Day 2 of my trip. Pulled up anchor in Arcadia, stopped for gas in Frankfort, MI. Then cruised by the Sleeping bear dunes national park in my Ranger Tug R-27 OB.
Love your use of the drone...really adds a lot to your videos. I like using our drone when we are out in our RV and going into new areas and needing a little recon around the upcoming corner!
I really appreciate your approach to these videos. There's not much on RU-vid about navigating and passage making the great lakes, so you're filling a valuable void.
Thank you! its hard to find days to do something like that as the weather needs to be perfect with a low activity day so i don't have to focus on watching other boaters
I will at some point but the boat is not easy to access for me right now due to it being winter. as for meals i am not a very good cook so i do a lot of simple sandwiches, frozen meals, pizzas, chicken etc. IT has a galley with a small fridge and a propane oven and cooktop. it also has an electric grill that i never ended up using on the back because I wanted the storage space instead. It also has a small but nice enclosed bathroom with an electric head!
There are really bad days on the lakes. I was fortunate on most of this trip and watch wave forecasts closely. i think it was day 3 i caught some rough stuff. and coming up on day 14 or 15 I will be caught in 6 ft waves.
I get about 1.3-1.4 MPG which give me roughly a 180 mile range while having a safety margin. I also was carrying 15 gal extra in cans on lake superior as safety. and if I was in a tough spot I could slow down to about 5mph and get 4MPG.
the 27 comes with a bow thruster as standard. in my opinion it is underpowered if you have any sort of wind but works well in calm weather. there is no stern thruster because the outboard generally gives good maneuverability. sometimes when docking I tie a midline then turn the OB toward the dock and slowly use reverse to bring the stern around. I would recommend seeing if a local dealer has one you may be able to walk around and see how the space fits you. bigger boat shows as well. one thing to keep in mind is that there is a long lead-time if you buy new. you could potentially be waiting over a year for a brand new one. if you are buying used i would always recommend getting a survey.
A ranger tug could be a great option for you. lots of people do the loop in rangers! i found the 27 easy to solo after getting the rhythm down. a C-dory would also be a good option. the problem with both of those brands is that the used market for them is hot and it can be hard to find one.
Awesome videos! I’m a new subscriber living in west MI. Spent many years fishing out of Grand Haven and hoping to one day do what you’re doing so I’m loving the videos. Is this your first experience with the ranger? I see some older ones for sale with the yanmar diesel inboard,wondering if you have a comparison?
During this video it was my second year with my Ranger Tug and I have had it for 3 years total. Before I bought the boat i had a chance to check out both the OB and diesel models. they were totally different i think the diesel had more space up in the cabin but the bathroom was in the main pilothouse where in the OB the bathroom was also up front in the cabin. I bought my boat from Reed Yacht sales which has a branch in WI but their main facility is in Grand Haven! I would say it would be worth a call to see if they can get you onboard both the models so you can get a feel for them. There's really no comparison to getting on one to see how it fits you.
