Great Loop & Grady

[Bob's Cay]

I friend of mine and I were having a discussion about the Great Loop and the type of boat that would be best for the trip. The discussion centered around his boat, a Grady 330 Express and how it would fare on the Great Loop.

To me a driving consideration would be the choice between a boat to serve as your accomodations or staying mainly in hotels. The 330 would seem to serve best as the later but certainly offering the choice to stay on board a night or two. The advantage of the Grady would certainly be speed and handling over a similar sized or larger trawler or cabin boat. The Grady would offer the benefits of outboard power for shallow areas while still being stout enough for bad weather or crossing bays or Great Lakes. The helm area would be comfortable for the daily ride while having a nice cabin, galley, and head. Storage would be good on the Grady as would the range. I think that if you decide on shore accomodations, the 330 would in fact be a great choice.

Have any of you made the Great Loop in a Grady? If so, how did it go for you? What would you recommend? And for 330 owners, have you done and extended cruising and how did the boat perform?

 

[ahill]

Please read the Loveshack report about cruising the great loop.

http://site.loveshackcruising.com/

Fuel burn on any outboard would be significant. On shore stays would add to that.

 

[LUNDINROOF]

We never made the great loop but one day we hope to. We did do a practice cruise last year from Columbus, Ms. to Pass Christian, MS. to see how the lower end of the river portion of the loop would be.

We had three couples in our 283 center console Grady and never planned to spend the night on the boat but made reservations at the only two accommodations available on this portion of the river. We made reservations over the Internet. Long story short, these were the two sleaziest, dirty hotel rooms I have ever stayed in, in my life. My wife didn't speak to me for two weeks after the trip and didn't come out of the shower for three days after the trip was over. Plan on spending a lot of nights in whatever boat you take on the trip and do not believe everything you read on web-sites.

The previous post about fuel cost is seconded. Our trip was about 400 miles and took about 300 gallons of fuel @ around $4/gal. We made the trip in three days. Someone I spoke to made the same trip in a much larger/more comfortable "loop" boat in 5 days and used around 60 gallons including running the generator.

With my limited experience, I would have to say that Grady's are great for a lot of things but living on even the largest would be tough for four or five months, and expensive too.

I think the trip would be a great adventure and like I said, its on my "bucket" list. Good luck.