Lake Havasu

[22zxla]

Was wondering if anyone on here boats on lake havasu? Im going to vegas for july 4th weekend an wanted to know some general info. Stuff like if is as nice as they say,driving distance,waste of time if you dont bring your boat anyone got room on thiers etc. I know hotboat forum would help but thier thoughts are one way. thanks

[fegettes]

I stopped by there in May '05. It was everything I had heard about, and more. I will be going back. I will be driving from Dickinson, TX in about two weeks to go to Lake Powell, and then to Lake Havasu. It will be a long drive, but, well worth it. I-10 will take you 95% of the way from NO.

[yeller]

I too can give a full report in about a month.
Fegettes, I have a place booked for 4 days at Havasu right after Powell.

22zxla...from what I hear, Havasu is NUTS on any long weekend...2hr waits at the boat launch are not unheard of, so be EARLY.

[22zxla]

Unfortunatly im flying to vegas and was going to drive there one of the days. Was wondering is it still a cool place to be if your on the shore looking at boats, babes etc. Was looking for the drive time from vegas to havasu. Was thinking about renting a car to go check it out. Was kinda hoping some one might have room on thier boat as well. Will have a hot babe with me if that helps!

[Jraysray]

I stopped by there in May '05. It was everything I had heard about, and more. I will be going back. I will be driving from Dickinson, TX in about two weeks to go to Lake Powell, and then to Lake Havasu. It will be a long drive, but, well worth it. I-10 will take you 95% of the way from NO.

Are you the one with the 22c and teal stripe?

[gcarter]

I make several trips to 'Vegas every year....business.....really!
I've looked at the map every time I'm there and wonder....
So far, it's always been too far for the time.

[yeller]

I was in Vegas in Feb, rented a car and drove to Havasu. About 2hrs. Didn't actually go to the lake and it was Feb, so can't comment on the girls. :tongue: I was boat shopping. You would have been more than welcome on my boat, but we'll be gone before you get there.

BTW: if renting, Dollar Rent a Car is by far the cheapest. We rented a brand new midsize, unlimited milage for less than $35.

[fegettes]

Are you the one with the 22c and teal stripe?
I have a 95 22' Blackhawk. I know the 22c, it is over there on the
Dickinson Bayou, originally from Lousiana, sweet boat.


Lake Havasu is at least a 2 hour drive from Vegas, and probably more depending on the places you may want to stop at. You will pass by Laughlin and Bullhead City, with casinos along the Colorado River. I was there in April 05 for the bike rally, that is another story. Oatman is also a little out of the way place east of there. It is a little old minor town, with much history, on Route 66, and worth the visit. For such an ugly desert, it sure can have a beauty to it, great for bikes. And do not worry, there will not be a cloud in the sky.


Yeller, where do you have reservations? I do not have anything lined up yet. I have stayed at some of the casinos there in Laughlin, at $29/night, but that is about an hour away from the lake. I would like to stay closer.

[22zxla]

Thanks for all the info! 2 hours is not a bad little run, think ill do it. Gambling is not my thing. Been around long enought to say im not lucky. would love to hear from some one who lives there. If no replies when it gets close, ill try hotboat forum. thansks again.

[RickSE]

Man, now two of you guys are going to Havasu after Powell. Could it be it three?

Havasu is crazy, all kinds boats, a lot of big power West Coats stuff with some East Coast boats mixed in. There are several ramps but you have to watch out for the biggest one,Havasu Marina, since they're extremely anal about exhaust noise. Yes, Hotboat.net is a good site for Havasu stuff.

Send a PM to Stan, is on Havasu a lot.

[yeller]

You gotta go now Rick. When are you gonna get the chance to boat Havasu with other Donzis? Not sure what their plans are, but maybe we could convince Thriller and Lenny to go as well. :yes: I don't think either of them have to head back immediatly.

Fegettes...we have a place resevered at Havasue but I'm not sure exactly which place :bonk: I think it's the Dunes. My sister in law has time share with RPI and she got it for us. Believe me, except for Powell and Havasu, we'll be looking for the $30 motels, even if they are an hour from the lake.

Rick...steering is being shipped on Monday. Let me know if it doesn't arrive that week.

[RickSE]

This is the stuff that bugs me about Havasu, seems to happen quite often. This just happened last Saturday. My wife has already said she will not go along.

"A collision between at least two boats south of the Sandbar Saturday afternoon resulted in 13 injures.
The whereabouts of one person involved in the crash was still unknown Saturday night. :eek:
The accident occurred shortly before 3:30 p.m. three of the victims suffered serious head injuries, according to Lake Havasu City Fire Department Battalion Chief James Whitt.
One of the boats involved carried 14 teachers from Phoenix, Whitt said.
One of the injured was in critical condition; two others were listed as serious, according to Whitt.
Rescue crews transported the victims from the Sandbar area to Lake Havasu State Park Windsor Beach, where they were taken to Havasu Regional Medical Center.
It was not known late Saturday how the accident happened.
At Windsor, paramedics treated two leg fractures, an abdominal injury and an assortment of bumps, bruises and minor lacerations. At least three people involved were not injured, Whitt said.
Dive teams from San Bernardino, Calif., and Mohave County called off the search for the missing person around 7:10 p.m. because of darkness. The search will resume this morning.
Officers from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, Lake Havasu City Fire Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office and Lake Havasu City Fire Department were involved in rescue efforts, as well as personnel from River Medical."

Yeller, I'll keep an eye out for it and let you know when it arrives. Motel-6 all the way baby, cheap, clean and all over the place. Get yourself a Motel-6 guide book.

[Last Tango]

I have boated on Lake Havasu at least once a year for the past 8 years. First time was 4th of July weekend. Never again. Too Darn HOT!!! Other than that, it was fine. Place is PACKED, on weekends, with high performance boats from mostly West Coast and local go-fast builders (several in Lake Havasu City with excellent reputations and well-known. Ever wondered where all those desert location boat tests take place with Bill Teague at the helm? Yep. If it was shot with brown rolling hills in the background and a scattering of sage brush on the shore line, it was Lake Havasu. Every one of them. Why so few Donzi's in Powerboat Magazine boat tests? 2700 miles from Sarasota. Why always DCB (Dave's Custom Boats) etc. Check their address at the bottom of the article. Powerboat Magazine and Poker Runs America are headquartered in Lake Havasu. Check the Poker Runs America schedule to see what is on Lake Havasu that weekend. A sister organization does "hometown gatherings" for over 20 boat manufacturers owner's groups, and they are all on Lake Havasu. Poker Run Productions or something like that. About 20 events each year. Right there on Havasu.
4th of Julyweekend is always packed to the gills with boats and people and it brings water to your eyes (but it will evaporate before it gets to your cheek). Awesome boats, awesome women (all with a mighty fine collection of tattoos. Geez.), and guys all freaky looking like they are trying out for a part in some futuristic prison movie.
Down side is the exhaust from all these boats collects and doesn't move out of the channel, to the point where they regularly have smog health alerts around the channel area and have new regs regarding emissions there and the number of boats. Noise? No problem. Emissions? CARB patrols the area because the lake is shared with California.
Most accidents happen at the Sand Bar and Copper Canyon. Drinks, drugs, dumbasses and way too many boats in way too restricted space with way not enough protection from the sun and heat, causes constant problems to the point that authorities close these areas on a regular basis.
Here in Jacksonville we have our share of boating accidents and deaths each year. But Lake Havasu has a hard number more than three times ours (their population? 75,000. Our population? 1.25 million).
Why do I go? My son, his wife, and our granddaughter live there. We go in November.

[22zxla]

Thanks for the info last tango. Still thinking about driving down there that weekend. Althought if your not on a boat its not the same. Just figured i dont make it to vegas that often much less the big boat weekend. Looking at the pictures on hotboat site it looks wild! thanks again.

[Last Tango]

I found the schedule for Joker's Wild Promotions, the company I alluded to above that puts on 20 events a year at Lake Havasu. The link will also get you back to their home page.
http://www.jokerswildpromotions.com/events.php
Maybe you could get them to Create a West Coasters Donzi gathering.

[boxy]

Mark, Bill Taylor and the Poker Runs America guys are HQ'd out of Toronto, Ontario, CANADA. It has always been a Canadian company. They have a MI drop address for US mail, but the direct line is a 905 Toronto number.

[RickSE]

Another copy from a recent post on Hotboat and BTW we already have a western Donzi event. :) I don't know guys.... I'm scared. :bawling: At least if the three of us go after Powell we'll be in a pack.

These are the signs summer has come to Lake Havasu City, Ariz.: Flashy boats in from out of town, the Girls Gone Wild Humvee on the prowl and beer sales up 1,333 percent at the Superfuels filling station. "There's not too many stories that are PG-13 up here," said 21-year-old Zac Wheeler of Rancho Cucamonga about 9 a.m. Sunday, while two of his friends in the next boat pounded beers through a funnel on the shores of Thompson's Bay on Lake Havasu. Maintaining order on the lake, a surreal blue strip of water on the California-Arizona border renowned for its blend of scorching heat, light beer and hedonism, is a serious business. In a strategy to be repeated over every summer holiday weekend, law-enforcement personnel from federal, state and local agencies team up to patrol the lake - the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department among them. On a normal weekend, three deputies will work the lake on the California side. For Memorial Day weekend, the kickoff of the summer boating season, the department imported an extra 50. It's a duty that the imported deputies are glad to draw: Along with the overtime pay, deputies are likely to come home with some good stories, albeit ones that wouldn't be suitable for children. Each weekend, an average of 250,000 people visit the Colorado River during the summer months. Officials are uncertain how many visited Lake Havasu last weekend. Most of the serious accidents could be prevented by sobriety and life vests, deputies say. But bad ideas thrive in Havasu's heat. "They feed off each other," said San Bernardino sheriff's Deputy Troy McComas, who has patrolled the lake for the past three years. He was joined last week by Ron Sindelar, another Needles deputy, and Keith Bushey, a reserve deputy up for the weekend. "They see something happening and say, 'Let's try that.' " Despite the festive atmosphere, the danger for boaters is real. Some have died from flipping a boat at high speed, or by diving into the water after a beer and never coming back up. A 17-year-old girl on a Sea-Doo who was struck by a boat on Sunday is one of two killed this year on San Bernardino County's side of the Colorado River. Two other boaters were hospitalized from injuries sustained on the lake Sunday. Six people died last year. McComas remembers one accident from last season in particular, when a boat on a speed run blew past him just after dusk. "They were going so fast I could never catch them," he said. A few minutes later, two of the boat's occupants were dead, their boat run aground and in pieces. "It gets to you, that kind of stuff." Such experiences help explain why, despite Havasu's celebrated reputation for all sorts of questionably legal behavior, the deputies on patrol seem to be primarily interested in separating drunks from their vessels. On Saturday, the Sheriff's Department arrested 14 people on suspicion of boating under the influence. Thirty-one were arrested over the holiday weekend. Around 1 p.m., McComas pulled over three men in a boat with a partially deflated blowup doll handcuffed to the back. One of the men had been sitting on the edge of the boat, a safety violation. Although the boat was awash in cases of beer, the driver was sober, and McComas wished him a good afternoon. "Thank you, officers. Be safe," the captain shouted as his crew of two men and one inflatable woman motored toward the mouth of Copper Canyon. "We're not the morality police," sheriff's Cpl. Sam Galbreath explained back on the docks. "You have to pick your battles." Part of the job is distinguishing between criminally bad judgment and its lawful equivalent. At the far end of Copper Canyon Saturday afternoon, a man clung to a rocky spire rising 60 feet above the water, known as Jump Rock. The man steadied himself before diving into the crowded water below. "We've had people die on that thing," McComas said, shaking his head and aiming his boat away from the spot. It was McComas' only trip inside the canyon all day. By midafternoon, hundreds of boats filled Copper Canyon, some packed so tightly together one could walk from bow to bow. Five Sheriff's Department boats hovered near the mouth of the canyon, scrutinizing arriving and departing vessels for safety violations. McComas stopped dozens of boats, perfunctorily asking their drivers to follow a pen with their eyes, then asking them to come aboard his boat for a breathalyzer test. As the sun rose to its highest point in the sky, many boaters' blood-alcohol levels were just beginning their ascent. Russell Jefferson's boat had a sober driver, but he took over the wheel while his buddy took a picture, he said. After blowing an 0.16, twice the legal limit, Jefferson was cuffed. "I was driving the boat for five seconds. This is out of control," he said of the sheriff's zero-tolerance policy for the weekend. "I was a passenger on the boat and had a few beers." On the sheriff's docks, a row of young men in board shorts and waist shackles waited to be driven 40 miles to the Needles jail. Barring any outstanding warrants, they were expected to be released six hours later and given a court date in August. It doesn't usually take a breathalyzer to tell if a boater has had too much to drink, McComas says. "Every time they say 'I'm good,' I know they're gone," McComas says. " 'I'm good' is a 0.23 on my last few stops."

[Carl C]

Wow, RickSE, I'm sure glad to be a week-day boater!

[yeller]

Rick, it should be somewhat quieter weekdays. I'll be there the start of the week so I'm hoping it won't be too bad. If there are too many idiots, we'll pack up and go. Have to give it a try though.

BTW: Found out today that they haven't shipped the steering. They tell me now they were out of stock and should have it in Thursday. I told them if they couldn't guarantee that'll it'll arrive at your place by Tuesday, to cancel the order.

[Lenny]

Is it just me,... or is it that the WEST is starting to SMELL ALIVE with Donzi's....

:D :D :D

Bring it on...Poodle, you will soon need to move...

[RickSE]

Yeller,
Yes should be quieter on the weekdays. Shouldn't be all that hot either since it was only 113 deg. there the other day. :kaioken: If nothing else I'd go just to run at 400' elevation. OK on the steering. I'll probably be at work until mid-day on the 21st. I talked to our shipping receiver again and gave him a heads up on the stuff coming in.

[thriller]

Well,,Looks like I might have to hang a left at Kingman:lifeprese

[yeller]

Well,,Looks like I might have to hang a left at KingmanMost definitely!! At least a one day stop is a must. :boat: