Last year I had a 20' Cuddy Cabin. I talked it over with my boating friends and family and was informed that taking anything less than 24' on Lake Erie is a risk, but first and foremost- taking anything on Lake Erie before checking the marine weather forecast is plain stupid. That lake can start to kick up waves/chop real big and real fast.
Case in point: My father in law used to live on a canal right off Lake St. Clair. One morning hes on the sunporch drinking his coffee, getting ready for work. A neighbor with a 37' cigarette comes putzing down the canal, says hes going to Cedar Pointe for the day, and chuckles it off as my FIL has to work. Well, my FIL checked the weather real fast for his neighbor and it said Lake Erie was kicking up 4-5'er's. In reality it could really be 7-8''er's. The neighbor just kinda shrugged it off "I have a 37' boat, ill be fine"
Around 4pm my FIL had gotten home from work and was in the back yard cleaning his boats and stuff when his neighbor in the go fast comes back. Windshield - missing. Guy has black eye, swollen face. Guy is standing in 4-6" of water in the cockpit. Apparently the waves were so large, much larger than the marine forecast that he drove right through one of them ripping off his windshield, and filling the cockpit with water! He was still standing in about 6" of water when he got home, bilge pump running non stop. He said he almost killed himself.
After hearing that story I didnt even bother to bring my old 20' down there. But Ive heard a lot of people say that on a calm day Lake Erie is beautiful and a nice ride. Either way, we have a trip planned to Cedar Point this year in our new (to us) Vista 258. I feel a little more confident now, but rest assured we are taking this trip with 3-4 other boaters so there will be a "caravan" of us following each other to Cedar Point in case anything does go wrong.
You just gotta be careful, be over-alert, and think safety first. I do enjoy hearing these stories from friends/family about boating. Like the time my FIL worked at his family owned oldsmobile dealership. A salesman they had hired was kicking butt and banked all this money. He decides hes going to get a small scarab (30' or whatever). Never boated his whole life, ever. He gets the boat - first day out - a few buddies, wife, kids on boat. Hammers the throttle and is cruising really nicely across Lake St Clair. Well the guy never asked anybody about underwater obstructions or even looked at a chart. You know where this is going
He hit what us locals call "the firecracker". Its an underwater rock crib. Marked with a buoy, most drunken idiots think its a channel marker. Well before he could say "oh $*@!" both of his outdrives were torn off with and he was bobbing around in the lake. The boat was a total loss. He was going over 55MPH when he hit the underwater rock crib (under the water about 5" or so). Luckily nobody was killed. I dont know why, but i always enjoy that story...LOL
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