Noise and Neighbors
 

WE are down in Florida on the West Coast enjoying a little boating time in the Gulf.. We have recently bought a Condo and am renting Dock space from the Association President.. WE are the proud owners of a 1984 Cigarette Mistress.WE also have neighbors that complain about the noise every time we start the boat to go out. I do my best to be polite and come off the lift and shut the engines off until the lift is raised out of the water. WE try to be considerate but are still getting complaints from the same people or person. Is it time to look into mufflers or do I as a boater also have some rights? We never go out early or come back late.. Your suggestions are appreciated with this matter..

Rap it up a couple times so they realize it could be worse. Do you have any friends with big power? Maybe they should come visit. Face it, your an a$$hole with a loud boat. Congrats.

Seriously, you are never going to please everyone.

HOLY $HIT

I knew you were still a power boater at heart bud. Also, very well said.

Let see ... in Florida sailors have rights, fisherman have rights, stupid fisherman have the most rights (don’t even look at a sailor that’s fishing) oh yah even manatee have rights but performance boaters ... forget it? Motorcycles and muscle cars out on 41 seem to stay under the radar? Go figure! I have similar problems but usually at restaurants. Usually I will get applauded and mocked when I shut down. Even at Harpoon Harry’s which gets a modest amount of loud motorcycles on the front side. Worst was a little old lady that in a very screechy voice laid into me saying that it sounded like I was shooting cannons at her … shoot if I was shooting cannons to bad I missed. Neighbors don’t seem to mind and a couple of commented that they can tell I try to be as courteous as I can. Seems like when we run with Ft. Myers Offshore in a pack, everything seems ok, but when you're solo you’re a sitting duck.

I am probably going to add mufflers and even tonight I have been researching on which ones to go with.

Sorry about you troubles but misery does seem to like company.

Andy

We have had a very hard time with the noise police up here in recent years. I've tested many sets of mufflers and found GGB's to work the best. No power loss at all (gun silencer technology) Passed the 90db limit and still sounds nice.

Kurt

Andy
It is amazing that everyone seems to have rights except the performance boater.. I can't believe you mentioned clapping at the resturants.. We just got that at "The Pub" on Saturday.. The weed wackers are louder then us and they get to run those babies at 7am.. Thanks for your come back.. misery does like company..
Dean

Find out what the noise laws/ordinances are and comply with them. Other than that, they will never stop complaining, so take the advice above, and show them how much worse it could be. If that doesn't work, put thim in their place, offer to let them use your phone to call the cops, whatever it takes to make them look like schmucks. Then they will stop whining to you and start complaining to other people.

+1.... kill them with kindness

WTF. I hate people that complain about noise when they are the ones that bought a condo on the water with docks. Just like the azz holes that buy a house in the flight path of an airport and then complain about noisey planes. Then there are the ones who buy a house next to a race track and then complain about noisey race cars. It's a bunch of :bsflag: I tell you. I say as long as it is within reasonable hours, not real early and not real late, MAKE ALL THE DAMN NOISE YOU WANT!!!!!!!!!!!! Last time I checked Florida is still part of America. A FREE country.

when we would test the race boats on Sarasota bay there was one old lady who would call the cops and complain every time. the cops told her the same thing every time. as long as we did not start prior to 9 am and shut down by 6 pm and stayed 100 feet from shore then we did not violate any laws and could run all we wanted. they would always come tell us after she called and tell us to make sure not to fire up too early and stay off the sea wall aways and go have fun. like was said, find out any noise laws in the area and follow them. so long as you do that nothing else will make them happy so go have fun.

Yup...that's how we handle things in TX...:coolcowboy:

I had the guy that lives across the street from me come out yelling at me because i had my chopper warming up at the base of my driveway with the exhaust facing my house. It was 10am. So the next day i made sure to keep the bike at the top of my drive but with the exhaust facing his house. After that he never *****ed about me warming up the bike at the foot of my drive way with pipes facing my house again. Show them it could be much much worse and they may back down....

or just tell them to puck off,oops,did i say that?:party-smiley-004:

I pulled into a busy lock once years ago. The lock is right in the middle of town, people crowd around watching the boats lock through......

Beautiful hot day, I pull into the lock, shut the boat off and some short fat broad with a Tilley hat starts off with a "OH THANK YOU...." then starts going on about the noise, I couldnt really hear exactly what she was saying because the stereo was still on but I finally stood up, looked right at her and said "Oh listen to you....and you think my BOAT is annoying!!" everybody laughed their heads off and she shut up....:drink::drink:

Ever been to Virginia Beach? People constantly complain about the F18 jet noise. Guess what, it will be noisy when you buy a house next to a master jet base that has been around for more then 50 years! We constantly have to adjust and weaken our training to comply with noise abatement restrictions due to all the whining by local idiots. My apologies for the sound of freedom!

Reminds me... man, I miss the B-1B's taking off from McConnell AFB right over us. Car alarms going off. People would complain... I loved it. :drink: Now... if I were the enemy and I heard that... I'd complain! lol

As for the original post, I think everyone should use some degree of discretion and try to be considerate with their noise, and it sounds like you're doing just that. Some folks are just gonna b*tch, no matter what. They want the real world to align with the ideal world they have portrayed in their thick skulls. It's all about compromise and you seem to be compromising and they don't.

As I have learned you can't argue with stupid people and florida is full of them. Phuck they are everywhere.

At the end of the day they are just mad at you because you have the boat, the bike, the girl. the car, the house, the life, or you are just happy with what you have, jealosy is a b_tch.

I understand you try to be nice but even the people who notice still complain behind your back. People are haters.

Envy can be an ugly thing. As long as the law is on your side, smile and say "yeah well", shrug, ignore them, go on with your business and enjoy your ride. Oh, as suggested, do some kind of gettogether like a big BBQ bash and invite all the powerboaters in your area, tell them to raft up a your place, stern facing the shore.

have to admit some people try their damnest to show off their noisy toys..in my line of work (harleys) guys ask me all the time for the loudest pipes on the market...loud pipes are never the best performing ones,at least on a bike,but they do get you noticed,rarely in a good way...
there is always going to be a whining lil old lady,and when she dies,someone else will take her place...

Get a set of turn-down pipes, aka "donkey dicks." It's the best all-around solution for near-silent operation while idling around, yet your exhaust has full breathing ability when up on plane.

In conjunction with the turn-downs, tee into your water intake plumbing with a 90-degree ball valve fitting so you can shut off seawater to your engines for garden hose flushing while resting in the water. Flush your engines while still sitting in the water, then lift her up afterwards.

Photo courtesy of GLH.

I just have to share this note that was left on my truck a couple years ago. This is so crazy that I enlarged a copy and framed it to hang on the wall. I also reported the threat to two police agencies. When I'm on my local lake it's mostly anchor and sun and relax time with a few odd rips around the lake. Yes, my boat's loud but what do people expect when they live on an all sports lake? Especially one with a history of attracting performance boats. The real fun in Michigan is on the Great Lakes though and I don't have to worry about disturbing anyone's "peace & quiet". lol :)
http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/x...es513Large.jpg

Just put dry pipes on!!!!

One of my current customers was going on and on about the loud boats up at Lake Winni. the other day. How obnoxious we are and what not. He must have forgotten that I own one. I let him go on and on and then he said how bad of boaters we are. I stopped him right there and informed him that most of us are more rounded boaters then anyone on the water. Put me in any boat and I will get it going, most sailers would not even know how to start one of our boats. At any rate this summer we now have a race set up. Two sailboats of the same model. Him and his buddy against me and my brother. He is going to loose bad, my brother was on the Olympic sailing team and I aint so bad myself! :D

Did you take your boat out and rip up and down the lake till midnight after this?

Agree with everything said. Funny about the applause when shutting down. Happens alot. Too funny, I sometimes just fire back up and let all 3 run for another minute or so. But its ok for the bikes out in front of the place to rev up and idle. Thats ok ? WTF ? Its ok for the rag fliers to have chit beating & clanging on their metal mast in the wind or breeze all day when your tied up somewhere, and thats not anoying whens its 24/7 ?

Only prob is, if there is a HOA or condo association, they can make things rough on the guy, as they will induce selective prosecution on him for or of the Condo or HOA regs or could even add in a noise ordnance for the property. Cant please everyone, no matter how hard you may try or how far you go out of your way to.

Back in the day, my parents had a pain in the azz neighbor. Tried being nice to them, and they still were a pain the azz. So my dad had a decent speaker system outside the house for his stereo system, so he would turn and direct the speakers ( actually bull horns, this was in the 70's ) at their house and put on nursury rhymes and the ABC song and let it play for extended periods. They soon got the message, and started to be decent.

Be nice, then if that fails, show them how much worse it can be, then try to keep it as quiet as possible.

I had a neighbor that would whine about the noise when I would flush the engines, that it was too loud and would shake the walls in their house. I would only flush mid day to early afternoons. They would come out and scream about the noise. Told them I was being decent about it with the times for flushing and I could make it worse. Most times even used the switchable muffler tips. Guess what, repositoned the boat towards their place, hooked up more hoses to run all the engines, then fired them all up and let them run, with a few good rev tunes in between. They got the message and never said anything again.

Make sure the boat is within the DB for your area,,,,,,,then dont change a thing !!!!!

No, I've been boating on this lake for 20 years or so and there is no sense in becoming the local idiot just to antagonize one new neighbor. Besides, I think he's getting used to it:lolhit:. There have been no more problems. I just think that if he wants "peace & quiet" that he should not live on an all sports lake......or next to an airport or race track or firing range....... ;)

Works for me! :drink:


Some people are just miserable 24/7 and will do anything to be thorn in your side. F them...

To an extent. There are a few idiots out there. Also the turn downs aren't for me because I love the sound of the unmuffled 525 idling and the real decibels are when I'm up and running. I do have Q&Q for idling through a marina or yacht club where I know the sweet music won't be appreciated. I can't use it on plane with the 525 though.

what he said :drink:


we just fire up the SKATER at 7.00 a.m. sharp SUNDAY morn in the Marina and let her warm up for 20 mins while were up at the shower house :eek::lolhit: phuch em










ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:coolcowboy:
ITS A SKATER NATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:coolcowboy:
HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!:bigbird:

I like your way of thinking :drink::drink::drink::drink::drink::drink:









ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:coolcowboy:
ITS A SKATER NATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:coolcowboy:
HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!:bigbird:

You antagonize them you better be prepared to pay the price.

The Condo commandos will get after the people you are renting from if they are in the same buildings as yours and they will find something to make your life suk ,trust me.

I love the sound of a badass openheader engine as much as all of you but you have to all be sensible and realize there is many who do not,and it is not because of jealousy ,they simply like their world quiet.And to say phuckem they chose to live by the water so they have to eat it is unfair , they probably have lived there for 20 years in peace till someone with a over the top loud boat shows up.

I know i will catch a rash of chit for my comments but we are not talking 330s with log manifolds and 3 inch thru-hulls these days.The majority are running engines and exhaust that would have paled most race boats just 10 years ago.

I have been in a condo on a canal with a loud boat firing up and the echo of the noise is deafening in the right units.

Just my 2 cents.

I live in Traverse City, Mi. We are fortunate to have the Blue Angels perform every second year on the 4th of July weekend. They do one practice and two formal shows which last about 45 minutes each.
Each year people write letters to the editor of our local newspaper complaining about the noise !
ed

could you pull in and out on just one engine to show them that you are somewhat trying?

I agree you only make it worse. Local laws probably say 90db or something between sunrise to sunset and maybe quieter at night. Get the Db level as your law states and test your boat. If your within specs next time you get complaint show them the law show them the results from your boat. If they say anything afterwards tell them to pound sand and walk away

One reason I have classic boats. Everything is grandfathered in. But it's no big deal anyway for us. When you start a big motor at our boat ramp the men of the neighborhood come running like kids chasing an ice cream truck.
I love my redneck neighborhood.lol

+1. Had a guy come flying into the boat ramp parking lot one day, he was in his mid to late 70's. Blasted into the parking lot tires squealing in his early 90's blazer with his wife in the front seat. I had just put the cig on the trailer (dry big tube CMI's) and he rolls up with the window down. I thought I was going to get a tongue lashing, but he told me he heard me head out that morning and went out on the porch and watched (and listened) to me all day. Turned into a good conversation about "the good old days". :coolcowboy:

love go'n down in the boat & watch'n the show!!!:coolcowboy:

I agree with what you have said. Perf. boaters had better get used to all the new and old noise laws and adapt to them. I had a 38 Cigarette with 1100hp PSI supercharged motors with thru-hull ex. and was constantly ticketed for loud ex. I finally decided to do something and it worked. It may not be for everybody but it stopped the harassment as the ex. was not "switchable" and it brought the db level to within the Minnesota and Wisc. guidelines. I feel that perf. boaters were sitting on our buts when the laws were written and should have been more proactive as to how the ex. db were measured and what bd level was going to be the min. accepted. For a twin or tripple to maintain the same db level as a single is not fair, in my opinion.

Take some towels, drench them in water, and drape them over the exhaust. Start up and idle out. You'll be amazed at how quiet they are. If that doesn't work, then shoot 'em. Oops, wrong decade.