Oh yeah, I did get pulled over by the marine patrol Saturday.....
 

Had 8 people in my boat, including my buddies 5 year old boy (a great boater by the way!!). Well, seems I left the child class II at home so I had him in the kiddy vest. Figured we were taking it easy all day, not beating on the boat (too many people and the little one to think about) and that with 7 adults around, he would be fine (and he was). It was a beautiful day with good friends. As I'm heading out the channel in Grand Haven, the sherrif is coming out of the Coast Gaurd Station and the woman cop points at us to her partner. I figured she was going to pull me over and I knew why. Now the fun part starts. Wind blowing one way, current flowing the other. The guy at the wheel could not get up next to me. Finally I told him to stay where he was and I would come to him. Tied up on the first try. Shouldn't the sherrif patrol be good boat handlers?? Anyway, that's a different story. They gave me a warning on the child jacket and actually GAVE me a type II childs jacket. They could have sent me back to the trailer, but instead did the NICE thing. I get pulled over about once a year, and am always legal. I make sure of that. I also carry my Coast Gaurd Certification card with me. Not sure if that had any influence, but they were pretty cool about the jacket.

By the way, as I'm working with the sherrif, my freind Dale goes by in his 38 Cougar with WAY loud motors. He has many noise tickets with this boat. I called him later that day to let him know he was welcome for me keeping the sherrif busy while he snuck by!! LOL!!! :D

That just proves you're the nice guy I know you to be.

Mike, you should have gave him the finger and made him tie up to your boat. Im pretty sore at law enforcement these days. Have you seen the West Michigan Papers in Muskegon? What a joke. If ya didn't Ill explain later.

GFB

Hay Cranky, been gone a while. You still docking at Great Lakes?

Jim

Jim, he bumped me pretty hard on his first attempt. Actually left a black streak from his rub rail on my paint. I was NOT happy. But I kept my cool. I just figured to keep my custom paint ON my boat, I'd better do the navigating. I guarantee I have been boating a LOT longer than this kid. He might have been 23 or 24. She was a bit older and obviously in charge on this cruise. She was kinda impressed I did it on the first try given the circumstances. Wind, current, and lot's of other boats. What can I say, I'm GOOD!!!

I left some "Get out of jail free" cards in your cup holder.

Mike,
Cool that you got off quickly.

What does your Coast Guard occupancy plaque say? On my 25 it says 6 persons maximum capacity...Did they check that? I almost got a ticket once for having 7 onboard, but they decided to be nice and let me off with a warning.

Isn't it usually # of people OR weight? Having a kid or two or some skinny chicks will cut your weight down. I don't think those capacity stickers are mandatory on boats over 24 ft. My boat does not have one?

Dave M,
I believe the verbage is interpretted as meaning you cannot allow more than X number of people on your boat. Period.

X=6, in my case.

Now, if I have 5 people and gear that equal the maximum weight, that's it...No 6th person allowed.

It doesn't mean that you can pile on 9 skinny, hot chicks until you finally reach the max. weight, although that would be great! :D:D:D

Daze, My boat does not have a capacity plaque. I've had 8 people on board several times, and have never had an issue with it. When I got pulled over, I had 7. At LOTO two years ago I had 10!!!! Got on plane too.....but it took a long time to accomplish. Only had to go a couple of miles to Shooters. Drive blew up on the way back!!! Sucked.

Troutly, I knew I had the wrong jacket when we hit the water, just thought we'd be fine for the day. If the lake was rough, I would not have gone out. We did a lot of just cruising around, most of it at no wake speeds. If I put 4 hours on the boat Saturday, 3 hours and 35 minutes of it was at no wake speeds. And yes, the mark rubbed out, but I'm still not happy about it.

As far as the plaque numbers go, and I learned this at my Coasty classes, it's which ever comes first. Here's a for instance: If your plaque says 6 persons OR 1000 lbs. and you put 6 200 lb. people in the boat, your over the limit. WAY over with gear. If you have 250 lbs of gear you can only have passengers up to 750 lbs. Get it???

'Foul