On Watch

Aspen Power Cat Arrives in New Orleans in Middle of the Night: “Crazy Boating” on the Mississippi

By Peter A. Janssen

A year ago, when he was planning a 10,000-mile tour around the United States on his then still-being-built Aspen C120 power cat, David Jenkins told me that he and Larry Graf, the company’s founder, president and “chief adventurer,” had to make a decision. Basically, how to get the boat from the west coast of Mexico to the Gulf coast of the United States. They looked at the normal route, through the Panama Canal, but decided it would take too much time and, Jenkins said, “it involved too much risk.” The solution: Put the boat on a trailer on the Sea of Cortez and truck it to Galveston, Texas.

That road trip just happened. Graf himself drove down from Aspen’s factory in Washington state to Guaymas, Mexico, where the 40-foot Aspen, Knot Wafflen’, was pulled from the water and where the flybridge was removed; it had been designed for relatively easy removal with disconnect fittings for the electronics and plug-able hydraulics for steering. Graf oversaw the reassembly in Galveston. He said it took a couple of late nights getting the boat reassembled and putting on a fresh coat of bottom paint, “but the journey continues on schedule.” He then climbed on the boat and cruised to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Graf and Knot Wafflen’ just arrived, and he wrote that the lower Mississippi was “crazy boating, even for me.” (See the picture, above.) “There were logs, dark muddy waters, 700-foot barges and crew boats going full speed in all different directions, all with a 5-6 knot current.” It took 7 ½ hours to go the last 12 miles through locks and bridges; Knot Wafflen’ finally tied up at 1:30 in the morning.

Now Jenkins will take over again and cruise this spring and summer around Florida and the Bahamas, before heading back home to Annapolis in time for the powerboat show in October. It then will have been about a year and a half since he left Anacortes, Washington, last May, cruised north to Juneau and Glacier Bay, Alaska, and then turned around to head down the west coast to Mexico. By the way, the name of the boat: Jenkins owned Carbon’s Golden Malted waffle business for 30 years before he sold it in 2012; he’s Knot Wafflen’ any more. Here’s a picture of the boat in Mexico, below.