Any interest in a cruise-in/trailer-in in the midwest?

S

South lake

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Fellow Tugnutters in the Midwest...

Deb and I live on a 13,500 acre lake in West Central Ohio, Grand Lake St Marys. We keep our R25 here, docked in back of our house when we don't trailer it for a trip.

There is an annual event held here called Lakefest which is quite popular. the 2016 Lakefest event is scheduled for July 22nd through July 24th. Lot's of rides, food, fireworks, etc.

I'm reaching out to both Ranger Tug owners and C-Dory owners (I had a CD25 before the Ranger Tug) to see if there would be interest in having a gathering here for the Lakefest weekend. We'd have some competition for the "cute boat" category as it's the largest annual gathering of Amphicars in the country.

There's a pump out station on the lake and a couple of public dock harbors that we could reserve. The docks don't have shore power at the moment but I've spoken to some community leaders to see if they could make that happen for us if there was enough interest. There are very nice launch ramps and I can look into truck/trailer parking if anyone wanted to have their rigs stored away from the ramp. There are several restaurants around the lake and good hotel accommodations for those who would want them. The state park has an excellent campground and some very nice shelter house facilities that I can reserve for a cookout.

Grand Lake St Marys is an easy drive with Interstate 75 and US 33 intersecting just to the east. Celina, Ohio is on the Northwest corner of the lake and that's where Lakefest is held. St Marys is on the Northeast side. The plan would be to reserve the docks in the Celina Lighthouse harbor but it's all dependent on how many boats we might have and arranging power to the docks.

My first order of business is to gauge the interest and that's why I'm posting this. It's not as big an excursion as the North Channel or the Gulf but it's a nice way to spend a summer weekend in the heartland and show off these great boats.

So, if you have interest in attending, please let me know.

Thanks,
 
Jeff: That sounds like an interesting event. We have not yet planned our summer vacations but tentatively would be interested in your event. I usually do not pull the boat out of the garage for only a three day trip but we could consider adding a day or two on each end or even going up to Pelee Island before or after. We have not been back to Lake Erie since we moved from Grosse Isle in 1989. We can live without shore power. With the solar panel on our R25SC we have spent as long as ten days without plugging her in and have no problems with keeping the fridge and other things running just fine.

Todd
 
Hi Jeff:

The St Marys Lake event sounds like a lot of fun and thank you for bringing it up. Any other year Lisa and I would be interested in attending but it does not fit our schedule this year. It would be a great photo to have a large group of Ranger Tugs/Cutwaters anchored out together in front of your place. I hope it all works out.

Jim
 
Sounds interesting!
We are currently in the Florida Keys but plan to do some trailering to interesting destinations this summer.
Dan
 
Thanks for the replies. If we could put something like this together it would be a fun weekend and we'd be the most talked about and photographed group. One thing on the thought list is a cruise of C-Dorys and Ranger Tugs from the Celina Harbor to the St Marys (East Bank) Harbor (about 9 miles) with a potluck/cook out planned in one of the shelter houses and then a cruise back down the south side of the lake for a photo/video shoot of the flotilla.

If we can get enough attendees I'll try to see if we could get participation by some suppliers (marine electronics, etc) and set up informational sessions as well. And if Ranger Tugs is listening, lakes like this throughout the Midwest are perfect for people like me who want a trailer-able boat I can dock here and yet take to Lake Erie for a vacation cruise. Think R-23?

This is primarily a pontoon/bass boat lake. Both my C-Dory and later my R25 get attention whenever I dock and a group of boats like that will likely make the local news. So be prepared...
 
I've had a few responses here and on C-Brats and a couple of contacts through private message. So, although July is still off in the future, planning something that would be fun and a good chance to bring Midwest Tug-nutters and C-Brats together will take a little effort and coordination.

I've set up a website to share information as planning comes along at http://www.MontezumaBay.com. Yes, there is a Montezuma Bay on Grand Lake St Marys. There you'll find an initial agenda, a slide show of the lake and past Lakefests, and links to both the Lakefest site and the Grand Lake area. There's a lot to do and the schedule I've put together so far takes us from Thursday, July 21st through Monday, July 25th, with departure on the 26th.

We'll have assigned dock space in Celina's Lighthouse Harbor which is at the center of all of the Lakefest activities and the docks will be at no charge. I'm working with the State Park and city to have shore power provided but there are no shower facilities there. We're still looking into how we might solve that problem.

We'll have a separate location to store trailers and trucks in and I'll have friends who will pitch in to assist with launching and retrieval of boats.

For those who would like hotel accommodations there are two great choices very close to the venue but this festival draws large crowds from out of the area so the earlier I can get a count on attendees the easier it will be to lock up rooms.

If the attendees include canine family members there's a nice walkway along the west shore of the lake and an off leash dog park nearby.

We're anywhere from 1 to 2 1/2 hours drive from Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Toledo, Sandusky/Port Clinton, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati so it would be easy to leave here and continue on to Lake Erie or the Ohio River if you wanted to build a longer trip around this gathering.

The most important thing for me will be to get a reasonable idea of how many boats and attendees we will have. If you think you might want to attend, visit the site and fill out the response form.

Thanks,
 
We wanted to post an update on the planning for a Mid-West gathering of Trailerable Trawlers.

We’ve posted notices on 3 sites: The Tugnuts for Ranger Tug and Cutwater Owners; the C-Brats for C-Dory Owners; and the Yahoo Group for Rosborough RF-246 Owners.

So far, we have the Owners of 2 Ranger Tugs, 3 C-Dorys, and 1 Rosborough who have expressed interest and are likely to attend even though the event is still 5 months out. We also have two other boaters (1 sail and one power) who have expressed an interest in joining us.

Since most of these kinds of get-togethers are limited to one brand of boat and are usually on the Great Lakes or some coastal area, we think this would be the first time these boaters would all be together for a common event. And it’s likely this is the first event of its kind on a smaller freshwater lake in a more central part of the country. It will be an opportunity for many people who haven’t seen these kinds of boats to do so and an opportunity to see the different brands and styles in one place.

Planning for this is a bit of an effort and coordination of things like hotels, dockage, meals, and group activities takes some time to put together. If you have an interest, the earlier you can let us know, the better. It’s easy to get considered in the planning and you don’t have to make a firm commitment to attend yet. Just go to http://www.montezumabay.com and fill out the form and we’ll add you to the notification list so we can keep you up to date.

The Lake Fest Committee in Celina is still planning their 2016 event and as they complete their plans, we’ll update our information.

So, if you’re a Trailerable Trawler owner who’d like to meet other boaters with the same interest and take part in a fun first time event, go to http://www.montezumabay.com and indicate your interest.
 
Here's an update on our plans for a 2016 Midwest Trailerable Trawler gathering on Grand Lake St Marys in Ohio.

We have 9 boats likely to attend right now. There are 2 Ranger Tugs, 4 C-Dorys, 2 Rosboroughs, and 1 other.

Our event website hosting service had an issue late last week that caused some signup forms to be dropped. So, if you visited the site and sent in a form to get on our planning list and DID NOT receive an email reply from me, please enter the form again. If you did get an email reply from me, then you're on the list. The site is http://www.montezumabay.com.

I've also added a page with some short video clips to show you the launch ramps, Celina lighthouse Harbor docks, dog park, etc. so you'll have an idea of what our location will look like. Deb and I shot these videos over the weekend so keep in mind that it's February and the grass and trees are a little bare. We'll continue to update information on the site as our plans evolve.

In a few short weeks, spring will start to appear! So, if you're considering joining us in July, go to the website and let us know.
 
Just a quick update on our plans for the 2016 Midwest Trailerable Trawler Gathering. I'm working with both the city of Celina and the State park to finalize our dock space with shore power. The current plan is to use the Celina docks but the shortcoming there is a lack of shower facilities. The state park campground lagoon docks would have access to all of the amenities of the campground including shower facilities. I should get this finalized in the next week or so.

In the meantime, take a look here to see some of the boats planning to attend. http://www.montezumabay.com/the-boats.html
 
We're continuing to get interest in our Midwest Gathering. We got a new boat added today. it's a Devlin Surf Scoter 22. You can see a photo on the boats tab on MontezumaBay.com. So for any folks on the site who would be interested in attending but think our get-together is limited to Ranger Tugs, C-Dorys, and Rosboroughs, that's not the case. This is for anyone with a trailerable trawler style boat or anyone interested in owning one.

We're finalizing plans for dock space, hotel accommodations for those wanting them, etc. so if you have an interest in attending, just go to MontezumaBay.com and fill out a form to get on our list and let us know if you have any special travel requirements.
 
We have 10 boats signed up for our Trailerable Trawler gathering in July on Grand Lake St Marys in west central Ohio.

Unfortunately, we have to cancel this event.

I started pulling this together in late January and while that seemed like more than enough time for an event in July, I didn’t count on some of the obstacles I’d run into. The first order of business was to see if there would be enough interest of likeminded boaters to come to a get together on a lake in the Midwest as opposed to one of the larger venues. Then, based on the response, to see what I could line up for accommodations on the lake.

I ran into issues both expected and unexpected and just don’t think I can get them all resolved in a timely enough fashion.

Here are a few of the issues that made this unworkable, at least this year.

First, I recently found out that it’s illegal to spend the night sleeping on a boat on state lakes in Ohio. I had no idea that Deb and I could have broken state law by anchoring and enjoying the quiet of the night on the lake. There is a process to get a waiver but that would take some time to get permission.

Second, setting up a docking venue where we could get shore power and shower facilities. It looks like it could get done but there’s no assurance at this point and that brings me to the next point.

Third, several of the folks wanting to attend were going to need hotel accommodations. Lake Fest is such a popular event that many of the hotels are already booked through the weekend and the nicer places are likely sold out by now.

So, with all of that I’m cancelling the event. But I intend to work over the next year to see if I can get these issues resolved. And if so, I’ll try to set this up next year.

In the meantime, I’ll be sending out emails to the folks who have signed up.
Thanks to everyone who had an interest and contacted me.
 
Jeff and Deb:

It takes a lot of work to organize these events so THANK YOU for your efforts, sorry it could not get worked out this year.

Jim F
 
Thanks Jim.

My problem was I didn't take into account the issues with doing something like this on a lake where most of the boaters are day boaters. But the good news is that it sparked an interest in hosting something like this locally. I think we can have any and all issues resolved by next winter and can shoot for Lake Fest in 2017.

What I was really looking forward to was having these different boat brands together. Would make a very cool photo op.
 
Sorry to hear it had to be cancelled. We really appreciate your efforts to try and make it happen. Just a thought if you try again for next year - it might be easier to get cooperation and support from the local community and other authorities if it was earlier in the year and did not conflict with a weekend that already attracted big crowds (a chance to attract some outside dollars to the community when places were not already full.)
There is always an upside - I think I feel a current to pull Audrey Rose back to the North Channel again this year.
 
Actually, the local community leaders were very supportive of bringing in a group like we were proposing for Lake Fest.

The issue had to do with timing. We had a couple of big things to deal with like the state restriction on overnight boat stays, dockage with shore power and shower facilities, etc. And we ran out of time to do that and still get hotel accommodations for those who would need them.

I'm working with the state park management folks as well as the event planners for Lake Fest to get all of this planned out better for next year.

What's encouraging is that we had a great response from C-Dory owners, Rosborough owners and Ranger tug owners in the Midwest. So, I think when we go to set this up next year we can have a good turnout.

As to the North Channel... I envy you if you go 🙂
 
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