First Trip of the season - South Bass Island

E

eric_b

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Took a trip around South Bass Island yesterday, It was a great trip, started getting windy on return trip, but overall was great.

We did a circle tour in the harbor at Put-in-Bay. There is a lot of construction still going on. "C" Dock is still under construction and docking is limited. Park Place Boat Club does not have their docks in yet and are having members park at the Boardwalk. The mooring balls are all in and look ok. Crews Nest and Miller look good as does "B" Dock.

It is going to be a late start to the summer season here from the looks of things.

My boat is running great, engines purr like a kitten and get the boat up and out of the water. Cruising RPM is 3100-3200 and speed is around 20 kts.
 
It'll be an interesting start to the season for sure. I'm looking fwd to checking out the progress at PIB. I'm working on a smaller project boat for runs up to The Bay. It will be awesome to pull up to a new floating dock at PPBC instead of trying to climb my way up to the piers.

I was at Seaway last wkd and saw new floating docks waiting on the lawn. I was hoping they would finally install them as finger docks for transients, but the dock guys said they're to replace the permanent fingers in the center area.
 
Stopped at Put n Bay on Memorial Day. Park Place and A & C docks have a long way to go. I would be surprised if they were completed this summer. B dock is the only one up and running. This will make for an interesting summer. Plan well in advance to get dockage.

Ron
 
I was also at the Bay last weekend. I'll echo the problems with A and C. One of the B dock guys said they are doing 1 crib per week and there are 20 cribs left to install. Looks like it will be a lot of Walleyes on Middle Bass or Kelly's this year.
 
I thought C looked pretty good. There was even a pleasure boat tied to it at one point, but I don't know the extent of the project either. Are they really adding finger docks? I hear rumors that finger docks will be installed on C and it will increase capacity. Seems like fingers would increase safety and convenience, but decrease capacity. (you can't get much more density than rafting 4-deep!)

The plan is clearer over at Park Place. They've started on the main floating piers and and a lot (if not all) of the other sections are nearby waiting to be installed. They're using high-quality materials: pressure treated floaters with massive steel guide-pilings, sturdy cleats and what appear to be 6"x6" uprights.
 
I hope Park Place is done by Father's day weeekend. A friend is a member and has secured docks for us as well for that weekend. Park Place has assured my friend that their docks will be done by this upcoming weekend. We'll see.

We went to Middle Bass on Sunday and Walleye's was excellent as usual. The marina was not that full, maybe 50%. I'm sure that will change if docks A&C at PIB remain out of service.
 
Last wkd, PPBC put every boat they could who got bumped from the new basin over at MBI. If you're good with being over there, then it might work out for your either way. (personally, while the facilities are top-notch, that island bores the heck out of me!)
 
Definitely a lot more to do at Put In Bay. I'm sure PPBC will get their work done, just depends on when it will get done.
 
Great progress at PP. The new floating docks don't have utilities yet, but are otherwise done. They had about 8 boats in there this wkd. My only complaint is the fairway - it's tight! PPBC has stated that their target demographic is a 35 footer, and the layout of the marina looks like they're taking that seriously.
 
SLW-I didn't make it over this weekend but was wondering if they would open it up at all. Is it tighter than portside?
 
It looks wider than Portside to me. The first boat to the right is a 400EC and I think the boat bowed-in on the left was a Regal 3560. Even so, we saw a few pucker episodes as some boats were maneuvering with moderate easterlies, which is probably 2nd-worst-case as far as wind direction goes. Those massive uprights that Portside lacks make a big difference though - at least until the fairways is full of menacing anchors!

There was a 400DA (slightly over 44' x 13'10") further down on the right. He took up half of the well, so only a much narrower boat would have to share the well with him. There are very nice 50' fingers on the end.

ppbc.jpg
 
IF my project runabout is able to leave her home marina under her own power, these new docks will be awesome. The south side of the W/E pier seems to be dedicated to PWC's, but the outside of the east pier is perfect for a small boat to swing up to and step off of. No jagged metal or 5' of snake-infested cribs to scale. Having those uprights means a lot less scrambling for fenders than is necessary at Portside as well.
 
That looks nice! We are going over next weekend, staying at CN. I'll have to walk over and see it, and how the public docks are coming along. Hopefully we will have good weather. We were there Memorial Day weekend and the public docks were a mess. The street was closed and it looked like they had a long way to go. I heard July before they hope to finish these.
 
I took the dinghy around the public docks. "A" Dock and the street are still messes, but C is looking good. They've apparently decided to stray from the power-outlets-strapped-to-telephone-poles model of power distribution! They're installing nice pedestals instead.

I saw some floating docks waiting to be installed on C, but I wasn't able to figure out the design of where they'll go.
 
Maybe they will even put some of the pedestals on the inside of the wall so you don't have to walk over all the cords! I'm not sure which was worse, the power cords or the snakes. Do you know if they are getting rid of the entire concrete pier and replacing that with a floating docks? Getting rid of the old snake infested pier would be a bonus. It has been falling apart for years. I always carried huge round fenders with me for when we tied to that wall. It would probably look alot like the system at MB when it is done, which is really nice.
 
The piers themselves will have the same footprints as before. On A-Dock, they made cribs that overlay the originals. It looked to me like they tore-out and rebuilt most of C-Dock, but it too has the same layout as before. The floaters for C-Dock looked to be square-ish, so I'm not sure what they'll do with them.
 
The docks at PPBC are nice, we spent the weekend there and enjoyed them. While I was parked on the wall east of the Jet Express, friends of ours were on the new floating docks. I'm not sure how long they will last as the vertical boards on the fingers and the mains drop below the water line several inches. Also the water is not yet connected on the docks. There is power however.
 
I think I can see your boat on PPBC's Facebook page: 5th boat in?

The submerged part of the docks struck me as strange too, but wood pilings last a LONG time, so I guess if it's properly treated, these docks can as well?
 
Yep that is me. The Jet Express is directly behind me in that photo. There is a 43' Hatteras off my stern and a 320 Sundancer off my bow. Our friends were on the fingers on the east side of the floating docks. We had a blast up there, arrived Saturday morning after deciding not to go up Friday Afternoon and left Sunday morning.

I noticed Dog Daze was parked across from us on the floating docks.
 
I heard that 'C' Dock is now partially open. Friends went up there yesterday and saw boats docked there.
 
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