Too Tall & Too Deep for Comfort: ICW Part 1

Our draft was too deep for the Erie Canal, and our mast height was a concern for the ICW. We’ve had a bit of a stressful day on E today. Reports of high water in the ICW have us concerned about our 63’ mast going under 65’ fixed bridges with high water from 1’ - 1 1/2’ higher than usual. We made the decision to spend the day gathering as much information as possible, removing masthead instruments, and attempting to measure our air draft.

1st we dropped a line to the deck from the top of the mast, measured gunnel to water line and eyeballed the bit from gunnel to mast deck, it slopes, so complete accuracy is not possible, but I think we are close. Having done this a few different ways, also measuring base of mast on the inside and estimating where our waterline hits in the salon, we came up with 2 measurements that were within an inch of one another. 61’ is our approximate air draft without instruments. We have left the VHF antenna up, and it’s about 15’. We left it up for 2 reasons, 1 - it’s bendy, 2 - we forgot to send the required tool up with Nick to remove it and I didn’t feel like hoisting him 61’ up in the air again, and it’s bendy. 😂

We are left to ponder why the air draft could be 2’ shorted than what’s documented by Hylas, but we have some thoughts, such as a boat set up for cruising and all the cruising gear, like full water and fuel tanks, anchors and chain rode, a washing machine, and of course, my sewing machine, makes the boat sit lower in the water.

Of course, this train of thought leads me to naturally wonder, if my air draft is 2’ shorter than documented, wouldn’t my water draft be 2’ deeper? I know that it isn’t, so that math doesn’t work. We are at most 6” deeper than documented, at around 7’. So, maybe Hylas did include some mast head instruments in the calculations of the mast height (a standard VHF antenna is 15”, and I’m sitting about 6” deeper in the water… that math works out to about 2’). I’ll continue to try to get the official word on that, but for now, we are feeling much more confident that Elysium can get under the 65’ vertical clearance fixed bridges, even with the high water we currently have here.

After all these mental and physical gymnastics, I’d be lying if I didn’t share that we have both been wondering if we should have just gone ‘round Cape Hattaras & the graveyard of the Atlantic. I really loved this ICW route in 2020, August, and wanted to do it again. I had assumed it would be fairly straightforward, having already done it before. And that, my friends is faulty logic when boating. Always get up to date navigational information, preferably from local boaters, marinas, and professionals, regardless of how many times you’ve done it. Things can change season to season, or day to day, with the water and even with your own boat.