the boat yard folks towed her to her assigned covered slip at the Sanford Boat Works & Marina.  Yes, that's the famous "Sanford" where that poor kid was shot in a condo complex by a local vigilante.  The marina is at the southernmost part of the navigable river.  Paul deployed the fenders and plugged her in to keep the batteries charged.  Neither Gail nor I was even present so much can be done by remote control when you have good people working on your behalf.   We had previously sent six boxes of stuff (kitchen equipment, tools, towels, bedding, etc.) via UPS asking the marina staff to put it on board.  Our plan was to keep Alto in Florida and visit as frequently as we could, and in the Spring transport the boat to our home on Cape Cod.  Cheap direct flights can be had from Boston to Orlando, and car rentals can be as low as $98 per week.

Our last sailboat was destroyed in Hurricane Bob and we eventually gave up our mooring in Cotuit Bay on Cape Cod.  Now there's a 20-25 year wait to get a mooring, so when we decided to get back into boating we needed to consider two main needs:
1.) An easy to use trawler as we don't have the energy for sailing anymore, and
2.) The largest (and most comfortable) boat we could find that was trailerable.

We already have a Ford F-350, a one-ton pickup truck; however, all Ranger Tugs (even their biggest 29 footer) can be pulled by a 3/4 ton truck, albeit a diesel engine is highly recommended.  Here's a video showing how easy it is to launch the larger Ranger 29 foot boat: The TugNuts: Launching and retrieving the R-29.

About the St. Johns River
The St. Johns River's headwaters are hard to discover.  Blue Cypress Lake (below) is the most identifiable water body at the headwaters of the St. Johns River according to the Florida Dept. of Evironmental Protection's web site.

The following map is pretty hard to see, but you can use your browsers Zoom In buttons (under the View menu on a Mac) to see a bit better.  Alto is based just south of Lake Monroe and above Lake Jessup; look for the bottom of Seminole county.  We'll be mostly between Lake Munroe and DeLand, although journeys should take us up to Lake George and beyond.  The St. Johns in not very navigable below Lake Harney and Lake Jessup is probably too shallow even for our two foot draft.



Well, today 01/15/11 we're off for our first trip to Florida, and Gail hasn't even seen Alto in person yet!  So, I'll post more after we get there.

Trawlers vs. Express Cruisers & About Alto

The Search
Like many of you I had been looking for small, but comfortable trailerable trawler style boat for years.  In my sixties with 35 years of sailing experience, it was time to make life easier.  Such a search starts with the Nordic 26 tugboat, a direct competitor with the Ranger Tug and made in a factory just a few miles away from Ranger in Washington state.  They make larger boats which are great, but none are trailerable and the factory has been in and out of near bankruptcy forever.  I don't know about now, but at one time is was owned by the workers.  The Nordic 26 is heavy and she seems underpowered with her 110hp diesel, and she shares the problem that almost all tug boat style trawlers have: when you leave the salon cabin you have to go up two steps to a separate helm room, and then you descend 5-6 steps into the front berth/bath, whereas the Rangers have the salon and helm area on the same level. You lose 1/3 of the space in the salon where you spend most of your time in port, as the helm room is fully separate. They advertise it as a private retreat, but that's what your V-berth area is for.   And, that descent to the forward helm cabin to the bathroom and front berth is a long way down.

 
Notice in the picture above and the plan below how the Nordic 26 has a fully separate raised helmsman's cabin.  This is nice when you are traveling, but on the hook or at dock you discover that one-third of your salon is taken up by helm space, leaving a tiny area for living/cooking/eating.

Now look at the Ranger R25's floor plan, which is a straight shot from the salon through the helmsman's area then down just two steps to the V-berth.   Note, in the plan below, that even the bathroom is up in the salon, easily accessible from the deck, and it even has views through a giant aft window you can see in the picture below.:

In the Ranger Tug both front seats both fold up, the port side helmsman's companion seat flips over to make a rear-facing dinette bench seat.  As you can see below, the helm seat folds up to double the counter space.  Your helm seat is on top of the refrigerator–no space is wasted.  Use the seats while underway, but convert them to another purpose or fold them out of way when in port to add a almost third more space to the salon.  The Ranger feels much roomier than its 25 feet should allow.  Efficient space design allows for a diesel generator that can power the glass topped electric range you see below -or- it will run the air conditioning/reverse heat system.  The AC lets you use the boat all year in Florida, either using the genset or shore power when you are on the dock.

      

Something I really, really like about larger trawler-style boats, and the Nordic 26, is a door by the helm; see the picture above of the Nordic.  If you are single handing, that door makes it a breeze to step out to grab a mooring ball line, and then you walk the mooring line right up the deck to the front bow cleat to attach it.  Same goes for anchor handling, and that door makes it much easier to go through locks on the ICW (there are dozens).  You step out and easily wrap a short line around the vertical line attached to the wall of the lock, and cleat it off hold your boat tight to the wall as you go up or down.  With the strong flow of water in a lock you'd be spinning around crashing into other boats unless you attach to a wall line, which is required.  Most folks doing the ICW are couples for this one reason, and even two people can have a tough time with this if they are not nimble enough to climb all over the boat or strong enough to hang on to that line.

The one thing I miss in my Ranger R25 is a helmsman's door; however, she was designed with a large opening window by the helm through which I can reach out and grab a line at my 3''x10' float which is chained to my mooring.  This is a poor man's dock, as it is a little platform out in the middle of the water, and moves around in the wind.  The floating platform/float gives you walking space alongside the boat so you can tie off front and aft ends to the float.  I configured a three-foot high PVC plastic tube gizmo on the edge of the float towards its middle.  When I untie the boat to go out, I leave the front line dock line dangling from the top of the gizmo about 36" up in the air.  When I return I use my thrusters to line the boat up parallel to the float and I just reach out the window and grab the dock line off the gizmo and tie it off on a cleat that Ranger conveniently placed directly below that big window, for this purpose.  But, this is no help when trying to grab a mooring ball line that is floating in the water in Edgartown, MA.  There, I have to approach the ball from down wind, pull up in front of it, put the transmission in neutral, and then run to the back cockpit of the boat and try to grab the mooring ball line as it passes by (as Alto is blown backwards by the wind).  If I grab the line, then I scramble along the side of the boat with the line bringing it forward to the bow cleat to attach it.  Normally this is not a big deal, but I may have to come around two or more times in strong wind to grab that mooring ball line.  If you single hand a lot consider a trawler-style boat with a helm door–like the Ranger Tug 29' which is, IMHO, the perfect boat.  Still trailerable, but it does cost some significant money.

You can also get a helm door in the Ranger 31 (big big bucks, $300k) which is not trailerable.  Then there is the coming R 41 which is closing in on $1,000,000, but it comes with a built-in washer and dryer somehow installed under the dinette which folds up!  It's all about space use.   I mostly single hand and I manage without the door.   The Nordic Tug is pretty cool, but that raised cabin where the wheel is takes up 1/3 of the salon and makes for like five steps down into the V-berth or to use the bath as I've explained.

When on the hook, in port and/or living aboard you will spend the majority of your time on the deck or in the salon area, and you will want maximum use of all your salon space where you will retreat at night or in bad or buggy weather.  Again, it sure is nice having the bathroom right up where you hang out.   Rangers are clever in making the salon maximally useable, and they actually had to fake the exterior look of a tug boat (which traditionally has a high, raised steering station) using paint lines and elevating the helmsman's area roofline (where the front windows are) a couple of inches to give you the visual effect of a separate helm cabin:

While I'm on the subject, aside from salty looks, trawler-style boats differ from the more common "express" cabin cruiser like a Sea Ray in another important way.  In an express cruiser, all your living space (kitchen, salon, bath and beds) are down deep in the hull in front of the helm, thus you usually have a few long skinny port lights (see the two tiny ovals on the cabin on the Sea Ray 27 Sundance below.  They usually have a couple big hatches above to let in light through the ceiling, but you are not going to see anything through those tiny port lights or hatches while sitting in a beautiful harbor like Edgartown.  In contrast,  I spend most of my time sitting at our dinette typing on my computer or puttering around in the kitchen looking out giant surrounding windows at everything happening in the harbor around me.  In a trawler only your V-berth is below, where you don't want light coming in while you sleep.  In my R25 even the head is up in the cabin area with  a huge window, as I've mentioned ad nauseam.

 In a Sea Ray style express boat you hang out on the expansive deck, fitted with lounges, to see what's going on, but that is all open area.  Rangers and other tugs allow living space that is bug free, air conditioned and heated which is useful for long stays or for liveaboards.  This is a huge advantage to a trawler or cruiser style boat, over an express style streamlined boat designed to go fast.  BTW, the in-board or out-board gas engine express model boats go fast, but it can cost you $100 in gas to get from Cotuit on Cape Cod, MA to Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard in half an hour.  I've seen people spend over $200 each way to go the six miles in 15 minutes.  Alto takes two hours, and costs about $6 in diesel fuel to make the same trip.  Need I say more.

Regarding trawler style boats you'll learn the difference between a planing hull (express boats) and semi-displacement (heavy fishing boats and small trawlers like Alto) and displacement hulls like large fishing boats and big trawlers.  Speed vs. stability is the difference, but I'll leave you to discover all that in your research.  The newer trawlers all go semi displacement.  Interesting "crossover" boats are the Beneteau Swift Trawlers ranging from 30' to 50' and starting at $300k brand new; here's the 30' which has a single 370 hp diesel Volvo engine, but no helm door:

You'll also be looking at the Caledon 25 & 27, Rosborough 25, Seaway 25, Osprey Pilothouse 26, Albin 27, and Chinese-made North Pacific 28.  For fun, check out the Great Harbour Yacht 37 which starts at $400,000.  That's cheap for a 37' foot boat, but looks weird because it is designed for interior space and is powered by two tiny Yanmar 54 hp diesels.  These boats are light, but extremely economical and funky (ugly?) to boot!

 

My favorites included the Nimble Wanderer 32 which comes in a sailboat or trawler configuration.  The mast steps down "fairly"easily.  Also very cool is the Nimble Kodiak 25 (Nimble Boats) which is also available in both configurations.  It only goes up to about 6-7 knots under power which killed it for me.  Com-Pac is making some great little boats, like their trailerable 23 Pilothouse, too: Com-Pac Yachts: Trailerable Cat Boats, Trailerable Cruisers, and Cruising Sailboats.  Then you, like all of us dreamers/planners, will look at all manner of houseboats, trimarans, etc.  Unless you are at sea most of the time, catamaran and trimarans won't make much sense, although they are wonderfully roomy on the dock if you can find a wide enough berth you can afford.  There is the "mast problem" if you do the loop or ICW which makes you beholden to when the dozens of bridges open.  On the other hand you can buy catamaran cruisers with diesel engines.  You'll go nuts for sure with the options, but it is a happy way to spend time dreaming.

For small power boats, invariably such a search leads one to the C-Dory website (C-Dory fuel efficient boats) for well-built outboard engine boats that are trailerable, and their owners' web site forum The C-Brats.  I spent many happy hours reading owner blogs I discovered on C-Brats of amazing trips that couples took in these little boats, often spending months aboard.  One day the C-Brats forum was talking about a cool new boat in 2007 being introduced by their friends at Ranger Tug, which got me to the Ranger.  C-Dory was associated with Ranger as their factories are both located in Washington state (not China) and I found my way to the TugNuts website.  I "lurked" on the TugNuts site for months learning everything I could before deciding I had to figure out how to buy one of their boats before I was too old to enjoy it.  After going to see the boats at the 2010 Newport Boat Show and meeting Mark Mansfield, their Sales Manager, he kindly informed me of left-over Rangers still on the market and led me to an affordable purchase at Turner Marine.  BTW I also met our local New England dealer, Peter Haywood of Winter Island Yacht Yard in Salem, MA.  I would not hesitate to buy a boat from this easy to talk with knowledgeable fellow who always has models available at his yard: Ranger at Winter Island yachts in Salem, MA.  Best service in the northeast too, and he is a diesel mechanic.

All About the Ranger Tug R25

Well after years of obsessing, I settle on the Ranger 25' "classic" model as best for my needs.  I tell you why even though ever case is different, but maybe I'll strike some common chords with your interests.

If you are not familiar with the Ranger Tug boat family, check out their web site: RangerTugs.com.  Alto is an example of the 2009 R-25 model, and is listed under Past Models on the web site (Ranger R25).  Alto is completely self contained with a generator which can either run the AC or the electric range shown below, but not both at the same time.  We use a butane stove on top of the glass range, and in 2019 we still only have nine hours on the generator.  The R-25 classic has a larger cabin, while the R-25sc (sports cockpit) has a larger cockpit and smaller cabin.  The former is more about living aboard, while the sports version has more deck space for fishing.  As cruisers we wanted the bigger cabin.  Eventually, Ranger made the R27 which had the classic's cabin and the sports model's cockpit–the perfect combination, but for more money, of course.

All these versions have a Yanmar diesel inboard engine.  Our boat's cabin is very comfortable for two people to liveaboard, even for weeks or months at a time. Note the counterspace increases even more when the helmsman's seat is tilted further when you are in port.  There is a large refrigerator/freezer which is electric and can be fully powered off our batteries which charge with twin 120 watt solar panels when we're on the hook, meaning we don't have to run the generator at all.  Our boat, unlike the R25sc, has two opening brass port holes as the larger cabin allows more space between the two large windows on either side of the cabin.

   

In fact, our classic model has 18" more counter space, and that extra 18" of cabin length allows for much better access into the mid-ship cabin for guests which we call the "cave."   It's big enough for one person to have privacy as there is a chart table that folds down over the top and a canvas curtain can be attached.  The V-berth is very comfortable when you add a three inch custom memory foam topper covered in waterproof fabric (Sunbrella) as we have.  Of course, the dinette lowers to form an additional double berth when needed.  Another curtain provides privacy for the V-berth.

  

Did I mention the front and rear thrusters?  See the thruster above the large bronze propeller, which BTW is fully protected by a skeg.  The draft is 24" so you can go anywhere in this boat.  Yes, there are after hydraulic stabilizers (trim tabs) as this semi-displacment hull can reach 16+ knots on a plane with the 150 hp diesel.

Standard options common to both the R25 classic and sports model are a full head with hot shower, powerful winch with room on the forward deck to maneuver when anchoring (you can drop and raise the anchor remotely from the helm), an ice well under the removable aft cockpit seat, and a large swim platform we all use to carry dinghies.  The helm features Garmin electronics with touch screen utility, radar which overlays directly on the Garmin's screen chart display (no looking back and forth between separate radar and chart screens, and all electronic controls for the engine with real time monitoring of all functions.  You can get a peak at that big opening window at the helm I've talked previously about using for reaching out to fix lines to docks and things, like my float's gizmo.

Notice the SS racks above on exterior pictures for mounting kayaks and bikes; Alto has two big solar panels up there powering her four group 28 batteries.  The AC unit reverses to produce heat, and of course there is forced hot air available and hot water when the engine is running.  There are heavy duty stainless steel hand rails everywhere with built in steps on both sides for easy entry when on docks.

    

The above picture shows how the straight-through cabin design offers space when the helm seats are folded up.  That's the bathroom aft to starboard, which has a skylight and a giant window in it.  Everything you need is "up" (not down, deep in the hull) with big windows to enjoy looking out.  When outside I sit with binoculars and just watch the boats, board paddlers, birds all going by.  No TV needed.  You can do the same from inside, or close the curtains and watch a move when the sun sets.  

One nice thing about the R-25sc models is that the engine is entirely out of the cabin and under the cockpit sole.  However, our classic model boat has better access to the front of the engine by removing the front of the step down into the cabin (see it under the door above), and thus the engine protrudes a bit under the living space and is accessible to change out the impeller or oil from the inside.  We have the largest, 150hp Yanmar Diesel, they install in these 25 foot boats.  Ranger experimented with different sizes, as small as a 75hp to 125hp Cummins in the past, but they finally settled on a Yanmar 150.  

The Yanmar 150 was a brand new engine, and they discovered that the tiny external metal oil pipe from the engine to the engine oil pressure sensor fatigued with vibration and could break.  A few did, Alto's among them, resulting in loss of oil and damage to the engine.  Yanmar later issued a recall to fix this problem, but it was too late for our boat.  So I towed her her to the Yanmar factory distribution site for New England where Yanmar technicians replaced the engine at no cost to us, so now we have a newer engine with hardly any hours on it.  I learned in the process that we have sophisticated bilge pumps in these boats that detect the difference between engine or diesel oil and water, and they won't pump oil overboard.

My oil pipe blew in the Keys a year after writing this blog, in the middle of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  You would have heard about Alto on the national news if her bilge pumps had discharged engine oil into the Largo Sound, one of the most protected places in the US.  Instead I wound up with several quarts of oil in the bilge, which I pumped out before bringing her to the distributor where the factory technicians steam cleaned out the engine compartment when they changed out the engine.  Of course, the Ranger factory staff (Andy) monitored every step of this to make sure Yanmar honored its warrantee, which they did, but I did lose a few weeks of boating in the Keys.  Shortly after my experience they issued a recall and replaced that little metal pipe on all Yammers and Ranger had no problems with them, since as you can see on the TugNuts site where all this stuff gets reported in detail.

One of the best reasons to buy a Ranger Tug is the incredible support from the factory and the community of tug owners who all come together on their shared bulletin board: TugNuts.  Well, enough about Rangers, lets go boating!  Move on to the next blog.

Buying Alto & Installing her Composting Head

Here's a picture of Alto, a 25' 7" long diesel powered Ranger Tug sitting at Turner Marine yacht brokers in Mobile, AL where we bought the boat brand new.  

I had been reading the many blogs about travels to the Bahamas and doing the Great Loop in Rangers, and knew this was the boat I wanted.  Trailerable, I could use a Ranger in the Cape Cod waters in the summer, and leave her in Florida for the winters.  This made financial sense as opposed to paying $100,000+ for a boat  and $5000+ for a slip, to only use the boat for about three months of the year on the Cape.  There is a good reason why folks charter boats in the Virgin Islands for a couple weeks per year instead of buying.  But, the Ranger's portability, along with having inexpensive reliable diesel power started making some financial sense–if I could use it year round.  You'll come to your own conclusions over time, but this may cross your mind, too.  Now my plan was to buy a used Ranger Tug and save some money.  But, two things changed my mind:

1.) At a boat show in New England, I ran into Mark Mansfield then V.P. of sales for Ranger Tugs.  I asked him about a used tug I was considering in Washington near the Ranger factory that was beat up from use in Alaska.  He told me that, instead, I should consider two new Rangers at a great prices that were sitting in Mobile, AL at the Turner Marine Yacht Yard.  As V.P. of sales, he knew that Turner had decided to end its representation of Rangers, although they loved them, since they concentrated on selling sailboats, principally Catalinas and Island Packets, and the Rangers were not selling for them.  So I called Turner's yacht broker immediately, and the price was good.  One boat had electronics and the other didn't, so I gave them a deposit on the one with all the Garmin gear and flew down to finish the deal after a sea trial which went great.

2.) The second issue that caused me to buy a new boat was the head had never been used.  Nah, I'm not that obsessive-compulsive that I couldn't use someone else's toilet!  This meant I had the option of getting rid of the pump head and installing a composting head.  And, since the 30 gallon waste tank had never been used, it could be converted to a spare fresh water tank, so now we carry double the amount (60 ga.) of freshwater, which is remarkable for a 25' boat.  Shower any time!  Another option is that I can convert it to holding an additional 30 gallons of diesel at any time in the future.  I knew from my reading that for cruising with limited in-port time near pump out boats, I really wanted a composting head.  Plus, tank space is important on a small boat.

So I paid the boat off and flew out back to Boston, leaving Alto with the skilled shop folks at Turner for the addition of a factory full bimini and installation of an Air Head composting toilet to replace the standard marine head.  Since the head was such a big deal in my boat purchase, I figure I better spend some time, here, explaining why it was so important to me, as it may prove important to you next time you buy a boat.  Those of you who are not into toilets can move on to the next blog in Alto's Adventures, but any serious cruising boater should know this stuff.

The Airhead isn't cheap ($1000+).  It is a composting toilet has been used on boats, campers, rural cabins and places without septic systems  for many years.  We had terrific support from the owner of the company.  He actually called me several times to make sure everything was going well.  I checked with Nature's Head, a competitor, but was disappointed with their knowledge (lack of) and quality of their product in comparison to the Air Head, although it very similar (actually copied from the Air Head by former employees) and only $100 less.  Why carry around dozens of gallons of gross, stinking waste until you find a place to pump it out?  Most boats have a macerator to chop up and pump the waste overboard, but the law says you need to be miles out to sea to do this, and we are inland cruisers.  During inspections the Coast Guard wants to see that your "Y-valve" is locked in the position to discharge into your holding tank, not overboard.   Of course, any standard pump out system requires a lot of plumbing and hoses and clamps not to mention usually a big waste tank (an expanding bladder is shown below) in comparison to the compact, self-contained Air Head:

Aside from removing the old toilet (we left the discharge and intake hoses in place, some dummy may buy Alto someday and want to reinstall a pump out head), the biggest part of the installation was running that tube you see hanging off the side of the Air Head to a 12v fan in a hole through the transom. The tank under the toilet holds a composting material (peat moss made from coco fiber, about $4 per brick from Amazon) which is mixed with the solid waste (i.e., poo) deposited in the toilet.  You break the brick it up in a plastic bag and then add a couple quarts of water.  Over night, it expands and becomes a crumbly slightly damp mulch which you then dump into the bucket that the air head sits on.  The removable front tank holds urine, which is the enemy of composting–so it is kept separate.

After each deposit you turn the crank on the side of the tank one half turn to agitate/mix the waste with air and peat moss to start a natural decomposing process.  The secret is aeration, as air is constantly pulled through the tank and then out that big tube to the aft end of the boat.  Of course, it can smell a bit for a few minutes after use, but the composting process quickly degrades the waste and the smell dissipates fast.  To keep the air moving you install a 12v computer fan at the end of the tube at the transom which "pulls" the air out continually through the toilet, into the composting tank and then out the transom fitting.  Yes the fan runs nonstop, but it draws very little current and you can install a simple solar panel to power it.  As Alto, has two 120 watt solar panels, capable of powering the refrigerator and electronics (we never use our generator to charge batteries) on the hook, there is no problem, even if the boat is stored on a rack.  Even indoor rack storage places usually have translucent panels in the roof for natural light, which charges the batteries.  Hell, I've discovered that the panels work even under the heavy white plastic wrap we cover the boat with over the winter.

             

Solids:

To deposit solids (poo) you push a lever at the last moment (God, don't forget!) to open a trap door over the bucket, and in it goes to mix with the cocoa fiber moss. Close the trap, move the crank half a turn and then forget about it.

Amazingly we empty the solids holding tank once per season.  We've discovered it will break down solid waste for a couple (two people) using it weekends for an entire season, or two people can use it daily for a month before needing to empty it and then recharge it with a new $4 moss brick!  For the season emptying, I just dump it in the garden.  If you use it daily, a smart plan is to buy a second tank.  I ran into folks on a catamaran who would switch out their tank when full and bungy it on their forward deck with a cover letting the composting continue.  By the time the head tank needed switching out again, the spare tank was fully composted and could be emptied anywhere, including overboard.  No smell no mess.  Imagine a month (or even a full season) without emptying your head of solids.  You can even get little packets of enzymes to speed the composting process so nothing but peat moss falls out of the tank when you empty it.

Liquids:

Urine is diverted to the tank in the front which you remove and pour into a marina's toilet, or just pour overboard since urine is sterile.  I had the Air Head people send me a spare urine tank with a fitting on the front bottom which latches to a thin 5/8" flexible plastic tube which I threaded through the old 2" discharge line from the head we removed.  The tubing runs all the way from the toilet, under the floor and to and through the old septic discharge outlet on the side of the boat.  I stuck in a 12v inline pump, and now every 2/3 days I turn on the pump for a couple minutes to pump the contents of the urine tank overboard.  Later, in the Florida Keys, the harbor master in Key West had no problem with this–and they have to be the most sensitive folks in the world to waste being discharged overboard.  I admit, with two people aboard, removing and carrying the liquids tank up to the marina bathroom to dump every day or two got old.  Not to classy, either, to explain to folks I met on the docks what I was carrying and why...  Pouring it overboard looked a little gross, so now it is all done discreetly and easily.  No muss, no fuss and most important no pump outs and double the normal amount of fresh water storage.

I posted some pictures of the installation in Alto in our blog under St. Johns–2nd Trip.  Enough about toilets!  Let's move on to Alto's first adventure, as I had her trailered from Mobile Alabama to a marina on the St. Johns River in Florida.  This is the longest river in Florida and, weirdly, it runs South to North with an average current of one or two knots.  It is loaded with manatee, so much of the river is no wake, or slow cruising.  Aside from the nature experience, this seemed like a good way to get my wife Gail accustomed to boating as she doesn't swim, is not super coordinated (hope she doesn't read this) and hates boats to begin with.  So there is an element of drama to Alto's adventure, too!  Stay tuned.