Everglades Challenge - heaviest solo boat?

I have seen messages on this forum about the Everglades Challenge, so I was wondering if anyone here knew what the heaviest boat that has completed the event, crewed by either 1 or 2 people.

 

The EC-22 by Graham Byrnes was light for it's size, but about the biggest I've seen used in this race. Considering the hand launch requirement, even with rollers (like Graham used) once you're over say 1,500 pounds of displacement (loaded for the race), you're really pushing it. I would expect the dry hull weight of the EC-22 to be in the 500 pound range, but this isn't how she is when pushed off the beach.

 

More than a little bit of the challenge has to be negotiated over very thin water. Draft is an important consideration therefore. So light weight is a desireable characteristic for a challenge boat.

 

Probably the sea Pearl is the heaviest boat to enter the challenge. Total displacement of EC22 during the race is approximately 1100lbs.

 

I wish I still had my Hunter 20 and could eneter that race but she weighed closer to 2000 lbs with gear and though shallow-draft she would have been too heavy for me to hand-launch. EC is a cool race though...last year there was very rough conditions and it was every bit a great challenge to be sure judging from the reports...

 

The trip across Florida Bay is in very, very shallow water. Think an inch deep to a few inches deep.

Seems to me that everything about "heavy" is the opposite of what is appropriate.

Why do you want to do it in a heavy boat?

 

Since when is 2000 lbs with gear a heavy boat for a 20-footer...? That boat drew less than 2 feet..maybe 20 inches loaded...It would be fun to do that race someday with another person whatever race category the weight or an extra person along would put me into...but I sold her when I found a boat I like alot better...

My "new" micro-cruiser is 24 feet long and 4,000 lbs with a lot safer feel to it than my Hunter 20...And though I honestly havent sailed on many I'd say that most production boats under 20 feet in rough seas are not my ideal for the type sailing I like to do.

 

The Everglades challenge is not about what sailing you like to do but the sailing, or in some cases rowing or towing, you have to do to get to and then through Florida Bay. With 2' of draft on a 2000# boat, you may be waiting on a southwest wind and high water to even get past some of the flats. That is assuming you get past the other filters that the organizers put in your path along the way. Not to mention having to unstep and restep your mast to get under a low bridge.

Best learn what the event is all about before making such rash predictions.

 

I was going to mention the bridge Tom, 'ya beat me to it . . . rowing a Hunter 20 can't be fun, maybe poling it across the flats? How about modified snow shoes and dragging it across . . . so how long did Roo sit in the mud that one year?

 

Don't remember the exact time but it was pretty long, at least half a day and probably more. Part of that was because their fleet position would not reasonably change by slogging all night with the makeshift snow(mud) shoes. This with a boat that could reduce draft to a few inches too. When there is an eastern quadrant wind, not only must you short tack but there is very little water because the wind blows it out and you are reduced to searching from channel to channel with dead ends.

 

If you look back at my first post..I never said I wanted 'to do the race it in a heavy boat" like the follow-up poster seemed to imply...but this thread has become about me and doing the EC in a boat I didn't say I wanted to try and do it in...so..I am confused...and hoping someone will get the thread back about the EC and not about the boat I used to have that I wish was light enough to do the EC...it wasn't..though I suspect it's draft of 18 inches would be close to adequate with a good study of the tidal requirements on a given day...I guess if I had a choice I think I'd try to take a sailing canoe...alone on the EC...it is simple and fast...and more what the E.C. is set up for...but I have been in a different state-of-mind since I got the S-24 as she opens up the deeper areas of the Gulf of Mexico for me after staying near shore for so long with Buc-18's,Hunter 20's and canoe's and so forth...back bays still beckon...but the solitude of the Everglades lies 90 miles south of me....so I head due west and into the deeps of the Gulf to find it right now..happy sailing !

 

Easy, I don't think anyone is suggesting you're crazy, though we all did have a little fun, possably at your expense. It wasn't serious nor intended to insult.

Tom and I are very familiar with the race. I was talking with Graham just before his last EC run and he and I discussed specific portions of the race, that I had personal experience with. In particular, if he could sneak through Caxambas Pass, into Barfield bay and cut through to Gullivan Bay, saving considerable time rounding the bottom of Cape Romano.

 

Par,
I am not that familiar with the particulars of theEC race though i did follow the last one online last year a fair bit. The race is going to favor the crew or sailor who can go without alot of finesse and pomp and circumstance and someone who knows the best routes...has access to up-to the-every-local-NOAA-report weather...and some luck...something you can hand launch seems right and 1,100 or 1200 lbs or so sounds fair...there has to be a weight requirement I think....I know I will never do that competition/race..but if I was up for one...the EC would be it...I am still competing against myself enough that I don't need any more competition...The FLA Ultimate Challenge is simply out-of-the question though...I think a race to the Dry Tortugas would have been just as cool as the FUC on the whole and offered something a bit more offshore...but just my .02 cents...both the EC and the FUC appeal to and encourage small-boat sailing which is A-OK with me...

 

souljour2000,

I don't think anyone was trying to put you down and certainly I was not. If you will read the first paragraph of your post #7 as someone other than yourself would read it, you will see where we are coming from. That is what I was answering. I have no doubt that the Hunter 20 could complete the sailing part of the event but it would require a supreme allotment of weather luck. Under the rules as they now exist and in any practical sense, such a boat could never get off the beach at the start though. The Sea Pearls and EC22 are getting near the limit of what is practical for that.

These are only opinions though they may be based on some level of exposure to the event.

 

I know someone well who has started three times, finished once. As time goes on, he gets more careful about weight, not less. The boat he's raced three times weighs less in lbs -- including him and all his gear -- than he spreads in square feet of sail area.

And the new boat he built this year is DRAMATICALLY lighter: about 20 lbs. Yes, twenty. (We'll see if he uses the new boat). He is super focused on weight primarily because of the inescapable time one is in VERY thin water, and the need to push/walk/pole/paddle from time to time. Its wilderness, not a bay. So different "tools" are needed.

Also, the eventual goal is the around Florida challenge, which includes a 40 mile portage. Seems like the most compelling race course!

But its obviously taking YEARS to get the hang of this kind of competition! So go ahead and try the 2000 lb boat, you'll learn a lot and hopefully have a lot of fun. Fun is the reason to do this after all!