The Great Loop is a dream of many. Some folks who discover that the Great Loop is their dream have never boated before and are just beginning to familiarize themselves with the world of boats and all things nautical. It’s quite a learning curve.
This guide is for those interested in the Great Loop but unsure where to start. It includes an overview, additional resources, and a list of the most popular types of boats used for this grand adventure.
No nautical dream is complete without some boat shopping! So, break out your favorite web browser, load up YachtWorld, and let’s shop for some perfect boats for the Great Loop.
What Is the Great Loop Explained
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The American Great Loop is an organized circumnavigation of the eastern half of the US via inland, protected waterways. You can begin and end where you like, but the general route takes you through the Great Lakes, down the Western Rivers (i.e., the Mississippi and its tributaries), around Florida, up the US East Coast via the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and Chesapeake Bay, then up New York’s Hudson River and back to the Great Lakes.
The trip is mostly conducted in protected waters along the ICW and inland rivers, but there are some open water segments around the Great Lakes, across the Gulf of Mexico, and off the coast of New Jersey. Some Loopers also like to make a side trip to the Bahamas, which starts only 50 miles off the coast of Florida.
The Loop is an immensely popular adventure for boaters and non-boaters alike. For many, it’s a retirement dream, a bucket list-worthy epic adventure that families dream of completing even if they’ve never piloted a boat.
There’s a bustling social aspect to Looping that other boating adventures often lack. Loopers will often travel together along the waterways for miles and join impromptu dock-tail parties and gatherings. The American Great Loop Cruising Association (AGLCA) organizes meetups and events, and harbor hosts around the country welcome cruisers in new ports.
The sign of a Looper is their AGLCA burgee, proudly flying from the bow pulpit. The color burgee signifies their Looper status: white is a Loop in progress, gold is for having “crossed their wake” and completed one Loop, and platinum is for Loopers who have made two or more complete Loops.
Great Loop Route and Planning Details
While you can choose where and when to start your Loop, some details are rarely changed.
One is the counter-clockwise direction of the Loop, which means you’ll travel down the Western Rivers instead of heading up against their current. It’s an important consideration for slow boats and saves fuel money for everyone.
Seasons are another factor. You don’t want to be in the Great Lakes during winter, and you don’t want to be in Florida during summer (hurricane season). If you aim to complete the Loop in one year, that sums up your schedule: Spring north along the East Coast during spring and spend summer crossing the Great Lakes. Then you fall south along the rivers in autumn and spend winter in Florida and (maybe) The Bahamas.
It’s also worth noting that there are a few great alternate routes and side trips along the way.
- The Downeast Circuit Loop (DECL) goes up the Hudson to the St. Lawrence Seaway, out to Prince Edward Island, and back along the coast through Nova Scotia, Maine, and New England.
- The Triangle Loop is a mini-route through the NY canal system that takes you from NYC, up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario, down the St. Lawrence. There, you can take a set of canals that connect Lake Champlain back to the Hudson River.
- On the Western Rivers, you can go south on the Mississippi to New Orleans or take the Tennessee-Tombigbee (Tenn-Tom) Waterway, which comes out in Mobile.
- In Florida, you can go either through the Okeechobee Waterway (which bisects the lower part of the state and passes north of the Everglades) or go all the way around, through the Florida Keys.
- From South Florida, many people add an extra Loop to tour the Islands of The Bahamas.
Great Loop Map
The best Great Loop map and resources are on the AGLCA website.
How Many Miles is the Great Loop?
According to the AGLCA, most Loopers’ final mileage is over 6,000. The total is at least 5,250 miles if you measure the precise waterways. Obviously, some boaters enjoy the side trips and extra adventures along the way.
What Makes a Good Boat for the Great Loop?
When you start diving into what makes the best boat for the Great Loop, things get tricky — especially if you’re new to boating. There are so many makes and models of boats that it can be daunting to sort through.
Unlike cars and other land vehicles, the nautical world has a wider variety of designs and purposes.
You might have heard the sayings, “There’s no perfect boat” or “Every boat is a compromise.” But some boats are better suited to trips like the Great Loop than others.
Here’s a look at the limitations and requirements for a Great Loop boat.
Great Loop Boat Requirements
There are really only two hard requirements for a Great Loop boat: it must be able to squeeze under a bridge with approximately 19.5 feet of clearance and have the range to travel 200 miles without refueling.
The bridge limit is the toughest thing because there’s no going around that bridge. The 19.5-foot bridge is located on the Illinois River at Mile 300.6.
In the canals of New York, there are even lower bridges to consider. If you want to take the entire length of the Erie Canal, you would need to clear a 15-foot bridge. If you want to take the Champlain Canal (a route known as the Triangle Loop), you must clear a 17-footer. If neither of these options works for you, you can take the Erie Canal and connect onto the Oswego Canal, which requires you to clear a 21-footer.
Taller boats must have folding arches or other methods to reduce their bridge clearances. Sailboats must have their masts removed before the areas of low bridges, which means the New York canals to the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes to the Gulf must be done without your mast or sails.
The farthest distance you will have to travel on the Loop without fueling stations is about 200 miles between Kimmswick, MO, and Paducah, KY. The range limit is easier to get around if your boat is tight: You could carry spare fuel jugs on deck. This is a pain, however, and it means you’ll stop for fuel frequently during your entire trip. More range is a good thing when shopping for a Great Loop boat.
How Big of a Boat Do You Need for the Great Loop?
Many people think there must be a size limit for Great Loop boats, but there really isn’t one beyond the height limit mentioned above. People have completed the Loop on jet skis, while others have done it on 70+ foot yachts. Nearly any size and type of recreational vessel could conceivably do the Loop.
From our survey of boats that completed the Loop in 2024, nearly all of them fall into the 35 to 50-foot size range. The largest boat we noted that made the trip was a Fleming 58 motor yacht with a length overall (LOA) of about 66 feet. If your route includes the Trent-Severn Waterway, there is a maximum length of 84 feet (but this can be avoided with alternate routes).
It must be noted here, however, that while a long motor yacht can do the waterway, it isn’t necessarily the best for the job. The bigger the boat, the more you’ll spend on marina stays along the way. Plus, the bigger you, the greater the chance they won’t have space for you.
Can catamarans do the Great Loop? The same thinking that applies length also applies to your boat’s beam. There’s no real limit, but the Trent-Severn has one lock with a maximum beam limit of 23 feet. Again, you can pick alternative routes to get around this.
The next thing to consider is your boat’s draft. Generally, it’s advised to avoid boats with a draft more than 5 feet for the Great Loop. It can be done with more, but your options get progressively more limited as your draft increases. This doesn’t just apply to Great Loop boats. Having as little draft as possible means that more marinas and anchorages will be opened up to you.
Great Loop Boat Considerations
Besides the physical dimensions, here are some other Great Loop-specific considerations when picking the perfect boat.
Diesel vs Gas Engines for the Great Loop
Experienced boaters generally consider diesel engines more reliable, fuel-efficient, and safer for a Loop trip. On the other hand, many gasoline-powered cruisers have powered through the Loop just fine.
Generally, diesel is less expensive at marinas than gas is (off-road, red-dyed, un-taxed diesel is sold at marinas). The increased efficiency and cheaper fuel can greatly reduce your cruising costs, so they must be considered.
However, diesel boats are more expensive to purchase for two reasons: They’re more desirable, and their engines typically have more life left in them.
Tight Quarters Maneuverability
You’ll also want to consider how your boat handles in tight quarters. You’ll dock many times for fuel, water, and pump-outs, and you’ll lock, which involves maneuvering around other boats and concrete walls. A bow thruster or twin engines are real assets in these situations, and most boaters wouldn’t want to try it without one of the two.
Even with excellent boat handling skills, you’ll be boating on windy days and in shifty currents on the Loop. The help of having either a bow thruster or twin engines is invaluable on such a trip.
The worst boat here is the heavy, ocean-going sailboat with a single engine and no bow thruster. Ask me how I know.
Pilothouse Door Access and Side Decks
Some boats make it easy on you, and some don’t. When touring boats, imagine pulling up to docks and locks all day long. Someone needs to get to the bow, and someone needs to get to the stern. If getting forward is an issue, it will be an issue that becomes progressively more annoying as the trip goes on.
Pilothouse or side doors are a great help since they allow the skipper to step right out to hand lines to dock hands or give instructions to the crew. Remember, most Loopers are couples, so having a boat that requires teetering forward on tiny side decks isn’t ideal. This is a big advantage to pilothouses, classic trawlers, and tugboat-style cruising boats.
Can a Sailboat Do the Great Loop?
Speaking of sailboats, how many will you see doing the Great Loop?
Many sailboats complete the Great Loop, but this is a less-than-ideal solution for several reasons. Sailboats are made to sail, and while they can be powered, they are generally less comfortable and often underpowered.
We’ve already mentioned how sailboats must have their mast un-stepped for the NY canals and Western Rivers. This means that a large component of the Loop will be completed under power alone. There are companies that will help you take the mast down and put it back up before the critical bridges where the short parts of the trip begin and end.
You must plan the cost of stepping and unstepping the mast. Then, you must decide whether to carry it on deck or have it trucked to your destination (another cost). Carrying it on deck is mostly free, but it is unwieldy in docking and locking situations, as it will overhang by as much as ten feet both fore and aft.
Here are some other considerations when thinking about using a sailboat for the Great Loop:
- Most lack comfortable, protected pilot seating with good visibility.
- Many sailboats have small fuel tanks and are short in the range department.
- The living space in sailboats is often cramped and dark; a trawler of comparable size will be much more comfortable to live in.
- Sailboats tend to be unwieldy when docking and locking through, especially if they lack a bow thruster.
- Most cruisers find that they do far less sailing than they imagined, even on the stretches where you might imagine the sailing to be quite good.
- (I should note that I write this list as a sailboater. I love sailboats, but I probably wouldn’t take mine on the Great Loop. I’d sell it and buy a trawler.)
What Will You Do After the Loop?
Buying a boat is simply buying the right tool for the job. In other words, if the Great Loop is your ‘mission,’ which boat is the best design to do that?
For many boaters and boaters-at-heart, there’s a romantic vision connected with buying a boat. You get wowed by the look or image of one boat over another, or you fall into the ‘Someday I’ll’ trap. ‘Someday, I’ll sail this baby to Tahiti,’ or ‘Someday, I’ll live on it in Key West.’
Whatever your ‘Someday I’ll’ dream is, that’s not why you’re buying this boat. You need to find the boat that’s best for the Great Loop, and then, after the Loop, when it’s time to say, ‘Today, I’m gonna,’ you can sell the Loop boat and buy the perfect boat for that dream.
The good news is that there is an excellent resale market for Looper boats in sail-away condition. If you take care of your boat, you’ll easily be able to sell it to future Loopers.
6 Most Popular Great Loop Boats by Type
We’ve divided the boats that most often complete the Loop into six rough categories. For each category, we’ve identified the most popular make or make and model to complete the Loop in 2024. The boat categories are:
- Classic trawlers and tugs
- Modern trawlers and Downeast yachts
- Cruisers and aft-cabin cruisers
- Motor yachts
- Power catamarans
- Trailerable cruising boats
Classic Trawlers and Tugs
Most Popular Trawlers on the Great Loop: Grand Banks 42
Other Notable Classic Trawlers: Monk 36, Kadey Krogan 42, Marine Trader 38, Nordic Tug 32/37, DeFever 41/49
This category of boats is primarily made up of classic trawlers, which were very popular in the 1970s and 1980s. That popularity means you can find many different makes and models of this type of boat, and prices are reasonable. You can easily find an old fixer-upper or a like-new turnkey boat ready to go Looping.
Trawlers are extremely seaworthy and efficient. Single or twin diesel inboard engines usually power them. Most, but not all, have both an interior lower helm and an outside upper helm. These boats are designed for offshore conditions, so they’re great for every possible Loop adventure, including trips to the Bahamas.
This type of boat has several styles, including aft-cabin trunk trawlers, ‘Europa’- style trawlers with an aft cockpit (patio), and tugboat-style boats. Picking your favorite is mostly a matter of which layout suits your crew best.
Modern Trawlers and Downeast Yachts
Most Popular Modern Trawlers on the Great Loop: Mainship 350/390/430
Other Notable Modern Trawlers: Beneteau Swift Trawler 34/42/44, North Pacific 43/46, Camino Troll 31
The line between a traditional trawler and a modern one is blurry, but we decided to separate our list based mostly on potential top cruising speeds. Traditional trawlers are designed to work best while cruising at displacement speeds, in other words, less than 10 knots. Modern hull designs have pushed this boundary, so these boats have semi-displacement hulls that can do 15 to 20 knots with enough power. But they do just fine going slower, too. More often than not, these boats are powered by twin diesels.
Perhaps the bigger difference is simple aesthetics: modern trawlers try to take the functionality, efficiency, and layout of the classic trawler and apply a little bit more modern, yacht-like looks.
A Downeast yacht is a subset of a modern trawler that foregoes the flybridge and upper-level seating. This design provides better bridge clearance and a sleek profile but reduces outdoor living space. Examples of this type of boat are the Grand Banks Eastbay line, Backcove Downeasts, Marlows, and Sabres.
The modern trawler category dominates the Looper fleet, and the Mainship brand is particularly popular.
Cruisers and Aft-Cabin Cruisers
Most Popular Cruisers on the Great Loop: Carvers (many models between 40 and 56 feet)
Other Notable Cruiser and Aft-Cabin Cruiser Brands: Sea Ray, Silverton, Meridian, Cruisers Yachts, Californian
These boats are made to go faster than the typical trawler, with faster semi-displacement or fully planning hull designs. They can typically do more than 20 knots, but they use a lot of fuel doing so, so owners cruise them in the high teens. Traveling at slow speeds tends to be less stable and comfortable than a modern trawler-type boat since they are built lighter to go faster. These boats are usually twin engines, either gas or diesel.
While many express cruisers (think Sea Ray Sundancer series) have completed the Loop, many prefer the space and extra living comfort of the aft-cabin cruiser like the super-popular designs built by Carver, Silverton, and Meridian.
These brands change their model lines with different numbering systems every few years, so for the casual shopper, the brand is usually more important in the beginning than the individual model. Most wind up shopping for the brand, then finding the size and layout they like best, which leads them to the precise model.
Motor Yachts
Most Popular Motor Yachts on the Great Loop: Bayliner 4588/4788
Other Notable Motor Yacht Brands: Fleming, Ocean Alexander, Hatteras, Azimut
Motor yachts could be described as larger, sleeker modern trawlers. They have more living space and are usually 45 feet or more. They usually have speeds similar to other fast-trawlers, and they can vary between bulky and sleek with speeds to match. Some are displacement hulls, while others have semi-displacement hulls with higher speeds. Motor yachts will have large twin inboard diesels for maximum range and efficiency.
Power Catamarans
Most Popular Power Cat on the Great Loop: Endeavor TrawlerCat 44
Other notable power cats: PDQ 32MV, Aspen C108
Catamarans are favored for their roomy interiors and maneuverability in close quarters. They also tend to have shallower drafts, more stable rides, and operate more efficiently than monohulls of the same length. The living space inside a catamaran is usually generous, with queen-sized berths and large heads with shower stalls. And most are powered by twin diesels. In other words, they make great long-term liveaboards and Loop boats.
While catamarans are often reminded that they might have trouble finding or pay more for slips, most owners say they’ve never had these problems. The boats listed here are no exception, as they are smaller cats that will easily fit in almost any marina. You’ll find power cats with either diesel inboards or gas outboards. You see fewer catamarans for two simple reasons: they are more expensive to purchase, and fewer have been made.
Trailerable Cruising Boats
Most Popular Trailerable Cruising Boat on the Loop: Ranger Tug 27/29
Other notable trailerable cruising boats: C-Dory 22/25, Cutwater C30, Ranger Tug 25SC
Ranger Tug wasn’t the first trailerable cruising boat, but no one can deny that the original 25SC made many people realize the potential for such a boat. These boats are specifically designed to be towed by a normal truck, which makes them much more like keeping an RV at your house versus a yacht at a marina. Maintenance and storage problems are more easily and cheaply solved when you can take your boat home at the end of a trip. It also opens up the option of doing the Loop in segments, trailering your boat on the highway your boat between trips.
Of course, making these boats trailerable means compromising somewhere else. They are smaller than non-trailerable boats by a big margin. Not only must these boats fit standard highway limitations for beam, but they also must be kept as light as possible for the tow vehicle. That means that seakeeping and comfort on the water will be compromised compared to a bigger boat, but they are still comparable to boats of this class.
Most of these boats are powered by outboard gas motors or, occasionally, inboard diesels. If a trailerable boat is on your mind, make sure to do all your budgeting and shopping with a tow vehicle in mind. When you calculate the cost of a truck and the cost of the boat, it very well might be more cost-effective to purchase a larger boat that stays in the water.
Great Loop Boats List Methodology
To find which vessels were most often completing the Great Loop adventure, we turned to social media and conducted a quick poll. We tallied a list of every vessel that got a shout-out for completing the Loop between October 2023 and October 2024. Every crew that earns the gold burgee gets shared on the American Great Loop Association’s Facebook page. Then, we sorted the list to find the most common styles and make/models of boats that Loopers were using.
But we didn’t stop there: We also combined this with a deep dive into the web forums to examine discussions surrounding which boats experienced Loopers liked most. We wanted to add in the details of why these boats make good Loop boats.
It’s important to note that far more types of boats have completed the Loop than are listed here—this is simply a list of the popular ones. Many boats have made the trip based on the oft-heard advice, “The boat you have is the perfect boat for you.” But this advice doesn’t work for someone shopping for the perfect Loop boat.
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