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Quote:

Originally Posted by pappo (Post 2266605)

I got pulled over on Saturday of Labor Day at around 1 in the afternoon heading out to Lake Michigan. They followed me from the wharf to the power plant and then decided to pull me over. They tied up to me and then asked me to shut off my boat. The only problem was that there was a pretty good wind that day and their boat couldn't control both of ours tied together. Makes a lot of sense that they'd pull me over in the busiest traffic day of the year in the busiest spot in GH and not be able to maneuver our boats and put my boat in danger.

One of the sheriff started asking me how much water my boat drafts. I asked him why and he said that we're getting pretty shallow and that he wasn't able to maneuver our boats. They then asked me to fire up my engines and tow us out in the middle of the channel. (This I had to do 4 times.) Keep in mind that this is in the middle of the busiest intersection of the channel on saturday during labor day weekend. You can only imagine the amount of boats and equipment these guys put in danger.

I believe that the sound test has to be 4 feet behind and 3 feet above the water. You can see that they are about even with my swim platform. Don't believe that meets the 4 foot requirement.

If my boat is too loud and I am braking the law then I'll have to do something about it. My problem is that this is one of the busiest days on the water in GH, and basically the last weekend of boating. The sheriff shouldn't be busy pulling over every power boat and testing for noise, they should be ensuring the safety on the water, and not creating a hazard. I'm sure there was no one drinking and driving during the 40 minutes the sheriff was tied up to me.

Did they give you a ticket? Did they check for your safety equipment. Did they do anything other than hassle you?

CJ - I was in town (from Maryland) in early August, and had intended to stop by your place, but never got that far upstream. Deputy Dykhouse saw to it that I left town.

Sent an email to the mayor and city council members. Got no response whatsoever.

Good for you CJ. Go fot it. Law inforcment should concentrate on criminals and safety, and not single out HP boaters, just because they can't afford it, or have no balls to use them. It's envy.. I see it everwhere.
I used to go to GH back in the 90's, no problems then.

Good luck.

It is very easy to beat the test ,,, first off get a vid cam and the min they pull ya over start the Cam rolling ,, when they ask you what your doin just tell them you are making a record for the court,, they then need to follow the letter of the law for the test ,,, (which most of them do not know ) it is not possiable to test at 4ft back and 3ft above the water with a cross section with tape measure's ,, after that ,, they need to deal with the wind noise ,,, you also are allowed to lower you idle to the factory spec ,, it just go's on and on ,,,,

Just bone up on the law and challange them ,, we beat them in court once and that set the tone for the rest of the year !!

RHC

Mike, they were fairly close judging by the angle of the pic. (But I may be wrong)

They need to be 4-5' above the water and 3.3' back from the farthest point on the transom. You could argue that the tubular swim platform was the transom if they were not 3.3' from it.

All of the sheriff boats are marked on both sides for 3.3'. Meaning they line that mark up with your transom. Then when they stand on their platform the meter is correct. When on the platform 4-5' off the water would be them holding the meter at approximately waist height. (It looks like that in the pic)

If they were about 3-3.5' the difference in meter reading is only about .5db. If they were around 2' above the water then the difference would be in the 2-3db range. (We did some testing with the sheriff's)

You could try to argue that the their boat hanging past yours is causing an echo but the SAEJ2005 says they can position the boat at the minimum distance to test at the 3.3'

The best thing to do for a fair re-test is have the test performed from a dock. We did the testing with them at the municipal launch. From there they can do the test by leaning out from the dock eliminating the boat hanging past.

Long time no see; will you be in town around Halloween? If you are not doing it we may be having a P & H party complete with a hot tub bus to cart us to the bars.

See Ya!
Todd