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New Mussel Inspection Experiences


Liquidmx

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With the new mussel scare going on and inspections occurring at many CA lakes I thought it would be good to create a thread about this (I did not see one anywhere else, if there is one please delete this post and add as a response).

I personally have heard of people "failing" inspection with less than a cup of water in the bilge. As a result I am going to highlight what I did to get my boat ready, what I know about the process, and my experience at my local lake Calero in Santa Clara county, CA.

First the general overview: This Mussel scare is the pro-active results of enviromentalists scared of the decimating damage they are causing to other waterways, specifically lake havasu. The overall concept is that you are to have your boat inspected (at lakes requiring inspection) for these creatures. Upon a completed "pass" inspection you can then launch your boat on the lake. When you are finished boating for the day, they will put a band around the eye hook on your boat and the trailer. This allows you to forgo inspection next time if you only launch at lakes with inspection processes as each time you launch to effectively "break the seal, requiring a new seal for skipping inspection. The inspection process costs $7.00 each time, and is non-refundable. See link for more detail: http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/parks/pa...xtcurrchannel=1

You will also need current registration otherwise you immediately fail.

Now on to what I did to prep my boat: Note that my boat is a 2000 vlx wakesetter so prep may be different depending on model etc. This is NOT a official or formalized preparation procedure, simply what worked for me in an effort to educate and help others. If you know of any areas in your boat which pool water, it would be in your best interests to dry those areas.

After hearing some personal stories of people "failing" the inspection I took it seriously when I was going to launch my boat. Note that at Lake Anderson they inspect your boat on an un-level surface resulting in the nose pointing downhill. At Calero they inspect on a relatively flat surface. .. so far. I am sure locations may change if someone deems them necessary. Also note that at Calero you are Immediately sent to the inspection process with NO time to prep, have your boat prepped for inspection before entering the park. I do not know about Anderson lake.

In preparation for both I pulled out all my fly high Pro-x sacks hand draining any remaining water out of them. This included my locker sack, and my two back v-drive sacks (I also run a sac in the bow but I hand drain that every trip). My next step was to open all fat sack valves and run each pump trying to get as much water out of the system as possible. This took only a minute or two to complete but is VERY important as they may ask you to run these pumps at inspection and fail you if any of them squirt water out.

I then put the boat nose all the way down by lowering the tongue support as far as it would go, wiping out the locker and bildge area the best I could. I then did the same with the tongue as high as it would go. I then ran the pumps again just to double check. Finally with the tongue as high as possible I then ran the pumps again and checked the exhaust flaps for water, wiping any excess out. Finally I hooked up the tow vehicle and took one final look, wiping anything down. In total I spent 15-30 mins TOPS on this process for my initial inspection. Now that I have been inspected I should be good to go unless I launch somewhere else in the meantime.

Now for my personal experience: I think there will be a wide array of different experiences in this inspection due to everything resting heavily on the inspectors. I am sure some will take it too seriously while others not serious enough. Personally I prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The inspector I got took a very broad view of the boat, also looking in the exhaust. He then stood outside of the boat and asked to look into the bilge by having me lift the back two seats. He seemed content with that. I invited him to enter the boat as long as he did not step on the seats with his shoes. He then looked a bit more and asked if there were any other "bilge areas". I am not sure how educated these guys are, I contemplated saying "nope thats it" but in the interest of being a local on the lake I thought it would be in my best interest to come clean, possibly building some good rapport. I told him of my ski locker and he inspected the inside. I even lifted up the fat sack in there to show off my dry locker (which I probably didnt need to do, but again... good rapport). My overall goal in this entire process was to be the guy that said "it sucks, but hey, I would rather play by the rules than loose the lake use, let me make your job easier since I am sure you catch enough crap as it is.".

Overall it was a positive experience for me even though I have paid for a season pass and feel that the inspection should be free to pass holders. Ultimately I am doing my best to stay on the good side of these inspectors as they literally hold your launching abilities in the palm of their hand.

I hope this little write up helps some out there wondering about this process. I have also heard of some mussel sniffing dogs in the tahoe area. If you boat does have a mussel infestation I have been told two things regarding their removal: One is a 5 day wait in which they die without new water as they are essentially a "filtering animal" that filters their nutrients to survive from new water (not stagnant). The other is to have 140 degree water blasted throughout the boat. I would prefer NOT to have my bilge area hit with 140 degree water by someone with little disregard for the consequences of the vessel.

Thoughts, questions.....?

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Speaking of California... The band would be good at all our local NorCal lakes right? (Anderson, Calero, Beryessa, New Melones, Don Pedro...) I'll betcha The Delta would be a separate issue.

It sucks, but like you said it beats losing access all together.

Pat

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With the new mussel scare going on and inspections occurring at many CA lakes I thought it would be good to create a thread about this (I did not see one anywhere else, if there is one please delete this post and add as a response).

I personally have heard of people "failing" inspection with less than a cup of water in the bilge. As a result I am going to highlight what I did to get my boat ready, what I know about the process, and my experience at my local lake Calero in Santa Clara county, CA.

First the general overview: This Mussel scare is the pro-active results of enviromentalists scared of the decimating damage they are causing to other waterways, specifically lake havasu. The overall concept is that you are to have your boat inspected (at lakes requiring inspection) for these creatures. Upon a completed "pass" inspection you can then launch your boat on the lake. When you are finished boating for the day, they will put a band around the eye hook on your boat and the trailer. This allows you to forgo inspection next time if you only launch at lakes with inspection processes as each time you launch to effectively "break the seal, requiring a new seal for skipping inspection. The inspection process costs $7.00 each time, and is non-refundable. See link for more detail: http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/parks/pa...xtcurrchannel=1

You will also need current registration otherwise you immediately fail.

Now on to what I did to prep my boat: Note that my boat is a 2000 vlx wakesetter so prep may be different depending on model etc. This is NOT a official or formalized preparation procedure, simply what worked for me in an effort to educate and help others. If you know of any areas in your boat which pool water, it would be in your best interests to dry those areas.

After hearing some personal stories of people "failing" the inspection I took it seriously when I was going to launch my boat. Note that at Lake Anderson they inspect your boat on an un-level surface resulting in the nose pointing downhill. At Calero they inspect on a relatively flat surface. .. so far. I am sure locations may change if someone deems them necessary. Also note that at Calero you are Immediately sent to the inspection process with NO time to prep, have your boat prepped for inspection before entering the park. I do not know about Anderson lake.

In preparation for both I pulled out all my fly high Pro-x sacks hand draining any remaining water out of them. This included my locker sack, and my two back v-drive sacks (I also run a sac in the bow but I hand drain that every trip). My next step was to open all fat sack valves and run each pump trying to get as much water out of the system as possible. This took only a minute or two to complete but is VERY important as they may ask you to run these pumps at inspection and fail you if any of them squirt water out.

I then put the boat nose all the way down by lowering the tongue support as far as it would go, wiping out the locker and bildge area the best I could. I then did the same with the tongue as high as it would go. I then ran the pumps again just to double check. Finally with the tongue as high as possible I then ran the pumps again and checked the exhaust flaps for water, wiping any excess out. Finally I hooked up the tow vehicle and took one final look, wiping anything down. In total I spent 15-30 mins TOPS on this process for my initial inspection. Now that I have been inspected I should be good to go unless I launch somewhere else in the meantime.

Now for my personal experience: I think there will be a wide array of different experiences in this inspection due to everything resting heavily on the inspectors. I am sure some will take it too seriously while others not serious enough. Personally I prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The inspector I got took a very broad view of the boat, also looking in the exhaust. He then stood outside of the boat and asked to look into the bilge by having me lift the back two seats. He seemed content with that. I invited him to enter the boat as long as he did not step on the seats with his shoes. He then looked a bit more and asked if there were any other "bilge areas". I am not sure how educated these guys are, I contemplated saying "nope thats it" but in the interest of being a local on the lake I thought it would be in my best interest to come clean, possibly building some good rapport. I told him of my ski locker and he inspected the inside. I even lifted up the fat sack in there to show off my dry locker (which I probably didnt need to do, but again... good rapport). My overall goal in this entire process was to be the guy that said "it sucks, but hey, I would rather play by the rules than loose the lake use, let me make your job easier since I am sure you catch enough crap as it is.".

Overall it was a positive experience for me even though I have paid for a season pass and feel that the inspection should be free to pass holders. Ultimately I am doing my best to stay on the good side of these inspectors as they literally hold your launching abilities in the palm of their hand.

I hope this little write up helps some out there wondering about this process. I have also heard of some mussel sniffing dogs in the tahoe area. If you boat does have a mussel infestation I have been told two things regarding their removal: One is a 5 day wait in which they die without new water as they are essentially a "filtering animal" that filters their nutrients to survive from new water (not stagnant). The other is to have 140 degree water blasted throughout the boat. I would prefer NOT to have my bilge area hit with 140 degree water by someone with little disregard for the consequences of the vessel.

Thoughts, questions.....?

Good info, thanks for taking the time to post it.

Luckily, us folk in NorCal haven't had to deal with any of this yet.

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Nevada County is already planning inspections...Bullard's included.

Thats not good. Like I said on a previous thread stop at the top of the ramp and run pumps until nothing comes out. But it's like a glass of water dump the water out set the glass down come back an hour later their we be standing water.

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If they start turning away a bunch of boats for "out of the area" registration and/or water sitting in tanks / bilge...Bullard's might become a nice place to ski again...like before WaterSki mag told all of the wallies about it.

:)

Edited by NorCaliBu
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It will be interesting to see the amount of impact this causes both positive and negative. I have already heard stories of people being turned away with 7+day houseboat rentals. Can you imagine showing up for a houseboat trip and being told that you cannot launch your boat?

From the sounds of things it is moving to pretty much the entire norcal area. I have also heard whispers of a "database" essentially red flagging all boats that are launched on certain bodies of the water, such as the delta. That is essentially what they are doing when they take your cf numbers at registration, entering the information in a database to track all the bodies of water your boat has been on. At some point in the future there will be a computerized database which the attendant can input your cf numbers and know all bodies of water that boat has been on in the last couple of years.

Again, the overall goal is to prepare anyone who may be launching at a potential inspection body of water for what they are in for. Some stories like people who simply hooked up a fake a lake to their boat before taking off on a houseboat trip being denied for water in the exhaust are downright depressing.

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