AGLCA Rendezvous and the purchase of Sun Cat

We heard about the "Great Loop"cruise several years ago and planned to do it at some point after I retired. For a retirement gift our friends, Stew and Barb Hart gave us a membership to the American Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA). We knew Trader was not the right boat to do the loop in but we had limited experience with power boats and had been indecisive about what to purchase to do this trip.

Attending the AGLCA rendezvous in Penetang, Ontario gave us the opportunity to view the boats people were actually using to do the loop and more importantly gave us valuable information about what to expect in the areas we were not familiar with, especially the mid-western rivers. The "looper crawl" was an open house on a number of the boats and we got to talk to a lot of people about what they would want in a boat and what they liked and didn't like about the boat they had. We indicated that we planned to do the trip in a year or so and several people responded with "why wait? ". After thinking about that we decided to go ahead.

We now had a pretty good idea of what we wanted in a boat and We'd earlier set a budget so we started to look more seriously. Our primary criteria were 2 engines-preferrably Cummings or Caterpillar, a walk around queen in the stern cabin, a flying bridge, galley up, keel lower than the props, and no exterior wood. We got all except the galley up with Sun Cat.

To find the boat, we worked with our friend and broker Stew Hart, with all of us doing research on the internet and then Stew would call the listing broker and check the boat out further. We looked at some good boats and unfortunately some not so good ones. When Jean  I read the listing on Sun Cat, we both had the same reaction - "That's a lot of boat." After some negotiations and a survey, we purchased Sun Cat in mid September. She was located in Charleston so this winter's cruise begins there.