Our first move to being a boating family came when we purchased a sailboat in 1980. A friend of mine at work bought a larger sailboat and was selling his Sunchaser 22 named Halcyon. He showed me pictures of him sailing on Lake Minnetonka and I fell in love with it immediately. I was so passionate about it when I described it to Dee she gave in to taking a look at it. I had never sailed but was convinced it wouldn’t be that difficult to figure it out. I had already bought a small handbook that was akin to “Sailing for Dummies” and read it cover to cover.
Let’s be clear here. I didn’t think we were going to buy the boat. I mean, really. We live in Minnesota and this was February. The boat was on a rack and covered with snow. Besides, I almost drowned and have a healthy fear of the water. I love being on the water. I just don’t want to be under the water. The owner convinced me the boat would not turtle and, before we knew it we had purchased a boat in a snow bank.
We learned to sail through trial and error and eventually moved her to a marina outside Lake City, MN. We sailed Halcyon on Lake Pepin until 2001 when we joined Dee’s brother, Wayne, and sister-in-law, Ann, in ownership of a C&C 27 sailboat which we named Whisper. This was a huge step up for us. It has a galley, sleeping accommodations for 5 and an inboard auxiliary. We could now live on board during the weekends and sail all around Lake Pepin.
We bought Whisper in the winter. Do you sense a pattern here? This boat was shrink-wrapped in a boat yard. Winter coats, hats, gloves and snow. While Lee and Ann waxed romantic about the sailing we could do, my brother and I blew warm air into our hands and wondered what we were doing there. Once again someone convinced me to make the jump. I grew to love sailing and enjoyed our time anchored out in the water away from phones, fax machines and noise.
We enjoyed our time sailing with Wayne and Ann. They eventually moved out east and we bought them out. Sometime during all this sailing a dream started to develop for Dee and me. We talked a lot about how neat it would be if we could spend longer periods of time on the boat and go to further destinations. We had discovered the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association by then and read quite a bit about it. What an adventure. I suggested we might retire onto a boat some day.
Excuse me? You want to do what? We have a large house and you want to condense us down to a 40-foot boat? What about my Santa collection, our antiques, our wine cellar? On the other hand, I do love being on the water, and we really won’t need all this space when we retire and it would allow us to travel. No property taxes, snow to shovel…I could get used to that idea.
Shortly before Wayne and Ann moved out east this new guy, Trevor Croteau, showed up at the marina with his Boston Whaler and was slipped next to us. We got talking to Trev as boat neighbors do and we shared our dream about going on the loop and eventually living aboard. We had been looking at trawlers for some time knowing we would have to move to something other than a sailboat to go on the loop. So it was natural to share with him what we were thinking about size, layout, and systems on board.
I should probably interject here that I did not participate in the discussions about size, layouts and systems on board. I was more interested in comfort, convenience and safety.
We had some projects at home that we needed to take care of in 2012 and decided not to put Whisper in that year so we could focus on getting the projects done. Little did we know that Trevor had used that time to do his own tug hunt, settling in on a Lord Nelson Victory Tug (Hull #33). We weren't in the harbor when he had brought HJORTIE to the marina but when we showed up in the spring to start the new season in 2013, we saw this beautiful tug sitting there in one of the end slips on our dock. Not knowing whose it was we sauntered down to take a look. Trevor stuck his head out, grinned broadly and spent the next two hours introducing us to his tug.
I have to admit I was impressed. By this time Lee and I had searched on-line, in magazines and on bulletin boards for the “perfect boat”. We were narrowing our search by “nice to” (e.g. two staterooms, a fly bridge, full size refrigerator), “needs to” (e.g. hot and cold running water, a shower and a real bed), and “nuts to” (space for 40 people, a wet bar in the cockpit). Lee wanted a diesel engine; I wanted space for each of us to have some alone time if we needed it. I also wanted to be able to have all eight of our family members on it at the same time.
Dee and I had been spending a lot of time looking at various trawler designs trying to decide what we wanted in a boat. We knew the size range we wanted. We still were wrestling with one engine or two at the time, but we knew it was not going to be fast. We wanted a boat that was “salty” looking like our sailboat was, and thought we were going to have to settle for a conventional trawler. Still, we really liked tug-style boats. We had looked at Nordic Tug, American Tug, and Ranger. We also looked at the Florida Bay Coaster. We looked on Yacht World listings and found the Pilgrim 40-a boat that had some possibilities for us. We still were not ready to move forward with a purchase.
By this time I was fully engaged in the search, but thought our purchase was still 3 years away. Plenty of time. No need to rush, thought I.
Trev shared the LNVT.org site with us and we joined the group in the spring of 2013 as tug owner wannabes. We had access to some real information and a tug right in our harbor to look at. We read every page of every issue of the Tuggers newsletter. I scoured over the online prints and drawings, something that really appealed to the engineer in me. We viewed every photo in the library. We looked at every hull number listing. We read every blog that owners had up. We talked for hours with each other about them. The Lord Nelson Victory Tug had almost everything we were looking for in a trawler including an active association that was ready and willing to share anything and everything with us.
Summer was passing and so was the boating season. Trevor told us he would be hosting the LNVT Midwest Rendezvous in Hudson and was really busy getting HJORTIE polished up for the event. We left him to it but kept talking and dreaming. We were at the harbor on our boat during the rendezvous and decided to drive up to Hudson to see if we could spot the group. I would classify us at this point as official LNVT groupies or pests, depending on your point of view. We drove up to Hudson to the marina and parked outside. We spotted Stephanie Croteau and her daughter walking up from the dock, called out to them and introduced ourselves. We said we just came up to see if any of the LNVT owners at the rendezvous had a bit of time to talk to us about their boats, but we didn’t want to interrupt their rendezvous. They invited us to join them and introduced Al and Rie Peterson (KEDGE #43) and Joe and Arvilla Glinski (OUR VILLA #56). They were all very open with us and took the time to answer the many questions we had about the tugs. We took pictures and I tried not to drool too much. We went back home filled with more fertilizer for the dream.
I was nervous about taking up so much of the tug owners’ time, but they were incredibly patient and gracious and invited us down to look at their boats. All of the tugs were 37 feet long and decorated slightly differently, but all were cozy, had hot and cold running water and real beds. I was starting to visualize Lee and me living on one.
One weekend after the rendezvous, Trev invited me to go with him to run HJORTIE up river to Red Wing, about a 20-mile trip. Dee was working and could not go with but I jumped at the chance. Trev took HJORTIE out of harbor and then asked me if I wanted to pilot her. He did not have to ask twice. He guided me at the controls, helped me understand the gauges and took pictures of “captain” Lee at the helm. I said Dee and I are sailors. We like sailing because of the peace and solitude we experience while under way. I felt a similar peace and solitude piloting HJORTIE. I was totally hooked. This was the boat design I wanted. Now, I had to convince Dee it was the one she wanted.
The boating season ended for us in the first week of October. We put Whisper away and went home. Once home we started seriously looking at the tugs for sale on the LNVT site. Engine-wise the tugs were basically divided into two groups; those that had BMW engines no longer made and those that had Cummins or another engine brand still being made. I was a bit concerned that it would be difficult to find replacement parts if needed for the BMW engine. I quickly learned that V12 Engineering in Canada could get any part I needed if I was willing to wait a bit as some parts were not stocked but could be shipped from Germany. While BMW does not make the D150 engine any more, Mercury who bought out the line still supports the engine. That eliminated any worries I had. Still, I started to make a list of questions I would ask an owner regarding the engine. Again, the LNVT site was invaluable for researching weak and high maintenance issues regarding the engines and supporting systems.
I’m a nurse practitioner, not an engineer. I left the engine concerns to Lee. My questions were more basic. Will it swamp or tip over in bad weather? (I’m no dummy. I saw “The Perfect Storm). Is 37 feet enough space for us for long periods of time? We both love to cook. Is the galley sufficient? What about storage space?
Our next issue was sorting the list out between salt water and fresh water boats. Fresh water boats seem to have less stress on any of the water systems, particularly engine cooling systems. Corrosion issues also seem much less prevalent in boats that are in fresh water. It also generally meant finding a boat closer to our homeport. The list of boats we could look at got shorter and shorter. The goal for me was to narrow the list down to boats we could afford to spend money on to visit. The first boat to fall in this category was CONCINNITY, Hull #17, owned by Joe Fahndrich. It was located in Saugatuck, Michigan. I wanted to go and see it and I made plans to do this the first weekend in November. I told Trevor I was going up to look at the boat and he helped me to extend my list of questions that I should ask Joe or the broker. Dee could not go with me since she was working on the weekend, so, I worked out a trip where I could visit the boat in Michigan and visit a client in Wisconsin on the way back.
Hull #17 was everything the broker said it was in the listing. Listings are nice but actually having firsthand knowledge of the boat is better. The boat was being kept inside a heated building plugged into shore power. I was allowed to be on the boat without an escort and used the time to examine every nook and cranny I could get to. I took as many pictures as I could and I turned on every instrument that would light up. I obviously could not run the engine or check wet systems as the boat was out of the water on a cradle, but I was able to see everything else. The boat was pristine. Joe was not able to meet me but I did get to go through all his maintenance records. Joe kept really good records of everything he had done to the boat and everything was in chronological order, very easy to follow. What a great steward of the boat. I left for home knowing “this was the boat”.
You know how it is when you have a plan and the plan gets slightly altered? Remember my plan to buy a boat in three years? Well, that changed right after Lee got home from Michigan. I pride myself on being a cautious, financially conservative realist. But let’s face it. Life is short, we love the water and being together, sailing is hard work and Lee is not getting any younger. My one hesitation to purchasing this particular boat was I wanted to wait until after a sea trial.
As soon as I got home we started working on two things, getting a marine survey scheduled and getting approved for financing. Financing was the most difficult part of the whole process and wasn’t finalized until after the New Year. This made Joe understandably nervous as two previous attempts to sell Concinnity had fallen through. While we were in the process of getting our financing cleared, two other perspective buyers jumped in and tried to purchase the boat without contingency. This forced us to remove all of our contingencies and thankfully our financing came through in time. Matt Peterson, the broker at Tower Marine, has been absolutely great to work with. He agreed the sale should not be final until after a sea trial, and He has kept money in escrow to cover anything that goes wrong. We don’t expect to have any issues and the sea trial will be a time we can meet with Joe to go over the systems he has so carefully kept up. We plan to bring our video camera along to video his instructions as he gives them. Matt will also be there. I can’t wait to be in the water on our little tug for the first time.
I needed to at least see the boat before I signed on the dotted line, so Lee and I made a quick trip to Michigan on January 17, 2014 to look over the boat and be there for the survey. Guess what I saw. Snow. This time the boat was in a heated barn and up on a cradle, but outside there was snow and I wore my winter coat, hat and mittens. The survey went smoothly and Joe stopped by to meet us. We could tell he was very proud of his tug and wanted to be sure in his own mind that he was handing her over to the right people. He spent two hours telling us about his time on her and reassured me she handles rough seas like a champ. (Not that I’m worried or anything). Lee has already bonded with the boat. Our visit with Joe quickly moved me in that direction.
The sea trial is scheduled for April 11th and I will be there with my life jacket at the ready. Joe will take us out, review all of the systems once again, and turn over the keys. I told Lee if the boat sinks it still belongs to Joe. If it floats it’s ours. Lee just smiled.
Once the sale is final, Trevor, Joe Glinski, Wayne and I will bring our tug back to Lake City via the water to Hansen’s Harbor Marina. There we will officially rename it JACK ROBERT after our fathers, both of whom were in the Navy. We have a lot to learn about tugs and will miss sailing, but we look forward to many adventures on our new boat. We are grateful to the LNVT association for stepping forward to help and for being so welcoming. They have removed much of my anxiety about this purchase.
By buying Jack Robert early we will have time to get to know her before we retire and head out on the Great Loop. So, once again, we are buying a boat in a snow bank. Not such a bad way to buy a boat if you are the adventurous type. Would anyone like to buy a slightly used, well-loved sailboat named Whisper? We could sell her to you in the summer.
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