My boats first LOTO ExPeRiEnCe worth a read......
 

Well where do I start.

Thursday night we arrived really late and the other couple was passed out and forgot to tell us their room number so we had to sleep on the boat at tantaras ramp

Friday was a blast. We were one of few in the party cove but it was an awesome time

Saturday we hit the party cove all day. Lost my anchor and reel :( Looks like a new box anchor is in my future

Sunday got up and headed to the party cove and got pulled over. One of the girls was standing up holding onto a bolster while we were jumping waves. My numbers and letters were 1 inch a part instead of two. I didn't ahve a throwable. My horn sounds like a toddlers fart and didnt have a air horn to back it up; had 13 life jackets but they were in enclosures and didnt have a boating license. Been pulled over back home and never even heard of a boating license. So they tow me to the state park right there in the horse shoe to take a permit test. I take a test which takes me an hour (the whole thing is about jet skis) and pass. I missed two and then showed him that the two I missed were in the book. Guy was like hmmmm. Then I tell the cop how great it is they make me take a test to drive a jet ski when I am operating a 660hp powerboat. As I am going out to get in my boat a buddy of mine is being towed in. Got him for his boat being to loud and be blew a .11. I look in the book the cop just handed me and it says the limit is .11. So i ask the cop and he says no it is .08. After arguing he basically says he is right and we are wrong even though he is looking at it in the book he just handed me. He then tells my buddy that if he will go get $500 he will let him drive his boat home....So wait...you pulled him over and gave him a DUI but if he pays the $500 he can get back in it and drive it home??? Back in KY we consider that like a bribe. We didn't have the cash on us so they took him to city hall where the trailer told him they were trying to see if they could beat their record on that day of $84,000. On the way back to tantara one of my motors gets up to 220 for some reason and i idle it back in. We show up and pay and they let him out and tell us to enjoy the rest of the day on the lake. We all headed home to say the least.

Monday....We load up to head home on sunday and get to jefferson city and hear a loud POW. Thought I blew a front right tire. Get out and don;t see anything so I fire it back up and notice that my turbo isn't getting any PSI. I drive 1/2mi to a ramp and go in a gas station. Call my insurance company and arrange a tow. Call around and found Mike Kehoe Ford. Had the truck and boat towed their and they just happened to be open. We spent an hour trying to find a car rental company or truck rental and couldn;t Finally we found one an hour away. So I leave my truck and boat there. Dealership even has a guy drive me the hour drive to get the rental. We get ome and fall asleep and they call me at 10am to tell me my truck is fixed. So now my truck is 6 hours away and I gotta waste my whole weekend getting that.

It sounds like a lot of SH*T but we still had an incredible time, and will be back again. I think I saw some of you down there but never had any waves come from your way so wasn't sure.

I use to boat all the time at LOTO and never heard of a boating license?? My old place use to be across from Big Thunder. 7MM

it sounds like the water police are a bunch of azz holes,i go down for the shootout and they pretty much leave you alone that weekend.

they frown on wake jumping, if your props come out of the water they can get you for reckless driving.

it was lowered to .08 over winter they forgot to change, or their still giving out old books.

http://www.boat-ed.com/Missouri/index.html
"Anyone born after January 1, 1984, must successfully complete a boating safety education course to legally operate any vessel on the lakes of Missouri, including personal watercraft."


i hadn't heard off it either so i googled it, most states have it, kansas is jan. 1 1989 and younger.

WP normally isn't really bad on LOTO, i've only been stopped once and it was legit, i had a light out. you do have to remember you were coming and going to the highest patrolled area on the lake, so they have all their big ego dicks out and around PC for the weekend.
we stayed close to home and even at the local lake they brought in badge heavy out-of-town C suckers. it's bad when our local WP is coming around to everybody apologizing for the out of town guys over stepping their bounds.

here is the WP site if you feel you have a real complaint, http://www.mswp.dps.mo.gov/

and an even easier way ... MSWP Customer Satisfaction Survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YGZN87G

Well I certainly hate to hear you had a bad experience at LOTO. I'm surprised that you were pulled over for someone standing in the floor of the boat. We do it all the time. The throwable and jackets deal will always get you into trouble. As far as the alcohol limit. It used to be .10 two years ago, the cop is right it is .08. Your age is the reason far the license. One thing about the lake, you have to have all your ducks in a row when pulled over. Hope you try the lake again, we are there every weekend, and love it!

"Come on vacation, leave on probation" is right! After that experience i'm not sure i would be back.

We will be down in couple weeks & now i am really worried i will get pulled over for being too loud. i better get an oar cause i think thats all i am missing.

Guy runs dry exhaust with a 525 SC. It is pretty loud but we heard WAAAY louder stuff when we were there for the shootout and he was just idleing wasn;t reving it or anything. We will deffinitely be back. I understand that they are trying to keep everyone safe and they did just give me warnings but it still pretty much wasted 4 hours of my memorial day. I was sober just cruising and he spotted about 4 drunks that he just let go and never called in while we were setting at the mouth of the party cove. I just felt his time could have been better spent chasing someone actually doing something wrong or endangering people, but thats not my call.

+1

If you were in PC FRI afternoon sorry for not waiving. I don't recall seeing you but we were in and out quick because dirty glen had a bunch of saggy tatters out on the top of his houseboat and we had our kiddo with us.

You got profiled because you were an out of towner and looked young. When I first got my boat I got pulled over quite a bit but never any citations because I was always legit and I blow zeros because I don't drink when I boat.

One good thing is that the boater license should get you a break on your insurance premium. Though I was born in 1980 I took it because my insurance guy told me about the premium break I would get.

Hopefully you'll come back and have a better time.

-Josh

Saw you leaving the Cove on Saturday...we were tied in tight and not going ANYWHERE...here was my weekend story...good thing we didn't hook up...there may have been some kind of catclysmic event!

Try this on for size...after having both truck and trailer problems the previous weekend (blown brake line and flat tire...simultaneously!), I was happy that AT LEAST the boat was still good. 7 hour tow down to LOTO was uneventful, thankfully. Put the boat in the water at PB2, and when I was idling over to the dock, I noticed that it was handling a little strangely. Then I noticed my port motor was running, but my prop wasn't spinning. Quick diagnosis: shifter cable is SHOT. After a couple panic phone calls to Obnoxus, we arrive at a plan, which I then execute. Pull the boat out of the water, disconnect the pin at the transom to disable the throw on the cable, pull the drive halfway off, and using an allen key and long needlenose pliers, throw the drive permanently into gear. So I have a crashbox that only goes forward on the port side, but at least I can run. After trying to back in to the docks at our condo a couple times, I just pulled in forward and called it good..thankfully it was a 40-foot slip. Party Cove the next day was good, as The Big Johnson made it easy on me and didn't try to get too far back into the mess. Sunday...we decide to run up the Gravois arm to a bar...there is a LOT of crap floating in the lake and my port motor starts to heat up. I accidently turned down the wrong cove, came to a stop, and decided to jump out and check to see if something was clogging my pickups. I raised the drives, jumped in, and felt...nothing. OK, no big deal...temps were high, but not overheating. Fired her up...and got NOTHING from the port drive again. Lifting the drives had pulled the cable and shifted it back into neutral. F#$%. We decided to idle to Franky and Louie's, where Eric was to meet us later anyway. Jayhawk Randy was our guest on board this weekend, and his 6-mo pregnant wife Janae was at the 4 Seasons getting a massage. She was good enough to come and get Randy and I (we left Michelle to have some drinks and watch the boat), drive us back to the condo to get the truck keys, go pick up the truck and trailer, drive to F & Ls (about an hour round trip), use the crappy dirt launch ramp to pull the boat, ask a local trailer denizen if we could use his driveway for a work area, pull the drive again and repeat the previous process. Put the boat back in, Randy drove the rig back to PB2 and had Janae pick him up, and Michelle and I ran the boat back. Basically...the day was screwed. However, we had a nice evening...and I drank some good rum. Monday, we went over to Backwater Jacks for lunch, all was good. Our guests took off, and we ran down into the State Park to drift and swim for a while. When I started the boat again and tried to get on plane, the port motor vapor-locked. Eventually, it started and ran fine. Went to Dog Days for dinner, and afterwards, the same thing happened. When it started again, we took a run down the lake and both of us started smelling gear lube...opened the hatch..the reservoir had come out of its holder and splashed it all over the bilge. Great. So...needless to say, I was ready to go home at this point. There were flashes of greatness for sure...both Hawks wins, Topsiders Friday night, the Cove, our wonderful guests, and my ever-positive wife...but I'm happy to be back!