My Boat is out of commission for the next week or two :(

surfinjoe

surfinjoe

New Member
Feb 23, 2007
946
Michigan
Boat Info
220 Sundeck 2007
Engines
350 MAG w/Bravo III
So my summer started a bit shakey from the get-go, but two weekends ago something really bad happened.

I was on Lake St. Clair heading from Ford Cove to the Grosse Pointe Yacht club running in about 4' of water around 15-18 MPH (just on plane) following another boat. I was watching the bottom for rocks and such and did not see anything that alarmed me, just sand. Then, all the sudden I heard a loud thud and a sound like a bullet bouncing off a rock. I lost power and smelled gear lube. Long story short, I hit a huge slab of concrete that I didn't even see and cracked my lower unit in two. I lost pretty much everything in my lower housing including BOTH B3 props.

So my question is: Why the HELL doesn't someone mark the area? That same weekend, 3 other SeaRay's did major damage to their outdrives in the same spot. Colony Marine says they get about 30 boats in a year with outdrive damage while boating in the same area.

Live and learn I guess....$10,500 later!
 
I wouldn't be running my boat hard in 4 ft of water.

Sorry to hear of your damage, but water that thin I would be at idle speed with my drive tilted up.
 
Most of our lake is less than 6' deep, so I would not be able to run my boat at speed most anywhere. When I say 4' of water, I mean on the depth finder. So that is around 5'-6' deep in reality.

If you are in the middle of lake St. Clair, it is rare to see water over 10' (unless you are on the Canadian side or in a shipping channel).
 
surfinjoe said:
Most of our lake is less than 6' deep, so I would not be able to run my boat at speed most anywhere.
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I was just going to say that if we didn't venture into shallow water, no-one in Lake St. Clair would ever leave the marina!

Sorry to hear about the damage. This won't make you feel any better, but it IS charted as an obstruction.

As for not marking it physically, my guess is that the guy who paid $6,000,000 - $7,000,000 for the house with that view is already angry enough and doesn't want to look at a clorox bottle on a rope.
 
The Marine dealer has nothing to do with the concrete. People say that the Ford family put in these huge chunks of concrete in to keep the Canadian Rum Runners from stealing their children from their property. I guess it works. My issue is that there is nothing telling you that they are there. Our lake is pretty much all sand. One would never expect something like this on Lake St. Clair!
 
I have been boating on St. Clair for over 10 years and no one ever told me about this area. I will take another look at my charts, but I never really noticed them. I was following another boat, so logic would say that I should have been OK. I guess not.

BTW - what ever happened to that HUGE rock in front of MacRay? It did have a clorox bottle last year, but I didn't see one this summer. That is one HUGE rock, just under the water by about 6" or so. Last year, I saw kids sun-bathing on that thing.

RollerCoastr said:
I was just going to say that if we didn't venture into shallow water, no-one in Lake St. Clair would ever leave the marina!

Sorry to hear about the damage. This won't make you feel any better, but it IS charted as an obstruction.

As for not marking it physically, my guess is that the guy who paid $6,000,000 - $7,000,000 for the house with that view is already angry enough and doesn't want to look at a clorox bottle on a rope.
Click to expand...
 
surfinjoe said:
I have been boating on St. Clair for over 10 years and no one ever told me about this area. I will take another look at my charts, but I never really noticed them. I was following another boat, so logic would say that I should have been OK. I guess not.

BTW - what ever happened to that HUGE rock in front of MacRay? It did have a clorox bottle last year, but I didn't see one this summer. That is one HUGE rock, just under the water by about 6" or so. Last year, I saw kids sun-bathing on that thing.
Click to expand...

There is a standard hazard bouy attached to it.
 
surfinjoe said:
BTW - what ever happened to that HUGE rock in front of MacRay? It did have a clorox bottle last year, but I didn't see one this summer. That is one HUGE rock, just under the water by about 6" or so. Last year, I saw kids sun-bathing on that thing.
Click to expand...

Funny - that's what I was thinking about the "Poorman's rock" when I made that post...
 
Spirits up - hopefully you have insurance coverage for that.

Hazards are frustrating - there are a lot of shallow water lakes in my area, and the lakes all tend to be full this year. Not looking forward to a drought year.

I went to Storm Lake in NW Iowa a few weeks ago - first time there. The main marina sits behind a small island. There are a number of buoys near the marina marked 5 mph. It just so happens that the last buoy south of the island is a faded diamond hazard buoy. So, it was marked, and I have myself to blame. But, I caught concrete with my skeg, broke a chunk off, and dinged up the prop a bit. :smt089

I got a brief history on the lake, and it seems they dumped all kinds of concrete in it, to build the islands, reinforce the shore, etc. Now they are dredging that stuff out, so the lake bottom is quite variable. The Iowa DNR guy that helped us get loose seemed to be in a lot of practice dealing with our exact issue.

The damn thing is, Storm Lake pushes a tourist business - you would think they would help a tourist avoid this with more prominent marking. Once we were aware of the lake history and more hazard points, combined with too much rain in the forecast, we set out for home a few days early. They probably lost a good thousand bucks in my tourist dollars, and it is not high on my list of lakes to return to.
 
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Spirits up - hopefully you have insurance coverage for that.

Hazards are frustrating - there are a lot of shallow water lakes in my area, and the lakes all tend to be full this year. Not looking forward to a drought year.

I went to Storm Lake in NW Iowa a few weeks ago - first time there. The main marina sits behind a small island. There are a number of buoys near the marina marked 5 mph. It just so happens that the last buoy south of the island is a faded diamond hazard buoy. So, it was marked, and I have myself to blame. But, I caught concrete with my skeg, and dinged up the prop a bit. :smt089

I got a brief history on the lake, and it seems they dumped all kinds of concrete it, to build the islands, reinforce the shore, etc. Now they are dredging that stuff out, so the lake bottom is quite variable. The Iowa DNR guy that helped us get loose seemed to be in a lot of practice dealing with our exact issue.

The damn thing is, Storm Lake pushes a tourist business - you would think they would help a tourist avoid this with more prominent marking. Once we were aware of the lake history and more hazard points, combined with too much rain in the forecast, we set out for home a few days early. They probably lost a good thousand bucks in my tourist dollars, and it is not high on my list of lakes to return to.
 
Kind of ironic that I mentioned that old poormans rock. I am glad they put a hazard buoy there. The old clorox bottle just wasn't enough.

So are you sure that the rocks in front of Art Van's house are marked as a hazard?

RollerCoastr said:
Funny - that's what I was thinking about the "Poorman's rock" when I made that post...
Click to expand...
 
I do have ins. through Markel. They waived my deductable since I have yet to make a claim (had it since 2004). Lake St. Clair attracts a lot of boats, so I am also surprized that they don't mark the concrete that I hit. I bet that the local boat shops make so much money that it keeps people in business. My SeaRay guy says he gets 30+ boats/yr from that area, and that's just one marina out of the bunch. I bet over 100 boats/yr. hit something there....let's see, simple math says 100 X $10,000 = $1,000,000 in repairs/yr.

Dave 205 said:
Spirits up - hopefully you have insurance coverage for that.

Hazards are frustrating - there are a lot of shallow water lakes in my area, and the lakes all tend to be full this year. Not looking forward to a drought year.

I went to Storm Lake in NW Iowa a few weeks ago - first time there. The main marina sits behind a small island. There are a number of buoys near the marina marked 5 mph. It just so happens that the last buoy south of the island is a faded diamond hazard buoy. So, it was marked, and I have myself to blame. But, I caught concrete with my skeg, and dinged up the prop a bit. :smt089

I got a brief history on the lake, and it seems they dumped all kinds of concrete it, to build the islands, reinforce the shore, etc. Now they are dredging that stuff out, so the lake bottom is quite variable. The Iowa DNR guy that helped us get loose seemed to be in a lot of practice dealing with our exact issue.

The damn thing is, Storm Lake pushes a tourist business - you would think they would help a tourist avoid this with more prominent marking. Once we were aware of the lake history and more hazard points, combined with too much rain in the forecast, we set out for home a few days early. They probably lost a good thousand bucks in my tourist dollars, and it is not high on my list of lakes to return to.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Scott. St. Clair is a great lake, but not a Great Lake (if you know what I mean).

It may sound crazy, but most boats turn-up sand every time they run their boat. It's a large lake indeed, but very shallow. It's more of a flood plain than it is a lake. And when the water is really low, watch-out. Suddenly islands appear in the middle of the lake that were not there the year before.

My dad says that the lake flushes the water every 3 days. If you pay attention, there is actually a current on the lake flowing from the St. Clair river to the Detroit river. We love our lake, don't get me wrong....but it's just a big shallow lake :)

sfergson727 said:
After looking at the depth contours, I can't believe some folks petition for St. Clair to become listed as a great lake. A great mudpuddle perhaps, but in no way, shape or form should it ever be mentioned in the same breath as the five Great Lakes. Sheesh, five feet deep? I've seen Lake Michigan's level fluctuate that much in an hour.

Sorry for the damage to the boat though, that stinks.
Click to expand...
 
I'd be in constant butt puckered mode in that depth. I couldn't run 18 knots in 6' of water at anytime. I get nervous in anything less than 30' around here.....and that's with a great plotter.
Sorry to hear of the wreck, that sucks.
 
surfinjoe said:
So are you sure that the rocks in front of Art Van's house are marked as a hazard?
Click to expand...

No! The marked hazard is in a direct line from the cove to the GPYC, but it's about 2/3rds of the way down. The Elsander mansion is probably only 1/3rd of the way...?
 
Where we go I look at 10 feet as minimum depth. Some areas are not charted and we go dead slow and record the track on the chart plotter. Going out we follow the chart plotter route. In some areas we find rocks on charts that are not marked. You eastern boaters got it tuff with shallow water areas compared to us.
 
I'm not sure about the U.S., but in Canada if you mark a hazard it is then your responsability to maintain the marker. Failure to maintain the marker and you could be liable for any boats being damaged and/or personal injury resulting from striking the object. I wouldn't want to bear that responsability - how about you?
 
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