Texas--Clear Lake Shores Area Depth Question

[Jetx]

Strongly second the recommendation for getting some up-to-date guidance from CLMC, or from your contractor. We took our 5’ draft Catalina 387 to CLMC for bottom paint and rudder work several years ago, and had maybe 10” to spare under the keel (don’t recall the tide level, but wasn’t at dead low, I’m sure)... but it wasn’t a straightforward approach.

As I recall, on advice of our contractor, from Marker 17, you head almost due north until you’re ~150ft from shore, then turn NW towards the entrance. But my recollection may be off, and it may have changed, so don’t go until you’ve gotten some clearer instructions from your contractor.

EDIT: might be more than 150ft. I’m notoriously bad at eyeballing distances.

[jmschmidt]

Channel marks are tricking but we had no trouble with over 6 foot draw.

[kaa2021]

Thanks all! We will come back and post with our results (or you can boat by and laugh at our grounding if the results are poor) after we attempt. Our plan is to head over during the April high tide. Cheers all!

[bstreep]

We are 6'6". We were at Waterford. Had the boat rerigged at Clear Lake. In November. With the tide OUT. Only issues we had were at Waterford Marina. The rest of the way we were fine. It is a bit skinny AT the pier at Clear Lake. You will be fine.

[kaa2021]

Wanted to come back and update everyone in case another cruiser winds up with the same issue.

Punchline: We made it! Currently doing some bottom work.

How: Waited for the rising tide, leaving at 3pm yesterday afternoon. We cut at 339' after channel marker 17. It was still a little low, so we think we should have left the channel earlier. Got some muck on the bottom but nothing major. Nothing we couldn't plow through with our full keel.

Thanks for the help y'all!

[rexnicious]

Originally Posted by n5ama

You should have no problems going from Waterford to the Clear LK Marine center but “stay in the channel”! Clear Lake in the winter and early spring has much reduced water depths, but the center of the channel is pretty good. If you want to be a bit more comfortable with your move, wait another month and time your move with the online tide table for Clear Lake and pick high tide for the move.

You should also be able to get the channel depth from the people in the marine center office.

Good luck with the move.

BTW, I’m at Bal Harbor and a few months ago I had 4” of air gap between the bottom of my hull and the water level. I have a Catalina 25 with a wing keel that draws 3.5 ft. Great time to clean the hull if the lake bottom was anything more solid than jello chocolate pudding.

Are you still in Bal Harbour? I'm planning to move over there in about a month. The office told me that with my 4.2" draft (Catalina Capri 25), it should be fine in the warmer months, but could be problematic when the fronts blow through, which i expected.

Do you have any insight as to the best way to navigate into the marina from the Clear Lake channel, and/or places to avoid?

[n5ama]

I'm now located at South Shore (directly across the lake - at the lighthouse). I got tired of scrambling to find safe harbour every time a hurricane came through. The Bal Harbour was convenient, good price and nice people working there but the fixed pier was a major problem for me.

South Shore has floating docks to compensate for storm serge.

Winter at Bal Harbour is problematic reguardless of your draft. My Cape Dory 25D had air under the hull during one norther that blew in. It was stuck in the mud for 3 weeks. The full keel was ok but I was mostly concerned about the rudder getting busted when the boat rocked in the mud.

With normal water levels in the lake in the summer, you just need to stay in the channel. It's not well marked in front of Bal Harbour but pay attention to your chart and depth and you should be ok. There are a lot of 4'-5' water depths off the main channel so it's wise not to go too far from the main channel without checking.

Good luck