Ranger Tug R-25

When we owned our R25 SC we came around to the fact that the new common rail computerised diesels were not as simple to run as the new outboards are. The depth to launch and all the heavy interior teak worked against its handyness. It looks like Ranger is realizing how good and simple to run the new outboards are.
The easy to work on C-Dory's are more my style (Dana did love the fancy interior and stand up v-berth)
 
The new Ranger Tug is a very nice looking boat. I have always felt like the old tugs were a bit 'busy' looking. Very nice lines on the new one.
 
ssobol":texy901t said:
2019 Rendezvous in Roche Harbor.

They said over 200 boats showed up at their gathering (granted that includes Rangers and Cutwaters, but still).
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We were at Roche Harbor last Friday and it was indeed a huge turn out. RTs & CWs everywhere and completely dominated the guest docks. Since our C-Dory is so nimble and low draft we have no problem going to the end of the swim dock. They do throw a very good bash of which our CBGTs can only dream about. I didn't notice the new R-25, but was handed a very tasty blue margarita at one of several hosted bars on the dock while among all the festivities. :smiled
 
I went on all their boats a couple years ago in St Pete and loved them. Very nice boats but I ordered another C-Dory. C-Dories just fit my needs better.
 
Hmm, I noted the "Recessed Rigging" under the swim step--I think that was what sank the Ranger 23 a couple of years ago. I hate to think about working on those...I wonder if the outboard powered Rangers still have bow and stern thrusters to they can dock?
 
thataway":2n0od0g2 said:
Hmm, I noted the "Recessed Rigging" under the swim step--I think that was what sank the Ranger 23 a couple of years ago. I hate to think about working on those...I wonder if the outboard powered Rangers still have bow and stern thrusters to they can dock?
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You can get them with a bow thruster. Not sure about a stern one.

I bet they are much more careful about the rigging and installation of the motor since that brand new C-302 sank at the dock in BC a year or so ago.
 
Ranger designs are almost obsessive about creating a small boat with a big luxury yacht feel. Hiding the outboard rigging is an example! On our Ranger having a stern thruster that is mostly not needed by an experienced boat handler was fun in till you do your own maintenance and have to pull the whole aft part of the boat apart to access it to replace the easly damaged sacrificial prop shaft pin. The interior side of the VHF antenna and lead was covered completly with multiple pieces of teak trim. Dana loved it, it is in every sense a luxury yacht. But for me everything in the 3 year old boat maintenance schedule like replacing the engine to water heater hoses was hidden behind layers of other hidden stuff. I knew I was in trouble when I had to cut, remove and redo the interior step so I could gain access to the engine salt water impeller on the front of the diesel only to realize that Yanmar had changed the pump design, flipped it around so that it all had to come off instead of the simple front plate of the earlier Yanmars I had been working on for years. It was non adjustable so the manual said I needed to cut the drive belt and then needed a special tool to reinstall a new one. The use of outboards will simplify them somewhat but they are still designed as extremely complex boats without regard to maintenance access.
I still think Rangers are great boats and l see many C-dory owners see them as a step up, but this is a cautionary tale for those who do their own maintenance and don't want to spend for expensive marine workers to do the extensive maintenance they need to be kept shipshape. This is why I think so many of the new boat owners like the one we bought ours from who had not even changed the original fuel filters or changed the oil, bail on them at the first big maintenance scheduled.
 
Micahbigsur@msn.com":3e283v24 said:
Ranger designs are almost obsessive about creating a small boat with a big luxury yacht feel. Hiding the outboard rigging is an example! On our Ranger having a stern thruster that is mostly not needed by an experienced boat handler was fun in till you do your own maintenance and have to pull the whole aft part of the boat apart to access it to replace the easly damaged sacrificial prop shaft pin. The interior side of the VHF antenna and lead was covered completly with multiple pieces of teak trim. Dana loved it, it is in every sense a luxury yacht. But for me everything in the 3 year old boat maintenance schedule like replacing the engine to water heater hoses was hidden behind layers of other hidden stuff. I knew I was in trouble when I had to cut, remove and redo the interior step so I could gain access to the engine salt water impeller on the front of the diesel only to realize that Yanmar had changed the pump design, flipped it around so that it all had to come off instead of the simple front plate of the earlier Yanmars I had been working on for years. It was non adjustable so the manual said I needed to cut the drive belt and then needed a special tool to reinstall a new one. The use of outboards will simplify them somewhat but they are still designed as extremely complex boats without regard to maintenance access.
I still think Rangers are great boats and l see many C-dory owners see them as a step up, but this is a cautionary tale for those who do their own maintenance and don't want to spend for expensive marine workers to do the extensive maintenance they need to be kept shipshape. This is why I think so many of the new boat owners like the one we bought ours from who had not even changed the original fuel filters or changed the oil, bail on them at the first big maintenance scheduled.
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Great insight! Thanks! Someone ought to post this on the R-Tugs site and see how they react!!! :smileo

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Please no, one of my old friends at the factory might put a contract out on me, I posted once in a while on Tugnuts and I don't want to look like a traitor. The Tug buyers tend to be able to afford the maintenance (you could spend $ 250,000 on a new nicely optioned R25) and almost everything is an option above the attractive base price! So I am just cautioning C-dory owners who I see as a totally different breed of more practical owner, that may think a Tug is a step up.
One Tugnut thread was about how much they had to pay for the annual solid colored gel coat buff out as they can fade quickly, so the person posting the $900 price he was quoted found that others had paid down to $600. I buffed out ours a few times and it is such a chore that $600 was starting to sound good!
 
I think the OB powered Rangers will be a bit less of a maintenance headache because access to the engine is much easier. The OB installation is simpler all around (e.g. no cooling water plumbing and through hulls in the boat). Other systems and wiring are hidden away though.

That said however, the Rangers are much more finely appointed and equipped than a typical C-Dory. There will be less need to make extensive mods to make the boat more comfortable. The amount of work on the interior needed to do minor mods will discourage people from messing with things.

For instance, adding heat or AC to a Ranger that didn't get built that way would be a HUGE PITA. Not like just sticking an AC unit in the window or on the roof.

I like the Rangers, but looking at the systems and the build I'm been put off about getting one. The IB diesel just turns me off after having multiple boats with outboards. The OB Rangers help, but they'll still be more difficult to work on than a C-Dory. My wife still wants one though.

For about the same price as the new R-25 you can get a new Seapiper 35. Yes, they are different boats, but I think the Seapiper is a lot more boat for the money. Which one you want depends on what you plan to do with it.
 
Speaking of A.C. on the Tugs, one Tugnut thread was how to change a small component. The only real factory access is back at the foot of the little enclosed berth that extends forward under the setee area behind which the heater and AC are installed it seems before the interior
fiberglass liner, owners were able to give instructions on where access hatches needed to be cut in the fiberglass liner for access.
I had to add several teak hatches in our liner for maintenance access and all work must match up with the rest of the beautiful teak interior.
The 150 hp Yanmar was a car BMW motor they had adapted for marine, when the Yanmar rep at the boat show told me that the BMW collaboration had not worked out and didn't know how long parts would be available for the already problematic diesels I gave up. Ranger went over to the better, still complex, heavyer Volvos after that.

My wife Dana almost cried when I told her that I was fed up with it and it had to go. After doing all the easily done upgrades we have done to our older C-dory Dana is once again a happy wife!!
 
Micah-

Don't worry, I won't report you to the Tug-Nuts!

Just thought it would be curious to see how many of them had reached the same conclusion, or had recently bought a bought a Ranger Tug without realizing yet how hard they were to work on.

My Sea Ray is somewhat similarly "over-finished" or "finished-over".

When I wanted to add a windlass, I promptly gave up on running large power cables from the batteries in the stern to the bow.

I simply added a dedicated battery and battery charging system under the v-berth to serve the windlass.

Running the low amperage windlass control lines from the solenoid, battery, and charger under the v-berth to the flying bridge was enough hassle.

The whole boat inside is finished like a fine car and routing and hiding wires is very difficult, to say the least.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Sea Wolf":29bnyebr said:
... The whole boat inside is finished like a fine car and routing and hiding wires is very difficult, to say the least. ...
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But with a car you can get a detailed manual that shows you how it all goes together and how to take it apart.
 
Like all my boats I wanted cruising upgrades to the Tug as they are basically set up as mostly dock bound weekenders. So adding more solar, 12 volt outlets for the Engel freezer, and raw water pumps and spigots in the head and galley and some other projects took ten times as long as they should have. So I know the pain of which you are speaking!

They do give you a nice manual that for the buyer looks like you can easily fix anything. Only later do you realize that because you can't actually reach any of the systems, there is no practical use for all the pretty colored diagrams. And you are left looking at all your tools and fancy multi-meter with a puzzled look on your face!
 
So, yes, the new R-25s with the outboards are fine looking boats and offer a major improvement in maintenance compared to the inboard diesel Rangers. And yes, they certainly are better appointed inside than C-Dorys or Ventures.

But IF I were going to buy a new boat, and I am NOT as we are very happy with our 14-year-old CD25, it would be a Venture 26 (it is simply a better hull design than the CD25, thank you Cape Cruisers!).

Why not a Ranger? Have you seen any 14 year old Rangers? C-Dory simply has superior construction with its fiberglass - balsa (or foam) - fiberglass sandwich hull and deck, which has stood the test of time. Rangers have not. So we see 15, 20 and even 30 year old C-Dorys being bought and sold every day here. That is a testament to the durability of C-Dorys! I kind of doubt we will see any Ranger make it a comparable period of time. Only time will tell, of course, but I would not bet on that!
 
The first Rangers were the 21s when some of the ex C-dory people went over to Ranger they added the 25 classic Tug which I don't believe came out until 2007 or so, so they don't have the same long history as C-Dory's do. I have visited both factorys, I used to be a pattern maker for a large boat builder. I like the Rangers very well engineered and executed glass work. I think the hulls will easily stand the test of time. But! The dark solid colored gellcoats all fade badly and if not kept well buffed out they look really ratty and are hard to sell for what the owners think they should be worth. The real Achilles heel is their very complex electrical systems housed beneath the leaky cockpit hatches where on our 25 we were always fighting corrosion problems on a 3 year old boat. The first 25s were sold with 75 hp but everyone wanted the semi-planing 110 horse so they started putting in the higest powered diesels that they could fit uder the cocpit floor, so fuel economy droped but they could advertise 15 knot boats. The new computer driven common rail, over turbo boosted diesels plagued them in the middle years. Cummins diesels had to be dropped because of disabling computer problems on new boats with replacement parts from Eastern Europe months delayed. Our Yanmar was reliable but access for routine maintenance was terrible and the engine was dropped from the Yanmar line leaving it an orphan on parts.
We looked at C-Dory's and Ventures before we bought the very expensive Tug why? One word, or I guess two "wife" and "interior" those two things are what I think have a big impact on their sales. Why did we come back to a C-dory? They are simple to maintain, good looking, comfortable to cruise easy to trailer boats. Ventures are nice but are heavier and have interior liners to deal with.
 
Micah, I tried without success to pm you to ask the following question:
There is a red hull RT on D dock in San Carlos (Sonora) Marina could it be the one you previously owned? Alain
 
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