Great Lakes Jet Boating 2019

[KevJul2019]

Just bought a 2015 Yamaha SX192, great boat. Any tips boating on Lake Saint Clair?

 

[swatski]

Just bought a 2015 Yamaha SX192, great boat. Any tips boating on Lake Saint Clair?

Get trim tabs!
Many of us here are very happy with Lectrotabs.

--

 

[KevJul2019]

You can put trim tabs on a Yamaha Jet boat?

 

[swatski]

Yes, there are several good write ups.

I would recommend Lectrotab brand, it's the best. Call Russ there, he is their jet boat guy.
This is a good thread with general ideas, FSH 190 has the same hull as yours

https://jetboaters.net/threads/trim-tabs-for-190-fsh.17762/

Here is another thread with info and installs

https://jetboaters.net/threads/trim-tabs-options-wake-surfing-and-cruising.12031/page-2

 

[Renod]

We are south of you on Grosse Ile, right across from Amherstburg. Got our 242 early summer last year. Here are a few things we have learned about jetting on the big salt, shark and pirate-free waters!

• If you are serious about surfing, boarding or skiing, get up early. Barring storms or strong winds things normally settle nicely overnight. But in our area (a few miles north of the mouth of Lake Erie) 10:00AM is the time when the big cruisers start to appear regularly. It only takes a few of them in a row to really chop things up.
• If you have prior experience with props check your ego at the door. Jets behave differently, especially the slower you are going. Early on I normally had to make 2-3 passes to get things perfect going into our tight slip. Make sure you take into account whatever current you have in your area and watch the wind. As you know the near-shore wind can turn like a top! Don't be too proud to circle around to make another approach.
• Cheech & Chong are NOT your friends! It is late summer, prime WEED season on the Great Lakes. It grows under you, floats by you and even creeps into your launch area. Keep an eye out for the floating green bas-turds of the Lakes. It just takes one of those floating mats to bring things to a stop. Get familiar with how to clean things out and get back underway.

That is all I can think of for now. Welcome to the party!!

 

[dadofral]

I'm on the west side of MI and have always wanted to trailer over an try Lake St. Clair....maybe next summer.....many great lakes up north neare TC as well. Torch, Elk, Charlevoix, Crystal, Glen, and the list goes on and on.

 

[KevJul2019]

@dadofral Lake St. Clair can be crazy most of the time when driving a jet boat. To many 30’ and up boat on this lake. @Renod gave some good advise up above.

 

[AmesJainchill]

Just bought a 2015 Yamaha SX192, great boat. Any tips boating on Lake Saint Clair?

Congrats on the purchase!

Here's my 2 cents..

I'm usually out there Fri/Sat/Sun, sometimes Wednesday (during the week barring poor weather/winds, lake is pretty smooth until 3-4p). I launch from Harley Ensign (appx 9 launch ramps and 9 retrieve ramps and I keep my boat about 1 mile from the launch) usually in the 10-11a timeframe, after the fishermen are on the water and before the launch gets busy with general traffic. In this area, most of the big express cruiser or plowing flybridge traffic comes out of Belle Maer and Mac Ray north of the clinton river, so heading to lunch or a typical swimming/anchoring spot like Munchies, Fisher/Goose Bay or some of the other sheltered areas in the Flats is pretty smooth (easy to do 30+ mph pretty much anywhere allowed) until around 12-1p on the weekends. That seems to be when the traffic from those locations as well as the Nautical Mile down in St Clair Shores picks up.

After that, Anchor Bay south of the North Channel and the open lake get pretty bath-tubby imo, I just slow down a bit (especially if I have passengers sitting in the bow area) when I'm heading back to the launch or otherwise cruising since my boat isn't exactly heavy or a "deep" v. ? All the st clair river channels are nice cruising pretty much any time with the occasional slow down for large wake traffic. Plus, since our boats are under 26', there are only a few all-boat no wake zones (1 or 2 areas of Sni, 1 in North Channel, most of the cuts/hwys). Just be mindful to stay 200+ feet away from docks or the shore when you're in the channels at speed. Lots of good info here. Also just a quick FYI, there are plenty of LEOs on jet skis supporting the larger police and coast guard boats. Based on what I've seen with larger boats getting pinched violating the rules, the skis come out of nowhere and enforce the no-wake rules pretty heavy, especially since the water is so high this year.

I haven't really done any towing of tubes/boarders/skiers so far with this boat, but if you're pulling folks on a tube, most of the people I've seen do that up in the north end of Anchor Bay, Bouvier Bay (very north-east end of Anchor Bay) or Sni. Wake boarding/surfing is more flexible in terms of location, imo. Of course, if it's earlier in the day, you can pull ppl pretty much anywhere you can be above no-wake.

Hopefully this info helps!

*edited to to switch out a typo'd ? for a .

 

[Renod]

AmesJainchill - great job pointing out the No Wake zones, I completely forgot to mention those! They seem to be more serious than ever due to the record-setting water levels on the Great Lakes.

 

[AmesJainchill]

Question for you @Renod since I noticed you're on Grosse Ile. I'm eventually going to take at least an overnight trip on the boat to Put In Bay, and planned to stop for fuel on the river before going out into Erie. I noticed Humbug Marina in Gibraltar has Valvtect 89 gas and seems like a reasonable location to stop before we cross the lake. I've been down the river a number of times over the years (and taken both a 22ft Sea Ray and 27ft Carver to Cedar Point in years past), but never went on the west side of Grosse Ile. Do you know the clearance under the two bridges on the west side of the island? Can boats like ours fit under?

 

[penziol]

@Renod
I work with a guy that lives on Grosse Ile. His name is Frank Miklos, do you know him?

 

[Julian]

Do you know the clearance under the two bridges on the west side of the island? Can boats like ours fit under?

North Toll bridge is 10' the south is 18' - but that is baseline water levels....so less now that the water is record high. The North bridge does open on the hour.....you'll be fine on the south bridge.

 

[AmesJainchill]

North Toll bridge is 10' the south is 18' - but that is baseline water levels....so less now that the water is record high. The North bridge does open on the hour.....you'll be fine on the south bridge.

Cool. Just a matter of timing then. Worst case, could just circle around the south end of the island to get to the Humbug gas dock. Not far out of the way.

 

[Renod]

Cool. Just a matter of timing then. Worst case, could just circle around the south end of the island to get to the Humbug gas dock. Not far out of the way.

Julian is correct. Boats with a wakeboard tower will not be able to go under the northern most bridge ("Toll Bridge".) The far easier way is to take the route you mention. The fastest way is to stay between Grosse Ile and Stony Island, but watch out for weeds late in the season. Humbug is due west of the southern end of Grosse Ile, just take the channel that goes between Grosse Ile and Celeron Island.

@Renod
I work with a guy that lives on Grosse Ile. His name is Frank Miklos, do you know him?

Yes I do. He and his wife are really nice people. I actually coached his son in baseball for a few years. Great kid!