lake michigan cottage
 

looking for a cottage to rent on michigans west coast. would like it for 2 weeks sometime between july thru fisrt part of august. between holland and muskegon. anyone ?

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Dyno might be able to help you find something as he used to rent along that stretch of beach. You might try calling Summit Properties at 616-393-9000 and talking with Tom Speet. He's not only one of the best guys around to deal with, he also lives along there and he's been a powerboater forever.
http://www.summitprop.com/

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Also for the Holland to Port Sheldon area a good source is: http://www.holland-chamber.org/visit...ge_listing.htm
And for the Port Sheldon and up through N of Grand Haven:
http://www.lakem.com/rentals/listings/

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

The property that I rented is no longer availible or I would be in it :( My brother in law has a place and may know of some rentals in the area, I'll ask....

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thanks guy's. bring on summer.

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had one last year 1 mile north of port sheldon. close to the ramp neat place but had a funky shell and the stairs were real bad.

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Quit your dreaming about SUMMER baron it,s a longgggggggggggg wayyyyyyyy away! :D :D How is that snow? Does it still SUCKkkkk? The cold front just passed here tonite and were warm again . Got down to almost 50 last nite, brrrrrrr, but it keeps your drinks cold well your sitting in the hottub.

Hey I'm thinking about starting a (who owns or know someone that owns an old BARON or early powerplay/ powerquest) thread one of these days with some pics,time to dig out your pics and add some of those Lake Michigan big air pics.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

??????Is the Baron and the early Quests related?

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Yea the BARON molds were bought by Powerplay in holland and was their only model for the first couple years. I gotta go. Tell the story baron,and no there was no length taken out of the baron we just called it a 190 it was actaully 18'4'' .We were planing for the future fo putting a beak on it. :D :D

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I am renting one right now on the North Shore of Grand Haven. PM me and I can give you the info. I will be gone by May.

Whirlygig

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Thats the best boat they ever built!! I was told the molds were cut up and trashed when they stopped making it..... :mad: what a shame! Those boats sell for almost what they were new around here.

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Anyone remember that yellow Baron that Brian Stouffer from Holland had?. Don't know if he still works for Herman Miller. Still have an 89 185xlt Powerplay - see pics PQ section. You guys are making me feel old!

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Brian doesnt work for HMI anymore(cuts)....didn'y know he was a boater just a biker.

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One of my buddys had a couple of 185's this past summer and sold one of them, they are great boats. He was told the 185 mold went to the coopersville land fill what a same. I thinck those boats would still sell like hot cakes. Steve

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Sat on the trailer most of the time when he lived on Lakeshore. Got a few pics of it somewhere. Oh yeah the HMI cuts! :( Brian was an insane rider - would ride from State park to Zeeland for work and back almost year round and never sweat. Heavy into triathalons. Always made me feel guildy :D

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

In the early 80's I rode alot....rode with Brian once almost killed me :D

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

those old barons are great fun. i hate to say my has been in the barn for 5 years now ( i think its still there ) but i will never sell it. my wife hates that boat she will only go out on our 28'. she thinks i go nuts in it. i don't think jumping a 19' boat as high as it will go is nuts.
tommy: i only have 1 picture of the boat left i lost the rest even the ones you gave me, i can't find them any were. let me know how to post a picture and i will put it on here.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

A buddy of mine (still) has an 185XLT w/ a 260hp - that thing kicks a$$! He has put almost a 1,000 hours on it - (His dad bought if for him new in 87') and it has been driven hard and put away wet many times!! It's a shame they don't make that anymore - I contacted Mandi at PQ to ask about it and she said all gone, never to be seen again... If they built that boat new again, I would buy one in a heartbeat!! That boat with a 6.2 320 in it would be the nutz!!!

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Get me all fired up here in the middle of winter- its tough to take :D I told Kevin before he sold out of PQ that they could pull another off mine. He said the prob was they would have to sell for close to 50k - the 2005 Donzi 18 is now about that and the Cig20's are bringing top dollar used. He thought the market for people that would pay that is way to small to tool for.
Half a dozen regulars with 185's out of Holland. Buddy had one with 500hp injected small block that ran 77mph. Another regular with LT1. Ran into one with 496 big block - had a s.s Alpha drive, all anodized motor mount framing to keep it together and add'l cross ribbing glassed in, raised x-dim, big tabs. He said 80mph.- chewed up the alphas!
Not to condone craziness :D but I have seen them get 20ft of air and stuff the stern so deep you swear the motor quit and turn right around and do it again.
So, Baron - get that little beast out of the barn! - nice zz1 crate motor...........

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

I cant believe that they would cost that much.....bummer, maybe we need to build them in Mexico like everything else :( .

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

That white BARON with the yellow stripe in holland is the second baron ever built.I spent a couple summers beating the crap out of that boat,hit a floating can racing a scarab at about 60 through the narrows,thought i destroyed the bow but when i got back to the dock it just looked like dock rash,didnt matter though because it broke lose in a storm at the MBYC and got really beat up,lot of gelcoat work.Everytime I,m visiting michigan i see thatb boat sitting in the driveway like it has not moved in years.

I,ll dig out some pictures.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

heres a picture of the first BARON.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

here is some the old pics that you gave me Todd.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

another

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

lake michigan

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

A little wake jumping.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

An old BARON brochure.Sorry to hijack your thread Todd,just saw some interest and wanted to keep it going.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Thanks Tommy I never knew that Baron existed a little before my boating history, I'd still like a 185 to play with. How long did Baron build boats?

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

For about three years from 79 to about 81,than the molds sat in storage for a couple years until powerplay/powerquest bought them.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Then the dumb a$$es cut them up....they should be shot!!!

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

monza: thanks for posting those pictures. i've been gone the last day and a half plowing snow. now i know were my pictures went. the only one i still have is the wake juming picture. to cool sure brings some good times just glad we live thru them. man i need to get that hot rod out again.last time i had it out sheri hopped in a friends boat said thats the last time she would ride in it. back to the cottage thing pm me lets see if you guys can come up we are going to rent for 2 weeks we can run the 28' for kicks.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

well i was gonna start a new thread but since your interested I,ll tell the story behind the 185s.

My older brother a self taught marine architect designed the boat in about 1975.He started building the plug for the hull in my parents garage one summer when we were all gone on a cruising trip up north for the whole summer.Dad came home and saw an upside down boat being built in his garage and was not the happiest father but beared with it for about a year till the plug was ready for a mold to be made off from it.

My dad made my brother move the plug to an old chicken coop where he spent about another year making a deck plug, and hull and deck molds.

The molds got moved to a building on 52nd street in grand rapids and that is where BARON MARINE started.I think the first boat was ran 2 days before thanksgiving on Reeds Lake in GR in 1977.

stay tuned for more

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Production began in 1978 with just a few boats being sold in the Grand Rapids area either factory direct or by DRYLAND.We found a dealer in St Clair shores called Blue Lagoon or Deep Lagoon who dealt Donzi and Magnum and thats where most of the Barons ended up.

John Krouse was the owner of the marina and he loved the boat because he could buy them right compared to a Donzi and he felt it was well built boat .I think about 52 boats where built with probaly 45 of them going to Krouse.For some reason 52 sticks in my head but i think it was really maybe only 28 that were built.

My brother did all the design and mold work himself and by himself with no previous experience.I worked for him well i was skipping school to help out with building them once production started,most of the time it was just him that did the building the first year.2nd year he wanted to make a bigger model and decided to skip all the design and plug work and instead made a hull mold off my dads 26 MONZA and had a new deck plug and mold built by a guy who worked for TIARA.

My dad owned a housing construction business and was helping finance the boat company too.We were selling boats but they were a hard sell with interest rates back than of 18 percent,and my dad was having the same problems with selling his houses,so they decided to close the boat business for a little while till the economy gotta a little better.The molds for the 26 were sold to the guy who built them and he built a few under the name MIRAGE out of Hudsonville.He than sold them to CENTURY boats who built a few for a few years than dicontinued production.Dont see too many 26s around and BARON marine only built 1 before closing the doors,the MIRAGES were not near the construction as the BARONS.


Well once my brother closed the doors he had my dad help him get into the housing business once things started picking back up, and realizing theres more money and less hassels in housing than building boats ,he kinda lost interest in the boat business.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

The powerplay boys bought the mold off my brother in like 82 and that was the model that started it for them.

The design had a lot of rocker in it and would air out real nicely wich the powerplay boys didn't like so they moved the fuel tank out from under the cockpit and into the bow,wich i never cared for.They also moved the engine room bulhead back about 10 inches to make the cockpit bigger and took the rake out of the windshield.


I m trying to find a lot of old pictures and when i do next week i would like to start a 185 baron powerplay thread ,so if you guys could help out with pics and comments that would be really cool.

thanks.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

woogie: looking for one that sleeps 8 ish between port sheldon and grand haven. acording to sheri closer to grand haven.
woogie: i got mine baron from monza back in 85 or 86 they do ride a lot differt then the powerplays do i got some friends that have and had xlt's. man have we beat those boats to death. there are a lot of fun.
monza: nice to see your up.i see your brother dave from time to time he most live by me (flowersmill or somthing ) he needs a new truck. a friend of mine has the old best shot 26' here in grand rapids. complete rebuild stringers / transom all ready for rigging.

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Yea i think he does live in flowers mill,don't talk to him to much.Is that best shot white withn an orange sheer stripe ,that was the one we built.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Woogie I,ve got a stack of those old brochures if you would like me to send one pm your adress and i"ll send it out.

Dyno if your intersted in a BARON you should look in Mt clemens ,St Clair shores area.Probaly would be able to pick one up for 3000 or 4000 dollars since they don,t have the noteriaty of the powerplays.

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tom: white with orange sides has a surface drive on it. are you coming up this summer?

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

Probably not,too much crap going on here with some stuff I'm working on, plus anytime off I kinda prefer the KEYS or the BAHAMAS. Don't mean to sound like a snob, but for the money and the time it's just to convenient to go there instead of risking the weather up there.

Is that 26 for sale? I just got back from dinner with some good news so I might have an idea up my sleeve.

Re: lake michigan cottage
 

the 26' baron is not. 26' monza is ( plum crazy )