Fish and Boats at Leland Harbor
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2024 10:47 am
On Tuesday, June 18, 2024 we ventured by car to Leland, Michigan, a wonderful little port town on the eastern shore of northern Lake Michigan, and we had two objectives in mind.
The first mission was to visit CARLSON'S FISHERY, a very fine, very old, now fifth-generation-run provider of fresh caught fish from Lake Michigan. In this regard we were not disappointed, as the "fresh-caught" and "native" whitefish was just hauled out of the nets that morning. (The term "native" here has a nice double-entendre, as "native" as in being a native species to the waters, and "native" as in caught by a tribal fisher from the local reservation of Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, who are the ONLY fishers that can commercially harvest whitefish from northern Lake Michigan by an agreement--if you stretch the meaning of that word--between the two nations (the tribe and the United States) in which a tribal council determines who can harvest what fish in what part of Lake MIchigan.) Okay, back to the fish.
We bought 0.80-lbs of whitefish, which is one nice fillet that can produce two modest-size servings, at the new price of $21-per-pound, part of the crazy inflation of everything, but not quite the usual double-the-price from previous years, which, as I recall was around $17-per-pound. But this is about as fresh as you can get fresh fish, and we only treat ourselves to this a few times each summer.
To finish this fish story, the whitefish was cut into two servings, dusted with flour, pan fried in a mix of butter and olive oil on a hot pan, and consumed outdoors on the deck with some nice chilled wine and a side of fresh green beans. It was delicious.
The second mission for the trip to Leland was to check out the harbor, more correctly the harbor of refuge, created by the State of Michigan with transient docks and facilities run by the little town of Leland. The docks were surprisingly unoccupied by transient boats, and about one-third full with locals' boats who have enough resources to pay the day-rate for a slip almost all summer, only leaving periodically to establish the transience of their visit to the port.
I sometimes have jokingly called Leland's harbor the northern Lake Michigan Hinckley Picnic Yacht Club, as at various times you might find four or five of those multi-million dollar yachts there. But in this mid-June-visit the number of Hinckley yachts seen was down to perhaps only two or three.
Now to finally get to the Boston Whaler related content, I did see a new addition to the usual fleet of long-term visitors, a Boston Whaler REALM. I could not tell the exact size of this boat because the three digit number on the hull sides was finished in chrome, and with the sun glittering on the water and reflecting, I could not read the number very well, other than to make out that the first digit was a "3" and the last digit was a "0". The middle digit was enchantingly difficult to determine due to all the reflections; I thought it might have been a "3", but in retrospect I think it must have been an "8".
That makes this REALM the big model, the 380. The giveaway was the engine power: there were FOUR Mercury V10 5.7-liter 400-HP engines on the transom, a total of 1,600-HP. These engines weigh about 700-lbs each, creating a total of 2,800-lbs bolted to the transom, which is more than a lot of classic Boston Whaler boats' dry hull weight.
The factory performance report indicates a top speed of just under 65-MPH. When enjoying the fun of running at 65-MPH you also have to be able to afford the fuel burn, which is 134-gallons-per-hour. Gasoline fuel at the fuel dock around here is about $5.60-per-gallon, so that one hour of full-throttle fun is going to cost $750 in fuel. I get it: if you have to worry about the cost of the fuel you can't afford the boat. And that is true--I cannot afford this boat--as I expect this 38-footer is going to be over $1-million, and then some.
I have never figured out the exact market or appeal of the REALM. It is a very open boat, so you need fair weather and warm weather to enjoy using it. And for a 38-foot model the below deck accommodations are modest. It's a boat for a warm climate, and in northern Michigan, warm boating weather starts about July first and ends about September first, a two-month season. And even then, there are going to be days where you will need warm clothing and a very warm hat when out on the water, which on this particular day the water offshore was 58-degrees.
Another cool boat found at Leland was a 37-foot AXOPAR Cross Cabin. The AXOPAR 37XC is a Finnish boat, which seems to be designed to transport wealthy Scandinavians from the mainland to their island summer homes in any sort of weather. The base price for the hull is just €121,000, but I don't think that includes engines, and there are a zillion options to configure to add to the price. Looking on-line prices in US-dollars, I see 2024 AXOPAR 37XC new boats selling for about $375,000 to $425,000. The power is normally twin Mercury engines, ranging from twin 225-HP to twin 350-HP. A 37-boat with 450-HP sounds a bit more sensible than a 38-foot boat with 1,600-HP.
The first mission was to visit CARLSON'S FISHERY, a very fine, very old, now fifth-generation-run provider of fresh caught fish from Lake Michigan. In this regard we were not disappointed, as the "fresh-caught" and "native" whitefish was just hauled out of the nets that morning. (The term "native" here has a nice double-entendre, as "native" as in being a native species to the waters, and "native" as in caught by a tribal fisher from the local reservation of Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, who are the ONLY fishers that can commercially harvest whitefish from northern Lake Michigan by an agreement--if you stretch the meaning of that word--between the two nations (the tribe and the United States) in which a tribal council determines who can harvest what fish in what part of Lake MIchigan.) Okay, back to the fish.
We bought 0.80-lbs of whitefish, which is one nice fillet that can produce two modest-size servings, at the new price of $21-per-pound, part of the crazy inflation of everything, but not quite the usual double-the-price from previous years, which, as I recall was around $17-per-pound. But this is about as fresh as you can get fresh fish, and we only treat ourselves to this a few times each summer.
To finish this fish story, the whitefish was cut into two servings, dusted with flour, pan fried in a mix of butter and olive oil on a hot pan, and consumed outdoors on the deck with some nice chilled wine and a side of fresh green beans. It was delicious.
The second mission for the trip to Leland was to check out the harbor, more correctly the harbor of refuge, created by the State of Michigan with transient docks and facilities run by the little town of Leland. The docks were surprisingly unoccupied by transient boats, and about one-third full with locals' boats who have enough resources to pay the day-rate for a slip almost all summer, only leaving periodically to establish the transience of their visit to the port.
I sometimes have jokingly called Leland's harbor the northern Lake Michigan Hinckley Picnic Yacht Club, as at various times you might find four or five of those multi-million dollar yachts there. But in this mid-June-visit the number of Hinckley yachts seen was down to perhaps only two or three.
Now to finally get to the Boston Whaler related content, I did see a new addition to the usual fleet of long-term visitors, a Boston Whaler REALM. I could not tell the exact size of this boat because the three digit number on the hull sides was finished in chrome, and with the sun glittering on the water and reflecting, I could not read the number very well, other than to make out that the first digit was a "3" and the last digit was a "0". The middle digit was enchantingly difficult to determine due to all the reflections; I thought it might have been a "3", but in retrospect I think it must have been an "8".
That makes this REALM the big model, the 380. The giveaway was the engine power: there were FOUR Mercury V10 5.7-liter 400-HP engines on the transom, a total of 1,600-HP. These engines weigh about 700-lbs each, creating a total of 2,800-lbs bolted to the transom, which is more than a lot of classic Boston Whaler boats' dry hull weight.
The factory performance report indicates a top speed of just under 65-MPH. When enjoying the fun of running at 65-MPH you also have to be able to afford the fuel burn, which is 134-gallons-per-hour. Gasoline fuel at the fuel dock around here is about $5.60-per-gallon, so that one hour of full-throttle fun is going to cost $750 in fuel. I get it: if you have to worry about the cost of the fuel you can't afford the boat. And that is true--I cannot afford this boat--as I expect this 38-footer is going to be over $1-million, and then some.
I have never figured out the exact market or appeal of the REALM. It is a very open boat, so you need fair weather and warm weather to enjoy using it. And for a 38-foot model the below deck accommodations are modest. It's a boat for a warm climate, and in northern Michigan, warm boating weather starts about July first and ends about September first, a two-month season. And even then, there are going to be days where you will need warm clothing and a very warm hat when out on the water, which on this particular day the water offshore was 58-degrees.
Another cool boat found at Leland was a 37-foot AXOPAR Cross Cabin. The AXOPAR 37XC is a Finnish boat, which seems to be designed to transport wealthy Scandinavians from the mainland to their island summer homes in any sort of weather. The base price for the hull is just €121,000, but I don't think that includes engines, and there are a zillion options to configure to add to the price. Looking on-line prices in US-dollars, I see 2024 AXOPAR 37XC new boats selling for about $375,000 to $425,000. The power is normally twin Mercury engines, ranging from twin 225-HP to twin 350-HP. A 37-boat with 450-HP sounds a bit more sensible than a 38-foot boat with 1,600-HP.