Yo. I've been out of boating for about 10 years but I'm in the process of picking up a 30' Scarab. What's the boating scene like in West Michigan these days? When I got out of it Grand Haven was about the only thing going on but I hear from friends that Hardy Dam and Torch Lake have gotten pretty popular. If I'm going to be making trips up there often enough, I'll look to store the boat closer to home rather than in the Grand Haven area.

Torch always seems to have a pretty good crowd, and is packed for the big holiday weekends. Did a run out of Grand Haven last summer and had a good time. I am from the east side and tend to go more to Traverse City area than southwest so don't have the scoop on what's good around GR.

I'll let you know if I ever get out of the shop and to the water!

Traverse city is a beautiful place to boat with lots of day cruise destinations. Not a very "party" spot. Torch is great to party but not as many destinations to cruise to. Boyne thunder poker run is awesome. Yes hardy dam and grand haven. See you on the water!

I run out of GH all the time. great place but not many places to hang. Across from Sung Harbor restaurant and Hanky Pank is where most people go. Muskegon is also a good place as well!

Grand haven sucks for 2 reasons. Too much idling, and assbag cops hell bent on driving all the offshore boaters outa that place. I won't be back unless I'm on someone else's 26' or less boat so they can deal with the cops and we can atleast get on plane across spring lake. Hanky pank is cool but I like being able to get out in chest deep water and walk around instead of drunken swim for my life in 30ft of water anytime I wanna go to another row of boats to hang.

Torch is cool, cops are dicks on holidays tho.

I'll be at Boyne thunder

Sorry, haven't been to bed yet. Rambling.

Not crazy about Hanky Pank. Rather go for a run out of GH to Muskegon, Saugatuck, Port Sheldon (to anchor out). Run across the lake couple times a season. Haven't had any trouble with law enforcment in GH.

I used to live on Spring Lake. 12 years ago the cops weren't such pricks. A lot has changed though. We used to be able to camp overnight on that little beach across from the wall in Grand Haven or drop anchor in the bay in Port Sheldon for the night. They've killed both of those over-night options from what I hear? There wasn't a limit on the amount of boats that could tie off to the wall either....I heard it's a 3 row limit now? So where does everyone stay the night now....or don't they?

We used to run up to Muskegon to Bear Lake Tavern once in a while for dinner but there wasn't much going on up there at that time.

I guess I'm interested in knowing what all of my over-night options are. I'd rather be with a group of people on a beach or anchored in a bay than tied up at a slip. Are there places to tie off at Hardy or does everyone stay at the campgrounds? Same with Torch...is everyone just pulling their boats out at the end of the day? I've hung out on that sand bar on the south side of Torch before...that was pretty cool.

Sorry for all the noob questions...just trying to catch up.

Can you still drop anchor for the night in Port Sheldon? I heard they put some kind of boardwalk around the bay and got rid of that little beach that used to be on that small point on the north side of the bay. We used to have some nice little campfires on that beach...

I have a lot of family in Milwaukee and Chicago so crossings will be an option this time around. My last boat was a single so I never braved it.

the beach is still there right in front of the boardwalk. I've never seen a cop down there ever , so I don't know why you couldn't anchor. That's one of my favorite places to hang out.