St Clair River no wake zones

Liberty44140

We motored from Lake Erie up in to lake st Claire yesterday, currently enjoying gross point YC. Glorious run here in the pouring rain. Anyway tomorrow headed up the st Claire river to Lexington. Can anyone comment on no wake zones in the st Claire river? Are there any and are they well marked?

here are pics from the run yesterday 

mattie

There certainly was ‘no wake’ zones in 2019-2020.
The water level has dropped about 18” from then though. There was big flooding in the flats area at the north end of Lk St Clair. This map was from couple yrs ago.

No wake zones are not marked well at all.

Thinking we will be anchored down at the south end of Stag Isle tomorrow. Honk when you go by on your way North.

supposed to be good weather tomorrow. Sunny with N winds 5-10mph. Might be a bit rough once you hit Lake Huron.

RiverRat232

That hardtop/coupe makes it nice in bad weather.

Liberty44140

Thanks! I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for the white bouys but that helps 

goalie59

Liberty. I noticed your rpm at 3020, is that your max and how many gallons per hour are you using

Liberty44140

Hi goalie, my max is 3620, 3020 is a nice cruise at 12 gph per engine. 

randy56

Mean looking weather, only a cruiser can do. 

goalie59

Hi goalie, my max is 3620, 3020 is a nice cruise at 12 gph per engine. 


Liberty those are pretty impressive numbers, the most I can get out of my 410 is 2780 rpm at 31 gallons per hour that produced around 25 mph . My cruise seems to be 2450 at 28 gallons per hour . I think in the fall I will try to get my props scanned and re pitched. 

Liberty44140

Those are still good numbers for a 41 goalie! I am 40’ loa and 22,000 lbs. I believe that overall you are a bigger/heavier boat, correct? The Cummins vs Volvo is probably the bigger difference. You have much more readily available parts at lower prices with Cummins, a huge plus, but Volvo has done a nice job with technology for speed and fuel efficiency. My D6 are 370hp, your Cummins are 380ho, right? I run with a sea Ray 40 that has the 380hp Cummins as you and his numbers are more like yours. 

Liberty44140

Decided to take the northern channel past the old club. We are going there weds and I can’t wait to see it. The only no wake zone we hit was in front of the old club. Insane current under the bridge in port Huron. Lake Huron is gorgeous but the 1-3 ft chop was more like Lake Erie, I expected rollers. Currently in Lexington which is awesome! Great little town with bars and things to do. 

mattie

@Liberty44140
Pretty sure we passed you on your northbound trek about 5 miles south of the Bluewater bridge at 12:45pm ish yesterday?
I was waving from the CDN side.

Have fun in Lexington. Hopefully the border opens to non-essential travel soon. We have a lot of cool ports to see on the Canadian side.

You should have seen Lexington, MI after the financial crisis. That place was a ghost town. If you really searched around - you might have found a slice of pizza. Looked like it was bombed out.

mattie

Lake Huron can turn quick on you. Careful on the big lake - watch your forecasts.

Liberty44140

Hey Mattie, yep we would have definitely passed you around then. 3 sea rays would have been not far behind us. We are leaving tomorrow morning, before the weather comes in, and heading south to st Clair boar harbor for one night before the old club. Yes I hope the borders open up too! We wanted to go to Sarnia on this trip but no dice. Next time. Hard to imagine Lexington empty, was packed yesterday and today being Monday was not too many people. Seems like a bit of a tourist spot with the state park. It’s a shame though how almost no beach is public and it’s all private. 

goalie59

Liberty, your are right , I am pushing 24,000 lbs and 43 feet . I did find parts for the marine part of the motor are hard to find, anything that relates to the motor can be mostly found from a truck shop that is a Cummins dealer, not cheap though, oil pan was over $500.00. Your boat looks great 

Liberty44140

Thanks goalie! Honestly looking at the cost for Volvo $500 is cheap. I know my heat exchangers are over $3k, not sure on oil pan.

Liberty44140

Back to the beginning the main shipping channel up the st Clair river and the balance of the river to Lake Huron is not no wake as long as you are 600’ from shore. For boats over 26’ you need to be 600’ or more from shore to be on plane so we pretty much stayed in the middle of the river unless we had to go around a freighter. Gorgeous up there, nice blue water, you guys have it good!