Upcoming Demo Ride

[DMD3]

Hi Everyone,

Taking a demo ride and thought I’d poll the group for any advice? First time on the water in a Ranger Tug. Fairly experienced on CCs, runabouts, and ski/wake boats (not on cruisers). I’ve studied all systems and specs of the R23 and did a fairly extensive walkthrough a couple weeks ago. Intended use will be a change for us as the children are grown and the first mate and I look forward to cruising (Inter-coastal / loop) and some east coast in-shore crabbing and trolling... Thank you! 😀

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

Same situation we are in. Empty nesters with a love of cruising. A lot of time spent day cruising on the AICW.

Spent 4 years looking at Ranger Tugs, and decided on the R-23. We went into the demo ride with the plan to order one, unless there was something big that would cause a hesitation.

We document it in our blog here: www.ElvinRay.com. Takes you through our buying process, delivery, etc… I took a break from writing for the summer but will be cranking back up soon.


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[CruisingElvinRay]

I’ll also add, we spent 50 nights aboard in just over 100 days of ownership. That has slowed down over the summer because of the NC hot summer nights, but we will be cruising again soon.


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[scross]

DMD3,
Since you’ve looked at the specs on the R-23 I am assuming your cruising will be primarily from marina to marina without a lot of consecutive nights at anchor. I say that because of the alcohol/electric cooktop, lack of an easy way deploy a dinghy quickly and the limited (2-3 day) black water holding tank capacity.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the R-23 is a great boat for day trips, day fishing trips and marina cruising.

 

[DMD3]

Precisely scross! Plan is to move up to 29 or 31 after two or three years if we decide this is the life for us... there will be very few nights on the hook prior to that. Thank you.

 

[DMD3]

Thank you Elvinray. Very helpful indeed, great info!

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

BYW: we balanced the ability to easily trailer with size and operating cost. We aren’t worried about hurricanes, but recently completed a two week cruise from Holden Beach NC to Virginia Beach (712 miles round trip)). We’ve also spent nights at anchor on Lake Norman. Plan to do that more when it cools down. No plans to go bigger for quite some time.


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[Capt’nKarl]

The R-23 is a great boat especially for a couple. Be objective and try to leave your emotions on the dock. Look, listen and feel how the boat handles and ask questions. Take the helm. Turn on everything to see how things work but still get a good marine survey. Cheers.
Karl