New to the SoCalJetBoat site. Saw this thread and thought I would chime in as it is in my back yard. I have a cabin about 5 miles away and try and get over for a little while every year depending on the weather, sometimes warm, cold or rainy but no snow. I have never participated as I haven’t had the boat in the water in a long time, just not enough time to get the boat summer prepped by then. I now need a new interior as I was visited by Rocky Raccoon a couple of winters ago. May have to break out my old interior until I can send the seats out to Martinez in SoCal. Cheaper to send to SoCal. than to have them done locally.
Normally the weekend starts with registration on Friday during the day, then a tour of the lakes in the afternoon. You will be on a chain of 28 lakes split by a dam that has a lift to take you to the lower half of the chain. There is enough water that you will only see the same water twice. Friday night there is a boat show at Bonnie’s.
Time runs start Saturday morning some where between 10:00 and 11:00 and goes to around 4:00. Later in afternoon I can still hear guys running the lakes. Usually there are somewhere between 4 and 6 jets that show up. Most are prop boats, but they will let anything make a pass, wave runner, pontoon boats rowboats, you name it. There are several 26-28 foot boats that come up from the Chicago area to make passes. One year there was also a blown alcohol hydro that came in so it is a good time for all.
A few jets do show up to watch the action and party from the water. You might be able to hook up with them I keep talking about bring out the pontoon to watch but it is more fun to watch from the shore, check out the boats and eat the food.
If you going to make time runs and get to the lake early there is some pitting on the beach. There are pit spaces across the road and the event organizers stop traffic for boats to be loaded and unloaded at the landing.
As was stated earlier, I also heard that there might be some drag races conducted on Sunday. This was noted over on the Blarney Island and the Northern Illinois Drag Boat Assoc web sites.
I’m not sure of AV gas being available at the Eagle River airport. I asked several years ago and was told no, but time do change. I can check a little later in the spring.
For the last 6-7 years, boat drags (small field) have been conducted in Pelican Lake near the end of July, but don’t really here about it until late June or early July. The local bar owner that host the races is a racer himself. The only way it is promoted is a sign along the highway going through town.
Sorry for being long winded or sounding like a travel site but I thought I would give you the rundown of the event and the area. If you need more info let me know. There are pictures from last year on the threelakesshootout web site. Let me know if you are going to make the trip north.
Bob
The one thing I ask is if you come up and run the chain, please run mufflers to keep the locals happy (water patrol). You can run open header during time runs at least in the past.
