Wakeboat bans

[redneck joe]

Thoughts?

Wake boat owners sue northern Wisconsin town to overturn ban on wake surfing

A lawsuit against a small northern Wisconsin town seeks to overturn a local ban on wake surfing, saying the regulation is illegal and unconstitutional.

www.wpr.org

 

[FLATHEAD]

Not a fan of wake boats. I think they have their place. The one lake mentioned is only a tad more than 700 acres and only 12 foot deep. Pretty small. Don’t blame the locals.

 

[DeepCMark58A]

Not a fan, it is the operators that cause the problems,

 

[ejnichol]

Here in NC bans are not that common. Theres one bill I could find for a restriction on a lake. Studies have been conducted, one in 2020, that agree something needs to be done to protect shoreline integrity.

Not sure why more restrictions are not in place except some waterfront property owners are also do wake surf. Also lobbying by boat mfgrs. to stop bans as that would kill there profit center of wake boats.

 

[aspeck]

I am not a fan of wake boats … simply because a lot of the operators have little respect for others. If they would keep them in the middle of the lake and away from others as best they could, it would be different. But getting buzzed by a wake boat with ballasts full is not fun. And watching the shoreline “muddy up” because a wake boat keeps circling an area you are fishing is sad also. They put a lot of shoreline into the water.

 

[cyclops222]

Wake boats cause DAMAGE. And their over weighted boats cause MAXIMUM sized wakes with loud exhausts from straining engines.
12 hours each day they send waves into boats at docks.

 

[bajaman123]

I know the Corps of Engineers is doing shoreline erosion studies at many inland lakes and have noted acceleration of erosion with the increased popularity of wake boats. I hate to see anything get banned as that is just a bad precedent, but yeah...far too many wake boat operators are, "I paid $300,000 for this boat and you all can suck my wake!" MANY YouTube and TikTok videos showing irresponsible operators wreaking havoc with docks and shoreline. My thinking is that to operate a wake boat you have to have $5M in liability insurance, register your boat with the authorities responsible for enforcement at that lake, and notify them each time you put the boat on the water.

 

[cyclops222]

Insurance is useless as as hundreds of boats are slammed against the docks.
Those wakes destroy the metal hinges of floating docks.
LOOK AT ME !!!!
Great Lakes freighters are BANNED from making smaller wakes.
BUT BUT I am so special.

 

[DeepCMark58A]

On the lake I live on I can have white caps hitting the banked rock shoreline not a problem, wake boat waves hit and you can see the silt washing out. There is one house on the lake that is an air bnb and if a renter has a wake boat you will see the sheriffs department or DNR enforcement on the lake that week.

 

[Mc Tool]

As cyclops says " look at me look at me ".
If these ******** didnt feel the need to show us all just how wonderful they are and did their thing away from other uninterested people in the middle of the water instead of the edges they probly wouldnt attract so much negative attention .
You might think that if wake boaters were made aware that their behavior would see them banned if they didnt show more consideration to others and the environment , like some billboards by the boat ramp ,they would take the hint.
Here in NZ we do have designated areas of the shore for swimmers , skiers and jet skis and for the most part they keep to their own .........but we still get conflict .
Part of the issue here is that no one needs a licence ,or safety courses and ,apart from a name maybe on the boat there are no identifying numbers required , no boat registration either.

 

[jlh3rd]

entitlement has become a mainstay in practically every venue of life. to hell with anyone else's rights.
why should we expect anything different on the water.

 

[Grub54891]

On our lake that's 140 acers, It would be a bad thing. The lake is long and narrow. The wave would slam the shoreline and boats/docks hard. We did have one person launch his wakeboat at the ramp but never got out, He backed out into the shallow rocky area on the right of the landing and destroyed his prop. I did not feel bad for him!

 

[racerone]

These things should be banned from " near shore " areas.----As stated they damage docks , boats , nests of water birds that are just above water level.

 

[Pmt133]

My problem is they always seem to be in the most narrow thruway of a lake when they're out there. Coincidentally they rarely seem to go out on the bay. A secluded area is one thing, but messing up everyone and everything in a known pinch point that everyone needs to get through is not okay....

 

[flashback]

they're usually accompanied by extremely loud music as well, which erodes my peace and tranquility.

 

[Lpgc]

Here in England we obviously don't have big lakes like in the US, there are speed limits of around 10knots on most if not all lakes. A few weeks ago I took my boat on Ullswater which is around 8 miles long but less than a mile wide over most of that length. Someone was surfing behind a wakeboat that was making some big waves but at least they did it away from busy areas and moored boats. Seems some are using wakeboats to get around the speed limits - If a boat is planing or towing a skier it's obvious they're breaking the speed limit but wakeboats don't plane so it's not obvious they're breaking the speed limit. If one of the reasons for speed limits is to cause less wake the wakeboats make a mockery of the speed limit lol. Years ago before the speed limits we used to ski on Ullswater but cause a lot less wake than the wakeboats. Most boats will make maximum wake at the point they're going as fast as possible while not planing then make less wake when on the plane, if I drove my boat at just over 10mph it would probably make more wake than on the plane at 25mph. On the same lake they have fairly big tour steam paddle boats which always move at the speed limit and cause fairly big wake, At least one good thing came out of these boats causing wake, my 10 year old son usually isn't that interested in going in the boat but decided he likes going over waves... So I told him he'll enjoy going on the boat on the sea then

 

[jimmbo]

There needs to be Regulations that Prohibit Wakeboard Boats from producing a Wake within 8 Miles of a Shoreline

 

[Lpgc]

There needs to be Regulations that Prohibit Wakeboard Boats from producing a Wake within 8 Miles of a Shoreline

Hehe, 8 miles off any shore in the UK would mean you'd be out at sea and almost guaranteed bigger waves than wakeboats make anyway

Any boat could be a wakeboat if you forget to put the plug in and try to get back to shore before sinking

 

[Scott Danforth]

Wake boats need large deep water, not shallow small lakes

 

[Captain Caveman]

I was fishing with buddies in a small lake last night. We were on a slow drift, letting the wind push us. A wakeboard boat went by at slow speed within about 50ft. Luckily my 16ft boat was pointed towards theirs. We rocked a lot. They smiled and waved like they were doing us a favor.

30min later a guy in a Ranger went flying by on plane, causing minimal wake. A moment later he circled back at slow speed and apologized for creating a wake while I was fishing. I told him "no problem" and we chatted for a few minutes.

Two completely different attitudes and approaches to boating.

On some lakes around here in Minnesota, they have rules on how much wake you can create within "X" feet from shoreline. I think that it's a good compromise.