Grand Haven Mi
 

Any good boating locations there? Heading over there this weekend with a 30ft Scarab looking to have a good time for the weekend with a few buddies - its his diaper party. Any good spots to go? Dinner on the lake? Advice? Where to put in?

PM drock78 I think. He is from over that way, great guy and will help ya.

Make sure to bring a trolling motor to get in and out of the harbor since they have a hard on for performance boats that might make a little noise.

Not anymore. There are guys running dry exhaust and not getting pulled over. They eased up a lot after they saw a big drop in business.

If you're looking to raft up and party, go back into spring lake and the first Cove you come to is Smith's cove. There's 75+ boats on any given weekend. If you're looking to run somewhere for lunch and drinks, Dockers fish house in Muskegon is the place to be. It's about a 20 min ride from Grand haven. The nightlife in downtown grand haven is always good. A slip at the municipal marina is a couple hundred feet away from downtown or you can stay on the wall for free.

Uh ok, not sure about that. We were sitting in the municipal marina 2 weeks ago and watched the sheriff single out the yellow fountain that said Boyne City on the back, just sayin.

That was my new-to-me boat, a 42 foot Fountain.

The Sheriff said that they were looking for our numbers until they checked our stern and figured that we were a documented boat.
We were down to one engine by the time they spoke to us, but we knew they were coming at us. I shut down the boat to speak with them and they were fine, but did ask if we had ever had a Db check on the boat, to which we answered no. They thought it might be over the 90 Db limit but did not press the issue. Of course, then I had to start up the engine to get us back to the ramp and it is somewhat loud when I start one of them up!

We have been stopped 3 times in the past 2 months, but only to check on little things like how high the letters on the Home Port name were. They have always been nice, but we always say that we are just there because that is where the shop that takes care of our boat is located. Knock on wood, but we have not had a problem with them, but we always keep an eye out for them and shut down to one engine if they are close.

We have found the area quite lovely and a lot of fun.
We run up to Lake Muskegon or down to Holland. There is a very nice place to eat on the water way back in Holland, whose name escapes me! Sorry.

They are training the new guys. Thats why they are pulling boats over for basic checks and not pressing the issue on alot of things.

The place in Holland is Boatwerks. We either go there or Dockers. I've been out to Grand Haven 5 times so far this year and only waved to by CG and Sheriff. im sure I'm over 90db but have never been tested. If they were being pricks like everyone says, there would be ALOT less go fast boats around there like it was about 4 years ago.

Thanks - that is good to know.

That is great news. I put my turndowns on just for that weekend. Don't know if I will try without them??? Thanks for the update. KS

They have been much better the last couple years. The guy with the white hair is a real dikk and the only one to watch out for. As drock said boatwerks in holland and dockers in muskegon are the two best restaurant's. On the far end of muskegon lake is another nice place called the lake house. Please do not tie up on the wall in gr haven unles you have those gigantic round fenders. Another cool place to hang is pigeon lake. It's between gr haven and holland where the power plant is, really clean water and usually a dozen or so boats beached. Also municipal boat launch on harbor island is the best place to put in and has overnight parking. You guys have fun

Thanks guy, I really appreciate the info. My truck had some issues so if I can get it fixed in time I will still be going out! Look for the 30ft all yellow Scarab, black windshield with no name and a bunch of dudes :) Should be one cool diaper party for my buddy!

Last night - I was followed the entire trip from the mouth of the Grand Haven channel to Municipal Boat Launch - he ranged from 20 feet back to 50 feet the whole time. We were basically the only 2 boats in the channel. I have CMI tail pipes that are dry to the tip, but then I have muffllers that divert water down into the water (similar to a J-tube). It's the quietest system I've found after testing several mufflers with a decibel meter. My exhaust exits very high (above swim platform level) - a bit of a disadvantage, and he never seemed to mind. I did idle on one engine most of the time.

My take is that they are being more reasonable about performance boats in GH. That said, if a few guys run dry pipes straight out the back in front of the wrong condo or sail boat - we could have an increase in decibel testing by next week. I love the sound of going loud (without mufflers), but I would hate to be one of the reasons or THE reason everyone starts getting checked like we had a few years ago. It wasn't that long ago and Grand Haven was not worth the trip if you had a boat anything near the legal decibel limit.

I have read this entire thread....

I guess I won't be so quickly and easily convinced,,,,,I will never go back there....not with all that has happened in the past. It will take a while for all of this to play out for me. I really like the setting there in Grand Haven----beautiful set-up there for boaters, but the Sheriff's Dept Marine Patrol has pretty much killed it for performance boaters....and now it sounds as if the community mechants are suffering a little now too. If I lived on or near a body of water, I would always expect to hear some kind of racket---that's just America.

South Haven and Saugatuck and most other places along Michigan's west shoreline are fun little communities----as long as you use a little wisdom and are a cool customer with your boat.

Anyway, I hope you and your friends have fun wherever you decide to go.

I'll affirm what most guys are saying here - I've been in Grand Haven (at the Wharf) for the last couple of years and I know my boat is way over the limit. I put almost 100 hours on it last year and about 25 so far this year, and I've never once had a problem. I've been stopped probably eight or ten times by the Sheriff and Coast Guard, but all for safety checks. I don't even shut down to one motor when they pull up, and they've always been fine. I wasn't boating there when they were cracking down, but that seems to be completely gone now.

I would be careful. They have no issues on pulling over anyone at any time. No issues for many years. It only takes once.
We now run down tubes out there.

Or we just don't go there