I'm wondering if any of you have a recommendation on noise reducing earmuffs for children. I have a 2 month old baby that I would like to bring on the boat, but the exhaust is loud enough to worry me.

Thanks. Taking delivery of a used Pachanga 22 on Tuesday!

I do not know how it would work on a 2 month old baby but, one avenue to look at is hearing protection from a large sporting goods shop or online like Cabelas...

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shoot...3Bcat104381280

Others are cheaper, like the Remingtons but these have a DB reduction of 25 when most youth/ladies are in around 18-21.

Should cut down the exhaust but the rumble of the wind in the cockpit as well...

I ordered 5 sets from this website.......I have a 4-1/2 year old daughter that loves my boat, and I have these to thank. As she reached 2-3 years old and she was more aware of everything the noise would scare the hell out of her. When I put the ear muffs on she is able to enjoy all there is to enjoy without being afraid just because of the loud noise. Now I notice she comes on the boat and only wants the muffs once in a while and doesn't seem to be afraid at all with or without them (we make her wear them though for the protection). I have extra sets because we tend to bring guests out now who have kids my daughters age so they can all wear them. And on a side note guys, I notice all of the 4-8 year old girls that have been out so far are champs and love the boat, yet the few little boys are always scared sh*t......WTF....... I always tell the dads they have to tuffen them up a little bit.....LOL......... now I just have to start getting my 18 month old out there so she can get used to it too and i"ll be all set.........good luck with the new ride.......

http://www.earplugstore.com/ear-muffs-for-children.html

we have a 20 mo old boy, noise is not an issue because I now have outboards but the wind in his face was an issue. He wont wear sunglasses yet and he doesnt know to squint, but we found that he likes facing backwards or my wife kinda blocks the wind with a towel, he can look out from the side of the towel so he can see, he's been 57 mph so far and loves the boat!

Great feedback, I'll check out the links posted. Thanks!

We use ear plugs for our girls but they are a little older, not sure if they would fit a 2 month old.
Wind noise I think is worse than exhaust at least in our boats. When they were young as yours they where always down low in the cockpit so it wasn't bad.
Also watch your stereo volume, it can be much louder at there level (height) than when your standing above it.

btw: not sure how rough it gets where you boat but I think they need some neck strength and be able to hold their head up to be out in anything above an idle, just my opinion.

I completely agree. Wake speed in calm water for now. The infant life jacket provides a lot of head support and mom will be holding him anyway.

Both of my daughters were introduced to the boat at a very young age - the older one had her first boat ride at 8 weeks! We would just strap her into her car seat and put it down if the footwell of the cuddy. As soon as that big block fired up, she would conk out asleep - the rumble would lull her to sleep. I had stock exhaust at the time, so probably not as loud as some, but having her riding down in the cuddy helped considerably - probably kept the wind off of her too.

RE neck strength, I agree that an infant needs some support in this area. That is why the car seat worked so well. If it got remotely rough, I would drop the tabs and tuck the drive, and slow down if necessary to smooth things out. They both absolutely love the boat now, and the louder / faster the better! Of course, they want me to pull them around on TubeZilla most of the time now too!

That's what we did Budman. First boat ride was about 10 days old and we just threw him in the Car Seat and went. If the water got bad buried the tabs.

He is one year old this summer and thinks bouncing on boat wakes is hilarious.

As for the hearing - I worried about it too, but I realized that wind noise is more of a problem at speed than engine noise. That being said, I don't start it with him behind the boat, always down in the cockpit where it is muted.

I asked our doctor the day he was born about the noise from our boat and the doctor said that the level of exposure he would get wouldn't be a problem. Said children's years are actually exposed to lots of noise in the womb, and that ambiotic fluid in the womb is very loud to their ears. My kiddo has had no issues other than I can't get him to get out of the water; he just wants to swim around on my hip for hours on end......!!!