It feels like the safest possible filter: buy what has already proven it can go. But a finisher list answers a different question than the one a shopper is asking, and using it as a filter quietly narrows your search for the wrong reasons.
A model's appearance on a completion list proves that this kind of boat can do the trip — once, for one crew, on one year's route. A model's absence proves nothing at all. Filter your search to finishers only and you exclude boats for the crime of not having been counted, while the numbers that actually decide fit — clearance, draft, range — go unchecked on the boat in front of you.
AGLCA publishes statistics each year on the boats whose owners reported crossing their wake, and states the method plainly: the data is submitted to AGLCA by Loopers themselves. Self-reported, not audited, and counting finishers. That makes it a genuinely interesting record of what the completing fleet looks like — and a poor census of what boats can Loop, because it only sees the owners who finished, joined, and filed.
The lag. A boat bought this year might cross its wake in two or three years, or never — many owners cruise for seasons before completing, and plenty set out and settle into a slower plan. This year's list mostly reflects purchases made years ago. The reporting gate. Only owners who finish and report are counted; a model beloved by owners who wander, segment, or simply don't file never shows up. The name problem. Listings and reports name the same hull different ways — a 408 that reports as a 400, a model sold under two brands — so a "missing" model is sometimes just filed under another spelling.
When a model on your shortlist shows up among finishers, that is real information: the type has cleared the route's constraints in practice, and owners of that model have lived aboard it long enough to finish. Use it as an existence proof and a question generator — did the finishing examples run the same engine as the listing in front of you? The same draft? For that, the model's identity has to be pinned first, which is its own small art.
The Loop selects for fit, and fit is checkable on the specific boat: the height that has to pass the route's one unavoidable bridge, the draft against the thin stretches, the range against the longest fuel leg. Those checks take minutes with the listing's own numbers, and they work identically for a model with two hundred recorded finishes and a model with none. The finisher list can cheer a candidate on; it should never be what strikes one.
Sources: AGLCA's published annual Loop-completion statistics at greatloop.org, including their own statement that the figures are based on information submitted by Loopers. We haven't audited those figures and can't — they are self-reported by design, and this page deliberately republishes none of them; the reasoning stands however the counts move. If we've mis-stated how the statistics are gathered, tell us: support@caniloop.net.
If we've got something wrong, tell us and we'll fix it — support@caniloop.net. A correction from someone who has actually run it is worth more than anything we can write.