Boomer 880

Has anyone ever taken the river from Wilmette Harbor to all the way to downtown Chicago?

I watched a show on the river and they took an old ~30' inboard the entire way. It looked like an interesting (albeit slow) tour. How long did it take to go from one end to the other? How shallow is it?

Thanks.

RUSSSR1

You can't get there from hear

Acctualy there is no accses from the harbor to the river. There is only a spillway gate no boats, you would have to start in the city and work your way north to the harbor. The river gets small up there and plenty of downed trees would make it impassable for a large gofast, not sure I would want speedmaster props churning up all the past history

Now I'v allways thought it would be a riot to run all the north branch system in a 18' jet with a big block. Could you imagin the shock on some people as your haulin ass up through Winnetka

Wally

iTrader: (1)

Yup...just as Russ said theres no way to get into the river from the harbor.....i have kayaked from Irving Park rd all the way up there.....and it does get a bit narrow in spots...no idea on how deep it is but theres alot of boats along the river in spots......and its plenty dirty....seen dead rats and floating tires in the water.....

Boomer 880

I did not think it was really possible, but the way depicted it on the show, one was lead to believe that this 30' inboard made it the entire way. I even looked at the path on www.googleearth.com... it looked very narrow. Would have been an interesting tour.

Thanks for the information.

waybomb

Brings back a forgotten memory. Maybe 20 years ago, we put the 19' Checkmate and the 18' Avenger in the canal at the GATX terminal. The Checkmate had a 460, Dyers 8-71, Holleys, and a nice pump on the back. The Avenger had a BBC, Dyers 8-71, Predators, and a nicer pump. Both had wetpipes, but were very loud.

Took them both down the canal toward Chicago, playing who can get who the wettest. The Ford guys were soaking wet, until later.

We got downtown fine. A large cruiser was coming down river from the locks, and kicked up a huge wake between the walls of the Chicago River. The Avenger was partially submarined, and we got soaked. And the water so deep in the bilge that the bilge water was being kicked up by the u-joint, got on the plug wires and cap, and now we are sitting ducks with no power in the river, between the walls, with all the people on the bridges looking at us.

Finally, Frankie (Ford guy) catches up and blasts us with his rooster a few times. It is not easy taking a cap off of a blown big block to dry it out, in between walls that are amplifying all the water movement, soaking wet, hot pipes, about 6" of freeboard, with our best "buddy" going back and forth drenching us. Coulda killed him right then and there.

So we get it started, blast toward the locks, kicking up major rooster (ground down the "stop" so we could lift the snout higher to kick up a drencher rooster) and hitting the bridges with the tail. Stoopid, but what a memory. Then we turned around, got almost out of downtown heading back toward GATX, and the alternator lower bolt breaks! Here comes Frankie again, that S.O.B., kicking upo tail all over us. Fortunately it was warm outside, and we had a screwdriver I shoved into the bolt hole to keep the alternator belt at least somewhat tensioned.

On the way back to GATX, we stayed just enough in front of Frankie to keep him cool for the entire ride back.

Blown Jet boats downtown is fun. Probably could not get away with that now, though.

jon40

The summer before last, a buddy and I went on a misson up the river in the Powerplay. Idled up most of the way, got up to Evanston, where the river goes along McCormick ave. When you get that far up there, the trees start closing in on the canal bigtime. It started getting late in the day so we turned around.
Turned the pipes on, hit the sticks, trimmed up the drives, and hauled ass all the way back down the river. Holy sh!t was that fun. There were a few guys fishing on the banks about halfway down, they nearly sh!t when this boat comes out of nowhere and flys by them at 65MPH. The look on their faces was priceless.
A little risky with some of the crap that can be floating in the river, but I got lucky and didn't hit anything. What a blast.

Jon

Boomer 880

Jon40... that has to be quite a site!!! I bet the people fishing on the bank had a story to tell when they got home.

How deep was the water that far up? I would imagine it was atleast 5-6' deep to get up on plane!?!?!

jon40

Actually, the water was deeper than you'd expect. It averaged around 10 feet, give or take a couple.