Can I Loop?

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The questions people ask before they buy a boat for the Great Loop, answered with the figures and where they came from. Nothing to sign up for.

What's new

7 more
  • 2026-09-30Receipts: How many lines on our boat pages link straight to their source, and every time a source showed us we were wrong.
  • 2026-09-29Guide: doing the Loop with a dog, rewritten: Every trip the dog makes, dock to dinghy, the test we ran with our Boxer, and what to do before the survey if you've already found the boat.
  • 2026-09-23Guide: the 30,000-gallon question: Buying a high-hours boat: the trade quotes engine life in fuel, not hours, and the meter means nothing until you divide by the burn.
  • 2026-09-19The Pilot's Walkaround: A one-page boat-showing checklist, challenge and response, with a PDF you can tick on your phone.
  • 2026-09-19The Price Watch: Real asking-price histories on the boats we track, every move dated.
  • 2026-09-19Five Seats opens on The Hunt: Nominate a real listing for our own search; beat the board and it takes a seat.
  • 2026-09-19Guide: is that big turbo engine too much?: What the people who rebuild these engines actually say.

The numbers that decide it

How tall can your boat be? 19'6" at the Illinois River is the only clearance you can't get around. Everything else costs you a route, not the Loop. Read it → How much water can it draw? Under 5' is the working answer, but it's a preference, not a wall. Over it means a signed waiver, not a refusal. Read it → How far between fuel stops? One leg sets the number: Alton to Paducah, about 250 miles. And a range figure without a speed attached tells you nothing. Read it → Single or twin engines? We don't answer it. Owners are split, and anyone who declares a winner is stating a preference. The efficiency argument, though, doesn't hold up. Read it → Can that boat even reach the Loop? A dam without a lock is a wall. Two lakes ninety minutes apart by road can be a few hundred river miles from the Loop, or a truck ride. Read it →

The boat itself

What engine hours tell you Almost nothing on their own. Without the fuel type and the years behind them the number misleads, and low hours is not the good news it reads as. Read it → Is that big turbo engine too much for the Loop? The people who rebuild these engines say the fear is backwards: run at trawler speeds with temperature discipline and an occasional run-up, big turbo diesels last. One seller question beats the hour meter. Read it → The 30,000-gallon question: buying a high-hours boat The trade quotes engine life in fuel burned, not hours run, so the meter means nothing until you divide by the burn. The rating decides the reputation, the records answer what the meter can't, and the Loop multiplies the margin question. Read it → Does an orphan brand matter? A builder going under changes the paperwork questions, never the hull. Most of the classic Loop fleet is already orphaned; the real teeth are deposits on boats still in build, and every orphan question is askable before you spend a dollar. Read it → Is a bigger boat better for the Loop? Ocean capability doesn't cascade down to the Loop. Deep draft, tall air draft and wide beam close doors the route runs through. The Loop selects for fit, not might, and the trade-offs are knowable before you buy. Read it → How do the offer, deposit and survey fit together? You sign the purchase agreement and put the deposit down before the survey happens. The contingency clause is what makes it refundable. Boats don't formally fail a survey; you get a condition list and the decision is yours. Read it → Is an older boat a mistake? Age and use wear different parts of a boat, and the year on the listing tells you which questions to ask, not what to avoid. Care history beats year built, and the calendar items are all askable. Read it → What do high moisture readings mean? A moisture reading in the stringers is a question, not a verdict. The meter can mislead in both directions, so the move is one specific ask to your surveyor and a structural read before any decision. Read it → What's in the engine oil? One lab test reads 24 metals out of a few ounces of used oil. It's the cheapest look inside a diesel a buyer can get. But the report only means something if you also get the hours on the oil. Read it → Can you take a dog? Yes, but the two things that decide it are how she rolls and how he gets aboard, and neither one is in a listing. Read it →

Before you spend money

Which length is the real one? A listing can give two, several feet apart, and only the larger one decides where she fits. It costs you nothing on the Loop and plenty at the slip. Read it → What a dossier looks like One real listing taken apart: every claim tagged for how well it's verified, and the gaps stated rather than filled in. Read it → Should you buy a project boat? The ones that fail arrive at the salvage yard full of the parts bought to finish them. The money isn't what runs out. The hours are, against everything else you do. Read it → Should you buy a boat that just finished the Loop? It has already proven it can make the trip, and it's fresh off a year of hard use the listing won't mention. The trip's own log is what tells you: ask for the when-we-get-home list before the deposit. Read it → What a survey costs, and when to book Three surveys rather than one, and the closing date you negotiate decides which surveyor you get. Read it → What decides whether you can insure it Insurers trigger on the manufacturer's stated length, not your measured LOA. They may also want documented training hours before they'll write it. Read it → Can you insure an older boat? "Can you insure it" is two questions wearing one sentence. Liability on an old hull is usually easy; hull coverage is where age bites, and it's only mandatory with a lender. Read it → Should you only shop boats that have Looped? A completion list is an existence proof, not a shopping filter. Absence proves nothing. The lists are self-reported, finishers lag buyers by years, and the gates decide fit either way. Read it → What must the broker tell you? Known, documented defects, in the licensing states and under the ethics codes. But the last buyer's survey is their property, and its findings usually leave with them. The gap is yours to close in writing. Read it →

On the water

What to feel for on a sea trial Sixteen things worth deliberately noticing. The numbers are the easy part; a spec sheet can't tell you whether you'll still want to be aboard on day forty. Read it → The four kinds of lock you'll meet The longest stretch of locks is the easiest one, and the Erie is the hard one. That's the opposite of what most people expect. Read it → Can one person handle this boat? Almost nobody Loops solo; nearly everybody Loops as a couple. The Coast Guard has a name for the case that actually applies. Read it → What the stop at Pickwick is for It's a fork, not a rest stop. The Tenn-Tom leaves the Tennessee River here. Carry on upriver instead and the side trip costs weeks you may not have. Read it →

What the record actually shows

How long does it actually take? 653 days is the published average, but that's ELAPSED time. The route itself is about four to six months of moving. Everything else is stopping. Read it → What boats actually finish the Loop Five years of AGLCA's own data, read together for the first time. Mainship leads every year. And don't read the five totals as a trend. Read it → The model library Researched profiles of the boats Loop buyers actually shop: known issues, published specs, and the questions to ask, with every claim tagged for how well it's verified. Read it →

The Teardown: real listings, worked

Teardown №1: a 2004 Swift Trawler 42 Her published air draft is 23'0" mast up and 13'1" down, so the whole Loop case rides the folding mast. Plus a range figure that belongs to a different throttle than the listing implies, and five things to ask before a dollar moves. Read it → Reader teardown: a 1996 Tiara 3700 Open A low express that clears the Loop's bridges by feet. What a buyer has to weigh is the layout: one stateroom and one head, by Tiara's design. Read it → Teardown №2: a 1994 Tollycraft 45 Cockpit Motor Yacht On the listing's own numbers she clears every hard gate. The homework starts with what her 18 feet was measured to and whether she's a true 45. Read it →

Things to take with you

The sea-trial checklist, as a PDF Printable, free, no signup. Take it to the boat. Open → A sample survey brief, as a PDF What a buyer hands their surveyor: the Loop's limits, the model's known trouble spots and the questions still open. Built fresh every time. Open → The sample dossier, as a PDF Built fresh from the live renderer every time you ask for it, so it can never drift from what the product actually produces. Open → The Pilot's Walkaround, as a PDF The boat-showing checklist as a one-page document. Tick it on a phone or print it at home; it's built from the same list the page renders. Open → A sample dossier What we produce for one specific boat, with every claim tagged for how well it's verified. Open →

The tool

Have a boat in mind? Run her numbers. The free gate check: type what you know and it's checked against the same hard limits these guides explain. No account, nothing stored. Run the gate check →

What we didn't do: we haven't run the Loop, and we haven't surveyed anything. What's here is published figures (mostly AGLCA's own, linked so you can check them) read alongside the accounts of people who have done it. Where those people disagreed, we said so instead of picking a winner. And if something here is wrong, tell us: support@caniloop.net. Somebody already has, and that page now says so.

What this is based on

Each guide names its own sources at the foot of the page.

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.