Advertisement
A 40-foot Aspen C120 proa power catamaran embarks on an epic journey from Washington state to Annapolis, Maryland.
David and Sue Ellen Jenkins, the proud owners of a new Aspen C120 they have named Knot Wafflen', have teamed up with professional boat captain Blake Eder and Larry Graf, founder of Aspen Power Catamarans to take their boat on a shakedown cruise like no other.
Having already cruised to the San Juan Islands and Seattle, they will soon depart from Anacortes, Washington, and head north into Canada and on to Alaska. This is just the beginning of the adventure. After some summer fun in Alaska, the boat will head south again and run from Juneau, down the Pacific Coast with stops in Washington, Oregon, and California before continuing to Cabo San Lucas and into the Sea of Cortez.
From there the boat will be portaged across Mexico and Texas, where she will be resplashed in Galveston Bay. The voyage continues through the Gulf of Mexico to the west coast of Florida, then Key West, the Bahamas and up the Eastern seaboard before finishing the trip in their home port of Annapolis, Maryland.
"All the planning and preparation is about to pay off," said David Jenkins. "The boat looks great and is ready to go, and so are we. It will be exciting to get under way and start this incredible adventure."
Capt. Eder added, "The people in Washington state and at Aspen have been great, but I am looking forward to the solitude of the sea. This boat was designed to cruise, and it is time to leave some miles in her wake."
This trip will be the longest water delivery in history for a 40-foot power cat, according to Graf, who builds his patented powercruisers, designed for a soft ride and superior fuel efficiency, in Burlington, Washington. Graf added, a secondary goal to the delivery is to demonstrate the strength and all-weather capabilities of Aspen Power Catamarans.
The design, with its deep displacement hulls and high bridge deck, slices heavy seas while the twin asymmetrical proa hulls (one hull is 35 percent larger) slip easily through the water, creating very little drag. The net efficiency of the single engine cat allows speeds in the teens with single-digit hourly fuel burn rate.
You can follow the journey with a running blog adding photos and regular reports.