Running the Coast Again - The Adventure Begins

A little background.  My friend Pam has just taken delivery of a new 2014 Grand Bank 54 Heritage, The boat is located in Dania Beach and as I write this is in the final stages of preparation for a cruise north to Newport, RI.

Grand Banks 54 Heritage EU

Diana and I met Pam when we moved from H-dock at Chicago's Belmont Harbor to I-Dock in the spring of 2007.  This was a year after we purchased the 2006 Sea Ray Sundancer.  At the time she owned a 40 foot Sea Ray Sedan Bridge.  She later upgraded to a 2008 47 Sea Ray Sedan Bridge. Pam is unique in the boating world as she single hands her own boat.

Pam hosted our 2010 Great Loop going away party on October 2 on her boat.  In attendance were Mark Fidanza, our next slip neighbor, Dick and Cathy Hoffman, Mark, Wendy, Mike and Brad.  On October 3, Dick followed Guided Discovery out of Belmont and took photos of our departure.  Most recently, Mark visited us with his children, Jon Marco and Helena, in Sarasota and again connected with us last week in Hingham.  Dick, as you recall, crewed for me when we ran the boat north from Fort Pierce to Hingham (See the three part series "Onward to Hingham" published two weeks ago).

We made a lot of good friends on I-dock.

Now to the 2014 Grand Banks Heritage 54 EU.

• Overall Length: 54.4 feet
• Max Length: 61.6 feet (with bow pulpit and swim platform)
• Max Beam: 17.9 feet
• Max Draft 5.0 feet
• Air Draft: 25' 11"
• Displacement: 83,335 pounds (1/2 load)
• Fuel Capacity: 1,500 gallons
• Water Tank: 270 gallons
• Holding Tank: 100 gallons
• Engines: MTU S-60 825 HP
• Top Speed: 21 knots
• Cruise: 17 knots

So how does this boat compare to the 63 Outer Reef?  While the GB is shorter by 9 feet she is wider by 9 inches.  Grand Banks says she has the space of a 65.  Beam makes a big difference.  Hence, she is almost as roomy, overall, as the 63.  That extra 9 inches translates into some very desirable features such as dual helm seating on the flybridge, slightly more room in the salon and a settee with a large table across from the galley.  What's missing is the lazerette. a complete jitchen and the abundant storage found on the 63 (which makes sense given that we have 9 more feet of length).

Like the 63, she has an open layout on the main deck, which gives a feeling of increased space.  We love the open layout on the 63 and it works well here.  She also has a walk-in engine room with well organized storage space.

54 open layout looking forward from the galley to the pilothouse

Galley and dining area with settee and two chairs (comfortable seating for 5)

Galley equipped with stove top, dishwasher, drawer type refrigerators and microwave
The double draw freezer is located forward of the sink

Another view of the dining area

Salon looking aft

This is a three stateroom boat, which is, again, very similar to our 63.

Master stateroom

Master head and shower

Guest head and shower

Looking from the master stateroom at the washer, dryer, refrigerator, storage and accessed to the engine room

The 54 has significantly more power.  The 63 has two 503 HP Cats.  The 54 has two 825 MTUs.  1006 HP versus 1650 HP.  This produces some interesting differences.  While both are displacement hulls, the 54 is considerably faster than the 63 with a top speed of 21 knots as compared to 13.5 knots.  The 54 can cruise at 17 knots.  However, that comes with a significant increase in fuel consumption, which should be in 60 GPH range.  That provides 22.5 hours of cruise time and a range of 382 NM with a 10% reserve (based on 1350 gallons).  The 63 really does not have a rational cruise speed beyond 8.5 knots.

Walk-in engine room with 6 feet of head room

By comparison, the 63 running at full tilt burns 50 gallons per hour and with a 10% reserve can run for 23.4 hours at 13.5 knots.  That yields a range of 316 NM.  The 54 has 16% more range at cruise, which could come in handy to run toward shore in an emergency or to seek shelter from a storm.  Put the 54’s “pedal to the metal” and her 21 knot top speed will produce 17 hours of running time and 354 NM of range with a 10% reserve (at 80 GPH with 1350 gallons usable).  Again, much better emergency capability.

Running the 54 at trawler speeds makes the most sense.  The 825 HP MTUs burn about 10.0 gallons per hour at a speed of 9.0 knots. That yields 150 hours of run time or 1215 NM range (with the 10% reserve).  This is very similar to the 63’s capability of 1178 NM at 8.4 knots; her best range versus speed setting.  Essentially Grand Banks, by installing bigger engines, gets the best of both worlds. She can run very efficiently at trawler speeds and move fast when she has to.

Displacement of the boats is very similar.  Grand Banks represents displacement for the 54 at half load or 83,334 pounds.  The 63’s empty weight is 73,000 pounds.  Add 4550 lbs for 650 gallons of fuel and 1600 lbs for potable and black water (200 gallons) and the 63 comes in at 79,150 pounds.  Both boats are semi-displacement fully stabilized trawlers.  They should have very similar see keeping characteristics.  We’ll see if this is true as we experience the different seas on our run.

Cruising Options:

The next question is whether Pam decides to take a leisurely run up the coast with stops every night or run the distance to Newport, which in this case is 1308 nautical miles.  The theoretical difference is 6.5 additional days (i.e., 13 days with stops every night versus 6.5 days running 24 hours per day).

I say theoretical because in long distance cruising the wildcard is weather.  As readers know, I like to take advantage of weather windows and prefer to run at 24 hours/day with good (well OK good enough) weather rather than sit at a dock overnight.  The weather is going to change.  It is rare to get 6 days in a row of favorable weather (which I've come to define as winds under 20 knots and seas under 5 feet).

The run up the east coast is further complicated by the ever present Cape Hatteras.  The combination of its location at the convergence of the Gulf Stream and Labrador currents and its 17 mile Diamond Shoal, that must be circumnavigated, present an interesting obstacle.  Running the Cape with at trawler speed (8.5 knots) requires traveling at night to cover the 200 NM distance between Morehead City and VA Beach as there are no usable inlets.  The alternative is three days on the ICW.  Unfortunately, when bad weather (i.e., high winds producing heavy seas) dictates the ICW route the likelihood that the run will be more than 3 days increases due to the Alligator River Swing Bridge and Currituck Sound, both of which are effected by high winds.  Throw in a 3 mile long river with 5 feet of depth at MLW and you have lots of potential for delay. 

In any case, I’m not up for a leisurely cruise up the coast.  Been there, done that (actually two times – the Great Loop on the entire 1000 mile ICW and the 2014 spring run to Hingham – which took 35 days).  However, Pam needs help.  So I volunteered 6 days which she can use as she pleases.  If we run only during the day we will comfortably make Charleston by Wednesday (June 3).

Pam, at my suggestion, installed a complete Garmin system (Chartplotter, AIS, Sonar, Weather and Radar).  I hope to share with her my "Garmin" knowledge, which should have the benefit of greatly shortening her learning curve.  That said, the Garmin system is incredibly user friendly.  I've managed to master the system over the last 15 months but at times it was stressful due to sea conditions and the need to solve a problem.  Rarely, have I used the owner's manual, which was helpful when I needed it but not well indexed.

Pilot House equipped with Garmin 8215s, autopilot and GMI-10,

Now back to weather.  The forecast as of Friday morning for the coast between Fort Lauderdale and VA Beach shows a ridge of high pressure over the Appalachian Mountains that will continue though weekend.  The high is forecasted to produce winds of 15 to 20 knots and sea of 3 to 5 feet with a wave period of 9 seconds over the Florida waters.  At Cape Hatteras the forecast calls for a frontal boundary to move southeast through the waters by midweek. Winds are predicted to be 5 to 10 knots with seas of 3 feet through Wednesday when they build 3 to 5 on slightly higher winds.

Again, I consider the conditions along the Florida coast as reasonable and the weather north of Florida to VA Beach as very favorable.  Assuming an early Friday AM departure on Guided Discovery I would be rounding Cape Hatteras Monday evening on calm seas (a first).  The potential to go from VA Beach all the way to Newport is very favorable assuming one is willing to put up with 3 to 5s.  

Oh well, we'll (or shall we say, she'll) see what the weather brings after Wednesday.

Written by Les.