I was at Niawanda for a concert and boy was it a shit show of boy racers and coast guard enforcement…
Lower was pretty damn busy also. Definitely had to pay attention.
Heavily considering going out for the meteor shower tomorrow night. Conditions are perfect for it.
Knock on wood the past 3-4 years I’ve noticed enforcement has been a lot better. It used to be almost every time I went out I would get pulled over for a safety inspection by one of the 10 or so different police agencies that patrol the Niagara. Now they seem to concentrate more on the dickheads speeding close to shore and the idiots jet skis who think right in front of the launch ramp is a cool place play.
Or maybe my Coast Guard Reserve inspection sticker on my port side window is just police repellent, event though it’s several years old. I know the year I got pre-inspected (they were doing it right at the launch) and put the sticker on I saw the sheriff heading my way only to see the sticker and turn away, pulling over the boat right behind me instead.
So far this year, I’ve been in 4-5 situations with other boats around, all getting inspected/boarded, and have yet to see one get within 200’ of me. Not that I’d be worried about it, but yeah, that sticker. Every year, for sure.
Not a great shot, but this was Grass Island early afternoon Sunday. I’ve never seen that many boats in there.
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The only time getting boarded really pissed me off was about 6 or 7 years ago from the Coast Guard. We were racing out there to try and get some wakeboarding in before sunset and of course the Coast Guard boat adjusts course and heads right toward us. They stopped about 20’ away, asked a few questions and said they’d be pulling up along side to do a safety check. Attempt 1, he fucks it and has to back away. Attempt 2 he fucks it up again. Attempt 3 he tries coming around the other side and still can’t get lined up right. By now we’ve been sitting here 20 minutes and I’m furious. I yell at him to just stop and before they can even answer I fire up our boat and quickly slide it right along side theirs. Needless to say they were pissed and I got a very thorough inspection but no tickets. All the other times I’ve been boarded the authorities were cool (including other coast guard crews) but it’s still no fun getting the same inspection every couple of weeks simply because we have way too many police agencies all with water patrol budgets to justify.
Now that I’ve been expanding my boating to various lakes around NY I’ve realized just how ridiculous the police presence is on the Niagara. Seneca Lake end to end over two days I saw one police boat, and it was in the harbor at Watkins Glen. Canadaigua Lake end to end in one day and I saw one police boat.
I was at grass on Sunday, deep in the middle back row. Got there at say 11am to get that spot. It was an awesome time. Lots of eye candy. It was a giant shit show for sure. Kinda surprised coast guard or other enforcement don’t come threw.
My parents and I have shared a boat on Canandaigua since the end of 09. It’s docked at the very Southern end. We’ve gone bottom to top and back dozens of times. Mostly with a large party on board. I’ve never been boarded, stopped, or even looked at there.
We actually followed the police boat on Canandaigua for a few miles because he happened to be going the same speed and following the shoreline just like we were. He slowed by one of the points and we passed him, only have him follow us for a couple more miles until we stopped for lunch. Nothing more than a couple friendly boater waves as we passed each other though. How it should be. It’s always bothered me that police need probably cause to search you everywhere in the US except on a boat.
I’m going to imagine that things will be pretty deserted on Lake Ontario tonight. Heading out around 10pm for some Perseids shower watching.
So yeah, that was a bust. Headed out around 8:45. Ready to watch some meteors! Bay and channel were nice and calm.
Started towards the channel. On the way, was hearing sailboat mast noises as we were passing by the docks, much more so than normal.
Channel was pretty decent heree
Then things got choppy. Waves were breaking over the channel walls
Stopped taking pics, since we started riding some serious waves. Bow going under type of stuff. Found a wide enough trough to turn around quick-like, and surfed a wave right back into the channel. Tied back up. Waited until about 10:30 to see if things would die down. They didn’t. Drove over to Olcott beach and watched from there. The breakers crashing there sounded like the ocean.
Marine forecast was showing things a LOT different than they were. Should have been a SCA last night.
I just bought a cottage on the beach on lake Erie and would like to avoid trailering to the launch every time I go out. I’m thinking about making a motorized beach cart this winter for at least one of my jetskis. A four wheel cart with two 12V motors chain driving the front and rear wheel on each respective side - won’t need to steer much, but steering could be achieved like a skid-steer concept. I’m thinking that I’ll use wide aluminum car rims without tires for the wheels with baffles welded on for traction in the sand.
My father has his older Kawasaki which only weighs ~500lb on one of those big foot beach carts and the process of putting it in and out of the water totally sucks. It’s super hard to push, and the tires float really well making loading and unloading a total pain.
A winch setup to just pull the cart won’t really work (before it’s suggested); since the beach has a high elevation point in the center, the process of pushing it out is almost as difficult as pulling it back in. I’ve tried searching for something like this and haven’t come across anything. Anyone ever see anything like this?
Build a dock instead?
All my neighbors launch their boats and skis with tractors from the beach. I’ve toyed with the idea of leaving a small lift right in the water on my property but I’m concerned with bad weather/high waves trashing it…
@91MR2 , bruhhhh?
yea man…I have been very busy with property obligations lately, however am hoping to get out on mine this w/e again…before I do so, I will be taking apart the fuel valve to see what I got going on in there…hopefully it is just some build up that I can clean out…
:bigtup:
Hopefully leaving work soon here to make it out today. Will check back to see if anyone else will be going out.
Looking to have a boat in the water sometime late summer here, can anyone help guide me in regards to these safety inspections and what I need to have in my arsenal to not be fucked with? I have PFD’s, an oar, anchor, proper lighting. If I had to guess I need a horn, flares? Also, any literature out there to help navigate buoys? I grew up on lakes in Minnesota, so the river is new ground for me and I don’t want to be that asshole with shit etiquette.
That mostly depends on the size and type of boat, as well as what body of water. Slightly different rules if you;re in waters patrolled by the coasties and the size of vessel.
Here’s the NY Guide
Perfect, thanks! 14’ boat is what I’ve got. I imagine it won’t see a ton of Niagara River time but I would like to head up to the Tonawanda area at some point. I would guess most time would be spent on the Buffalo River since its much more calm there.