John Hauck, a retired Army Special Forces major and helicopter pilot, doesn’t know when to quit. Not even two years ago, on Aug. 2, 2019, he completed the Great Loop on his 25-foot Rosborough named Grumpy when he was 80 years old. Now he’s at it again.
Earlier this week, Hauck loaded Grumpy at the dock behind his lake house in Titus, Alabama (pictured above), and trailered it 125 miles to Demopolis, where he launched it in the Tombigbee River to start the loop one more time. He will turn 82 next month. “You guessed it,” he wrote on his Facebook page, Grumpy Does the Great Loop 2021. “I’m celebrating my 82nd year doing the Great Loop for the second time.”
Hauck wrote that Grumpy was sitting a little lower in the water and he still needed to add 85 gallons of fuel, but he couldn’t wait to get underway. He said once he could get Grumpy in the river, “I can relax, get in the groove of living 24/7 on a 25-foot boat and enjoy my trip. I am really looking forward to this adventure.”
Last time, Hauck finished the loop 110 days and 6,303 miles after he left, putting 416 hours on Grumpy’s twin 150-hp Mercury outboards. He actually spent 93 days on the loop, if you subtract the 17 days he spent sidelined, waiting for repairs after he wiped out the outboard’s lower units. The accident was a rare navigation error; Hauck flew helicopter gunships for the 101st Airborne in Vietnam.
Grumpy is a 2003 Rosborough RF-246 that Hauck bought used. He usually cruises at about 22 mph. He spent most of his time by himself the first time around, except for 21 days when a lady friend joined him.
Now, he says, “I look forward to meeting new friends and seeing my old acquaintances.” Read more:
Facebook: Grumpydoesthegreatloop2021
