camera did not make those waves look small...

If you didn't know - I used to boat on Lake Michigan until my wife ( early onset Alzheimer's ) would freak out every time the boat left the water. She won't even go to Lake Michigan now. And YES the waves on Lake Michigan do have a trough. The big ones have big ones.
Lake Michigan can get real bad real quick. I have been out in 6 footers with a 25 Checkmate from Grand Haven to South Haven. And Back.
I have had the SCARAB out in 8 footers once - never again. I have raced other boats in 4's and that was fun.

Thats the one I was thinking of.. The deck separated from the hull on Mikes boat that day…. What a great run… I remember it like it was yesterday.

That's some insane running right there! Knock out and deck separation was worth it for those pics!

Hardcore! :cheer:

Havent been on here in a while and I can see its not short of any A S S Holes lately,
I boat out of that Harbor and when waves come rolling in from the northeast like that first one did in the video. Its big water. A 46 Cig with bow/sky action in that water needs skill and tender care or youll stuff the sucker like it was a jet boat. 95% of you would be crying for your mommy's.
Unless you've boat on Lake Michigan you have no clue.... Try since 1993, I've been in real big S H I T over those 20 years.
Now back to the nonsense....

But you where in a Fountain....cake walk for Fountain guys.....:)

I ran across ERIE to PIB a few years back in my Velocity in the fall. There was a small craft warning. The Jet Express ran up to Wyandotte Yacht Club and back. They had people falling over in the Jet Express. I would say we were in 6-8 with an occasional swell of 9-10. It was a wet ride in following seas. When down in between the waves we couldn't see anything but a wall of water. We could only see the horizon once we climbed the next wave. It was like surfing with the boat. We ran about 35 and made the trip in about 1.5 hrs. I ran faaster than I wanted to, but didn't want to slow it down and fall off of plane...... I can say I did it but I wouldn't do it again.

Wonder how my new Concept will handle bigger water???

It seems like there are many people stating how big waves can get on Lake Michigan. Nobody is denying that. What many are saying, 16 pages ago, is those waves are not 15 feet.

I thought they said 12' and others said it looked like only 4's.
Yes tbone, My 42 has been though some nasty water.
Worst was in a 42 straight bottom cig and we would get knocked of plane evey few waves.

Amazing how people seem to know all about Lake Michigan (and other great lakes) but have NEVER boated on them!

I know the waves in the video were bigger then 100% of the users on here bashing have EVER boated in.

I BEG all the naysayers to come run the great lakes this summer when its rough and post their own videos.................

Attention Keyboard Cowboys

Please Read and Learn

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/buf/waves.htm

Heres a Cig tearing it up in 4ft'ers :rolleyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEPywJs6iQ0

Impressive throttle work :pacifier:

Still can't believe how the video camera distorts the water conditions............ I guess that's what's happening........What the he!! do I know? Roger that!

75 in 4 footers,,and not one white cap,,hmmmmmmm....

Hey guys, I can't get it to upload here but I did on Facebook. Go to powerboat minds unite page. Good video of true 8s

https://m.facebook.com/groups/257596...ser=1265515314

you dont need white caps to have 4' footers

Or 10'+ for that matter.

Maybe I suck at judging wave heights. All I can do is go off NOAA reports when it comes to boating (even though they can be misleading). On lake Michigan, I have found when getting ready to take the boat out, I can expect these scenerios

Wave Forecast Nearshore Within 5 nautical miles of shore.

1ft or less. Good day for a nice cruise. Even the guys with 25ft boats can come out and enjoy the day.

1-2FT. The guys in the 25ft boats can still come out, but It might be a bit bumpy, and chances are not doing any top speed runs. A little chop to get the larger boats running faster but still able to drink a beer underway.

1-3FT. Things are getting more fun. The 25ft boats are catching good air for photo op's. The 35-40' boats are running fast, with the occasional throttling.

2-4FT. 25FT boats are getting beat up. All they can do is maintain a steady speed, and hope to reach the destination in a timely fashion, before anyone gets sick or falls down. 35-40's are starting to catch good air, definitely some throttling going on if your running hard. Youll catch a couple random hits that tell you to take it down a notch.

3-5's. 25FT boats stay in the harbor, or are in for a wet ride. 35-40's are having a hard time running fast. The waters are confused and beginning to be unpredictable and hard to read. Its a very lively ride in a large offshore boat.

4-6's. The Cig and apache guys come out and tell everyone else it was a smooth ride and they hit a new top speed record, not realizing their nose has grown 3 inches before the story is over.

6-8s. Your borderline busting a stringer, the fun factor has dropped to 0. Your just trying to make it to protected waters asap. Your pleasure boats microwave explodes, your norcold fridge just busted a Freon line, and you chipped a gear off your lower gear set. You come to the understanding of why the old Apache raceboats had no cabin, just bulkeads and stringers.

true,,,

Yea but hows the ride in the 40' Searay:daz:

That's pretty much spot on, other than the cig part :). Also the NOAA is worse at predicting than your local weatherman. I feel bad for the little boats when they call for waves less than a foot and it's rougher out there than on small craft advisory days. Whitecaps usually tell the story, if you can see them it's not going to be fun

So I just caught this thread today. I have to say I appreciate all the wisdom and years of experience that I could gather from reading. I don't understand why everyone has a different opinion on the matter. I am a tsunami survivor and have no clue how to judge this stuff. I even learned I was measuring my penis wrong. My wife is going to be so happy to learn you start between your shoulder blades and go down your back under your taint all the way to the tip. You guys are the best! Please send me an email or something when a thread like this starts up. Artie and Mike, can you do that for me?

I have found that there are far more factors that just wave height. Shape, spacing, steepness, etc all come into play. I've been on Lake Michigan in true 3-4s in a 19 foot boat and had a riot. The waves were "rolling" and had a ton of spacing between them. We were literally using the roller as a jump, catching huge air, and able to land and correct before the next wave. On the flipside, I have been out in 1-2 "whitecaps" with no rhythm, spaced closer together and the occasional 3-4 foot hole.

That being said, video NEVER captures how rough it is out there, so I won't speculate their size. But, no way a 3-4 footers are tossing around a 46' Cig.

This should be a sticky. :drink:

Why do you care? Outerlimits aren't true offshore boats. They even have a cabin. :confused:

Great post from another "famous thread" on here.

I was one of the first guys to say no way are those waves even close to 15'. Who knows maybe I'm right maybe I'm wrong. Now 18 pages later and this post is still going. Indulge me for a minute. I understand a race, even a poker run being held in not so ideal conditions. This is a test run. Does it make any sense to do a test run in 15' waves? What's the point? What can be gained in big water that isn't accomplished on the trailer? Turn the key on. Press the switches for the tabs and drives. They go up and down, check! Fire both motors. They run and gain RPM when the throttles are moved forward, check! Move the sticks in and out of gear, forward and reverse, check! Turn the steering wheel back and forth, drives move side to side, check! End of test.

Ok, before everybody jumps all over me and says so. My point is I still find it hard to believe those waves were the size claimed. I find it hard to believe that somebody, especially a professional, would see any point to sea trial a boat in those conditions.

As you can see they were running inside and along the breakwall area,,,,,,, we affectionately call that the " kiddie pool "

Lake Michigan is never the same body of water twice,,,,, sometimes you can run hard in 6' plus water because of the spacing.

Most time its a washing machine with no direction or set,,,, you set the boat and get a rhythm, and the next thing you know a wave pops up under your boat and slaps you to the other side.

2-4's,,,, or 3-5's can also produce a 5' hole or the 8' that came from nowhere.

Simply put,,,,, if you don't boat on it every weekend you have no business commenting on it because its like no other body of water I ( or you ) have ever boated on.

And if you think " maybe 4' max " waves are going to do that to a 46 Cig,,,,,, that's an entirely different conversation.

We have some pretty mixed up water on the south side of Cape Cod in the summer as well. Your right I have never boated on Lake Michigan. Kiddie pool or protected bay we certainly can look beyond that and see if there are 15' waves that we clearly don't belong in. However, I certainly know what you mean about a particular setting going to hell pretty quickly. So you really get no argument from me there.

Your last sentence however, really! The big bad Cigarette can not get thrown around in 4' waves. Bull. If the trim and drives aren't set right, or maybe the balance of a particular boat likes a 1/2 tank, or a full tank of gas, or if your going too slow. There are many reasons a boat won't settle down. Anyway, there is probably no winning or losing this conversation.

Anyone remember the cancellation of the races on lake Michigan a couple years ago due to the water? I think it was a 5-7ft day?

I thought this one was better. Blue Moon 36' Apache; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttN2stWdoeg

Seriously, why are people saying he was driving in 15' waves? Scott never said he was driving in 15' waves. Weather buoys further out had indicated that. He really should edit the original post title to be clearer after 20 pages new-bee's aren't reading this whole thing.

Lake Michigan can just be mean. Just like someone said, as soon as you think you have the perfect trim and tab, bam. Where the heck did that come from. Been boating this lake for 18 years now. Always catches me every time I look away for a millisecond. Then i get the look from the wife.

uummm because that's what the title of the YouTube video says.......

For historical purposes :party-smiley-004:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]517091[/ATTACH]

And like I said, he should change the title. But he did, try to clarify in one of his responses I copied below.


2004 46 Cigarette Strip Poker
It was honest 8's. 4's would not affect the attitude of a 46. Couldn't get over 50MPH but had a blast and had tabs down about 65% and minimal trim in drives.

Been on lake MI for a long time, very few days like this. Yes, we wish we had the GOPRO with us but we didn't and had to use an IPHONE. The video was short and only 8' in video you see and 12-15 when we got further out but we could not video it with IPHONE and hold on at same time.

It was a short ride, FREEZING cold but we had to test the boat and it ran great, flew straight and landed soft, AWESOME boat that is now in LOTO.

Sorry we did not have better video because it was rollers which are a blast and we do not see much on lake, usually rough days are a big soup bowl. We will get better video next time.

Hope spring gets here soon.

Regards,

Scott Sjogren
Pier 57

Yeah, and Obama told me I could keep my healthcare coverage and provider.... The video says 12-15 footers..... Turns out, the truth was "stretched" in both instances.

Had the title said .....Strip Poker sea trial...or Freeze our balls off in a Ciggy....or another happy Pier57 customer.....the comments would have been totally different. But as previously posted...12 - 15ft waves for die hard cig guys.......so its full force winter time keyboard boating....we have all the wave experts come out. all the LOTO experts come out like they are the only ones who live on a bulked up lake....all the guys who have been boating on MI since its creation....

I like Scott and the Pier57 gang, purchased my previous Fountain from them. But the video was like Paris Hilton's first attempt at porn. The title got everyone worked up for a huge let down. :)

Thanks for the laugh. And I agree. Scott, even though it's too late. Change the title already. Being compared to Porn by Paris should be enough don't you think?