Get Ready–Here it comes

No-wake zone sails through

By JOAN KENT / La Crosse Tribune

La Crosse may soon have a slow no-wake zone on the Mississippi River along the downtown area.

The La Crosse Common Council’s Committee of the Whole voted 15-1 Tuesday to create the zone, which would limit speeds to about 5 mph on the river’s main channel from Taylor Island south to the north end of Isle la Plume.

That stretch now has a 30-mph limit.

As the La Crosse County Sheriff’s office harbor patrol boat is the main enforcer of boating rules, the ordinance directs the city planner and members of the city Harbor Commission to seek county enforcement.

Only two members of the public spoke for the proposal Tuesday, and only one spoke against it.

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Only two members of the public spoke for the proposal Tuesday, and only one spoke against it.

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Did they forget the emails of folks that spoke against it????

Please email [email protected] and let them know that No Wake is NOT the answer…

they vote on this tomorrow

E-mail sent Again!

If you get an undeliverable message…use this one

[email protected]

What the heck,

email them all

http://www.cityoflacrosse.org/Directory.asp?DID=5

e-mail sent.

they should just enforce the 30mph speed limit which already exsists…

or…let us do 80mph because we all know at that speed there is hardly a wake…

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let us do 80mph because we all know at that speed there is hardly a wake…

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Ain’t that the truth…

I think to some extent this will pass. Do I like it? No!

Here’s why I think this will pass. On any given weekend, that area is saturated with boats, mostly pleasure craft. Anyone who knows the area knows there’s a reason why it’s called “The Wave Pool.” It’s unbearable to navigate with the waves and other boats. The 30mph restriction kills smaller boats because the larger pleasure craft travelling 20-30mph throw a huge wake well over 1ft high. A Bass boat or any other fishing boat travelling 30mph throws a wake no more than 1ft high. This is where the guilt by association occurs.

It’s almost impossible to segregate the boats based on the size of their wake. Maybe, by weight or length, but I see that as being difficult because there are lots of 20-21ft Bass boats out there. A 20 ft Baha boat pushes a larger wake that a 20ft Ranger, Blazer, Triton, etc….you get the idea. Hull design is the issue.

Like I said, I don’t like the idea, but unless something changes, this could be carved in stone. It’ll put a hurt on the Bass guys who travel to pool 9. That’s a lot of idle time built into their day. That’s not considering the no-wake/idle zones on the Black River.

Well, I think it’s a good thing. The plain truth is, there are just too many boaters that do not respect other boaters and no enforcement of existing laws. Depending on boaters to police themselves clearly does not work. From tuna boat captains that never look back at their wake damage to small craft navigating too close to others at speed, it will not change without this law or a major increase in enforcement effort. It works everywhere else I have seen it. That section of the river is dangerous to small craft on a busy weekend. The ONLY alternative would be to increase the fines. Make it pay for them to do the enforcement. I would like to see mandatory licensing for boaters with a points system and fines for violations just like road vehicles. No muscle = no observance.

We brought this on ourselves in my opinion, because we all put up with the violations without reporting it and failing to demand enforcement. Just another opinion, but I will be sending an e-mail. Thanks for the heads up.

Great points on education…I agree that most of these weekend warriors don’t have a clue about what’s going on around them when they are on the water. I wouldn’t be objected to making a boating class mandatory…

Another viewpoint. The City of LAX just received a $15,000 dollar grant to help pay police officers the OT to try and catch drunk drivers. Fine by me..whatever, but why can’t they get some grant money to enforce the waterways as well. Even if just on the weekends, since that is when most of the problems occur anyway.

I agree with you as well as far as fines. Speeding tickets vary for drivers. Maximize severe penalties for these guys just like you do for cars on the road. I realize not all boats come equiped spedometers, but odds are if you don’t have one, you’re boat isn’t part of the problem….

I just think there are other altrenatives to be discussed rather than just cutting everyone off.

The common council approved the No-wake zone last night.

DNR has to approve it now to be enforced if I’m not mistaken….

More info to follow.

That was confirmed on the local news this morning.

They showed footage of the area it affects. The footage they showed was a bunch of Bass boats racing down the river.

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they should just enforce the 30mph speed limit which already exsists

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Sorry. I jumped the gun and posted before I read the story . I thought the concern was boaters breaking the speed limits. Dumb statement….sorry.

I agree with those saying maybe they can enforce some type of law requiring a boat wake to only be so high or less through the restricted area. However, we all know the barges aren’t going to slow down so how do you keep it fair?

The original report from Slop read that boats must no-wake in the designated area which is around 5 MPH. I am assuming they are referring to 5 mph SPEEDO (which is normally max no-wake speed)…not GPS ground speed. I wonder what true GPS ground speed is traveling up river with the increase in flow as it currently is? 2 MPH if your lucky? 1.7 MPH? Wow, that’s going to be a long no-wake. I know, I know, you’ll make up for it going down river b/c your gps will read 8+ MPH ground speed.

Hey Sloppy, go out there today and no-wake the whole area at 5 mph and let us know how long it takes.. .

Just got off the phone w/DNR Warden Russ Wilson. We actually had a nice conversation regarding this slow/no-wake issue.

If you would like to send him an email to state your case as to why there shouldn’t be a slow/no wake, feel free to do so by emailing him at [email protected]

This is probably your last chance to get your opinion heard.

Thanks.

Here’s my only problem with this. This ruling makes the nicest landing in the area have a 20-30 minute no wake zone. I’ve always been ok with what they had, but now I’m going to start putting in at less pleasant landings because I don’t want to have to account for the hour of no wake zone (total).

If this was truly all anglers fault, I may feel differently. My 18′ Walleye boat at 30 mph doesn’t make nearly the wake that the big Bahas and other pleasure boats do at the same speed. I’ll agree that the river does get bad right there, but I’d hate to see some of the smaller boat landings try to accommodate all of the big pleasure boats. Can you imagine trying to launch at 7th st. while two big Bahas try to unload there?

I guess this is just one more reason to spend more time in pool 7 this year. It’s a great escape from the circus that you see on 8 all summer long. Just a bit of a rant, thanks for the update.

Pool 7 has nothing to offer….

Just kidding of course.