Vintage Manatee Boats Present a Rare Sight at St. Ignace Public Marina
By Ryan Schlehuber

The Bucket wasn't the only Manatee boat that visited the St. Ignace harbor. The 36-foot Summertime, owned by Ray and Linda Corrette of Connecticut, also stayed a few nights. The boats were together previously in a harbor in Peterborough, Ontario (pictured here) last month. Both couples were participating in America's Greatest Loop, a nautical trip that travels along about 5,000 miles of coastline, rivers, and lakes. (Photograph courtesy of Mickey and Doug Zirkle)

Manatee boats are rare on the Great Lakes, so it was a treat for marina dwellers in St. Ignace to see two of them docked here for a week in early August. Designed for space and economy by naval architect James Krogen, their stout bodies been compared to a life-size bathtub toy. They range in length from 36 feet to 42 feet and are designed to give owners as much space inside as possible, thus there are no side decks.

Most Manatees are equipped with one bedroom, and they sacrifice speed for fuel economy, using a single engine with a top speed of 7.5 knots, or eight miles per hour.

Mickey and Doug Zirkle of Fort Pierce, Florida, visited the St. Ignace Public Marina the week of August 12 through August 18 with their unusual boat, the Bucket, a Krogen-made Manatee, a rare sight for Great Lakes waters.

The two Manatees here this month were from Florida and Connecticut, both on independent tours of the Great Lakes seaway.

Bucket owners Mickey and Doug Zirkle, of Fort Pierce, Florida, formerly from Grand Rapids, and Summertime owners Ray and Linda Corrette of Connecticut had never met until this summer. They have been navigating America's Great Loop, a nautical route of more than 5,000 miles that takes boaters from Florida, along the east coast, through the Great Lakes, the channels leading to the Mississippi River, and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico.

The couples first met last month in Hastings, Ontario, and were delighted to find out their paths had crossed again in St. Ignace.

"We seem to always reunite with people we've met, in the strangest places," said Mr. Zirkle. "The cruising community, the ones who live on their boats for months and really travel, is actually small, so it's not too surprising to run into people you've met before, in different places."

The Zirkles lived on a 42-foot sailboat for three years and sailed from Lake Michigan to the Bahamas. Today, they enjoy Bucket, their home for the past five months. They have now traveled on to Grand Rapids, where they will put Bucket into winter storage and return to Florida until the next boating season.

"If you're going to live on a boat," laughed Mr. Zirkle, "you need to be very patient and very flexible. There's a limited water supply, which you need to use for short showers and ration for drinking and washing dishes. It's the same with the electricity."

The Zirkles live a simple, quiet, yet highly enjoyable life on Bucket, said Mrs. Zirkle.

"It's great, because we're able just to take off, and it's just the two of us," she said.

"Generally speaking," Mr. Zirkle said, "although the boat may be like a smaller house, we do enjoy a huge backyard. We get to see the wildlife, and I'm not talking about the nightlife in town."

The Zirkles enjoyed an extended stay in St. Ignace owing to mechanical problems, which were taken care of by Rick Ward, a mechanic from Shepler's Mackinac Island Ferry. They left August 14.

"I like the quiet anchorages," said Mrs. Zirkle. "St. Ignace's marina is very nice."

The Correttes enjoyed their stay in St. Ignace, as well.

"St. Ignace Marina was delightful, and we enjoyed our stay," said Mr. Corrette.

Likewise, boaters at the marina enjoyed having them here.

"They're really neat," said St. Ignace resident and boater George Yshinski, "and it's rare to see one, let alone two at one marina."

Only 98 Manatees made between 1984 and 1989 are known to exist today.