www.iFourWinns.com

Like everyone, I just pulled the boat out this past weekend, and the water levels in Georgian Bay have dropped again to the point where I could barely get the boat off the railway and into the water. Just this year the waterline has receded another 5 feet, on top of several feet in previous years. Next year, I'll have to put the dock and railway out even further just to have access.

There are many theories as to why the levels across the entire Great Lakes system are dropping, ranging from climate change to dredging of the St. Clair River at Detroit - my favourite one from some northern Canadians is that the sneaky Americans are draining (stealing) water out of Lake Michigan in Chicago to feed into the Mississippi...!

Here's a recent article talking about the impact on both commerical and recreational boating

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... n-roulette

(P.S. 2.5 cm. = 1 inch)

Anyone else having any trouble out there?

_________________

2005 Sundowner
2008 Highlander V6

Yep, its down about 5 feet in the Lower Niagara River/Lake Ontario area too. I barely got my boat on the trailer last weekend. Had to back my trailer off the ramp into the rock/silt of the river bed to get the boat on. One theory here is that more water is being diverted for the power plants that line the river after Niagara Falls.

_________________

1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

I didn't have problems at the boat ramp but noticed it at the dock. My marina has stationary/fixed slips. It is always a little step down into my boat from the dock but noticably more so at the end of the season.

_________________
Terry
Current: 07 Crownline 255 CCR cuddy - 350 Mag MPI/B3 "Casi Cielo"

Previous:97 245 Sundowner 5.7GI/SX

Tow vehicle: 1986 GMC 2500 Camper Special 454/TH400

I just bought a marina this spring in the UP of Michigan right on the St. Mary's river.

We've been able to make due so far. We have had to turn away a few customers due to their boats drawing too much water. It looks like dredging may be in order. Not that we have the money for it....we may have to do it just to survive.

We are officially 29" below the long term October average right now. We are equal to the all time low water level set in 1964.

_________________
Current Operational Boats:
'04-Four Winns 180 Freedom 150 HP Evinrude
'72-Chris Craft Commander 31 Sedan Twin-350Qs

It's down quite a bit on the south shore of Lake Michigan. Thankfully I had no issues. Lets pray for heavy snow over the winter!

_________________
2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

We took our boat out a few weeks ago... Lake Ontario/St Lawrence river is about 3' below normal at this time. We were concerned about getting boat off from lift but made it out.. If it goes down another 6" we will have a difficulty... Surprisingly the local ramp we use has a very long concrete bottom ramp so there were no issue but made us very concerned.

_________________

08 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP.....Previous
2013 Crownline E6 Merc 8.2MAG BIIIX, DTS/SC

After our boat was lifted out of the water yesterday and winterized, I used a depth pole to see what water depth we had in our boat well. We had 2' 9" of water. Wow that's low. The previous weekend we had 3' 3".

I too hope the next 6 months bring an increase to our water levels. I'm glad we have sterndrives, at least we can raise them around the docks to help a bit with low water levels, but we can't really deal with water levels much lower.

Mike.

_________________

Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation

Our lake (on the Trent Severn waterway) is maybe a couple inches lower than normal for this time of year. No worries for us.

I did read that an upbound cargo ship ran aground this morning in the St. Lawrence near Prescott Ontario. No cause listed yet but I wouldn't rule out low water levels.

John

_________________
07 Azure AZ200,
Previous boat,
95 278 Vista,
And a lot of others.

Ontario, Canada

The Harbormaster in Charlevoix MI told me that the water level is down 11 inches from the spring level. He has a few slips that are almost unusable because of it.

I had a little trouble getting the boat centered on the trailer when I pulled it out the last time. The trailer was tilting to the side because I had to back so far in that the tires where off the ramp cement. Would not have been so bad but all the idiots that power load create huge holes at the end of the cement.

I did see that they had delivered more cement slabs for the ramp when I was there last. Not sure if they are replaceing some or maybe extending the ramp out into the lake more.

_________________
2004 248 Vista "Amante"
MC 5.0MPI/B3

JeffLW,,,,lmao at power load.

Those idiots get under my skin too

John

_________________
07 Azure AZ200,
Previous boat,
95 278 Vista,
And a lot of others.

Ontario, Canada

Well it probably has to do with Nestle, The Chinese and those giant bladder barges going up and down the great lakes if you believe some of these articles I have run into. Also heard that Jesse Ventura did a show about this topic on his show Conspiracy Theory on trutv, sounds a bit far fetched to me but it's something worth looking into.

http://www.examiner.com/article/sell-ch ... reat-lakes

So - here's an interesting perspective from a panelist on the US-Canada Joint Commission on Great Lakes Water Levels:



Here's some shots I pulled off the internet showing this year's low levels:

Waubushene on Georgian Bay


St. Clair River


North Channel, near Sault Ste. Marie


Lake Huron, near Kincardine


Eagle Harbor, Wisconsin, on Lake Superior

_________________

2005 Sundowner
2008 Highlander V6

Lakes in the center of the country are the lowest I've ever seen them, but at least here the reason is obvious. Extreme drought for nearly a year now and triple digit temps nearly every day for most of the summer.

_________________


Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Another cargo ship ran aground today in Alexandria Bay in the St. Lawrence.

Phoenix Star is her name I believe.

_________________
07 Azure AZ200,
Previous boat,
95 278 Vista,
And a lot of others.

Ontario, Canada

I live on a canal directly off Lake St Clair.

We had to pull our Vista 278 out of the water the last week of September, the earliest ever for us. Reason: The water is so low, the Vista was sitting on the bottom.

Ive never seen it this low. Right now our canal is mud at my seawall and about 1' of water in the middle

_________________
1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21