Ranger Tugs Offers A Two-Day Factory Delivery Experience We arrived in Des Moines, Washington for our Factory Delivery Experience, (formally known as Factory Orientation) late Sunday, but it was still light out. Jim had booked a room at a motel just up from the marina. First things first. Before we even checked into the motel, down to the boat to get our first look at our new Ranger Tugs R25. Because of Jim’s forward planning, the new Kismet already had her decal on the bow and stern of the boat. We had her hull ceramic coated, and the decal had…

Our Truck Was Packed to the Gills For The Road Trip West. While the factory was building our new Ranger Tugs R25, Jim and I started packing the truck. Quite a feat, considering the circumstances. We sold our Ranger Tugs R29 about a year ago, in Anacortes, Washington. We packed up our boating stuff, all but a few things that were specific to the boat itself, or that we had promised the new owner we would include in the sale. That meant we packed up all our clothes, most of the linens, all the galley pots and pans, dishes, utensils,…

Waiting to Take Delivery of our New Ranger Tugs R25OB I recall going to the lake with my parents when I was a child. A distinct memory of mine was asking my parents, “Are we there yet?” I asked every 15 minutes, after we got out of the City, thinking the lake was just around the corner. My two sisters and I were eager to get there in order to go swimming and boating. I loved being out on the water then, as much as I do today. Fast forward from the late 1950s to 2020 In the fall of…

We saw the pictures, talked with the Ranger Tugs personnel, took tours at boat shows, and visited owner's forums, however, there isn’t anything like meeting the folks that make it all happen. In our case, I’m referring to everyone at the Ranger Tugs assembly facility in Kent, Washington where our Ranger Tug R27 was built. After our orientation day, we spent the next day at the plant loading and provisioning our boat for our initial solo launch, at Port Defiance, later that day. While at the Kent facility, Andrew (above) continued to educate us on the inner workings of our…

As you can see from the photos, Kismet is nearing completion. There are some interesting features on this boat that we'll be talking about in the near future. One of my personal favorites, and the most innovative I believe, is the iPod docking station. You don't want to store a lot of CDs on a smaller boat – this way we'll have our whole collection of music at the ready without it taking up a lot of valuable storage space. Something we'll need to be more aware of while boating on a trailerable boat.

As I write this blog, our dream of becoming owners of a Ranger Tugs R27 is only weeks away. The transition from being liveaboards for five years to joining the trailerable trawler world has taken 1.5 years so we’re very anxious and excited to be getting back on the water. As you can see from the photos, our new boat's hull is fire engine red, a mighty fine-looking color I might add, one Lisa's wanted for a long time. We'll begin our road trip west to take delivery of Kismet in late August, in Kent, Washington. We’re looking forward to writing…