Learned Something New Last Week

I’ll start by stating that I don’t care for jet skis (unless I’m the one riding it) and don’t own one. The purpose of this thread is not to start a jet ski/waterski/pleasure boat bashing session.

My brother inlaw got a ticket over the 4th of July up by Webster Wisconsin for pulling a tube with 2 of his kids on it. It was a 3 person jet ski and he had a spotter with him (a 4th person). I believe he said a game warden pulled him over and issue him a 160.00 fine for exceeding the capacity of the jet ski. It has a 3 person capacity.

Needless to say, he was surprised this was a regulation. I’ve since read the Wis. boating regulations again and from what I’ve been able to conclude, it is as clear as mud. The game warden also told my brother inlaw if you have a boat with a capacity of 6 people and you have 4 in the boat and 3 on the tubes, you would get a ticket. Is anyone else familar with this rule?

BTW – I did get the pleasure of teasing him about being a freaking violater.

I would guess they figure you need to transport all of these people back to shore. So for the boat example, at some point all seven people would be in the boat. BUT it seems hard to believe that they give out a ticket until you actually do that. A person could argue that they take each person back to shore individually thus never are over capacity?

That is what he gets for being on a jet ski and not a fishing boat.

So your saying I shouldn’t have done this last weekend ? (that’s me top center)

Think about it… if you have a 6-person capacity boat and you’re pulling two people on a tube, at some point, they’ll need to be in the boat so they count as 2 people in your boat. Thus, you’re only allowed four additional people in your boat for a total of 6 people. Same would hold true for jetskis.

Makes total sense to me.

Not sure if it makes any difference but they were taking off from shore in front of their cabin. I’ve also noticed some of my neighbors on our lake pulling 4 tubes at once and a couple kids on each tube. Luckily for them, noone has gotten a ticket yet.

Big G,
Is that a 2 piece bikini your wearing? When was the last time you shaved your bikini lines?

are you crazy ??? Thats a onesie !!!

big g

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Not sure if it makes any difference but they were taking off from shore in front of their cabin. I’ve also noticed some of my neighbors on our lake pulling 4 tubes at once and a couple kids on each tube. Luckily for them, noone has gotten a ticket yet.

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This excuse has been used before but the answer you will get is “in the event of an emergency how will you get the victim back to shore?”

I hear what everyone is saying, BUT I know when I ski I take off from shore and glide into shore when I am done. I am never “in” the boat. Maybe they are thinking of people not on the lake that are just jumping out of the boat to ski or tube. I guess it would be hard to differentiate between cabin owners and access boaters.

Wow big g, what was that diet plan your on? I could use a little thinning myself

Jami

Jami, was on…. key word. Anyways, I would think in an emergency, the DNR would let you scoop a few bodies out of the water, without giving the “overloaded” ticket to you. JMHO.

big g

That I would agree with as long as the victim to be is not the one you are pulling behind you if it put you over the limit.

touche…. I agree !!!

big g

It is just common sense.

Even if you plan on towing the people on the tube all the way to the shore, if there is an accident and the tube becomes damaged or lost and you’ve now got bodies in the water, with possible injuries. You shouldn’t make things worse by trying to transport everybody in an overloaded vessel.

In fact the law even says: “Water-skiers are considered to be aboard the vessel”.

RB,
Where did you see that?

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“Water-skiers are considered to be aboard the vessel”

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I’ve got the Wis. Regulations at my desk and can’t find that statement. I also looked at the Wisconsin DNR website and it only says what is in my book. Its possible I missed it, but I’ve scanned through the book a couple times now.

Funny, I couldnt find it either quickly viewing Wis Boat Regs. This is all I could find.

Unlawfull To operate a personal watercraft towing a person on waterskis,
aquaplane, or similar device unless the personal watercraft is
designed to seat at least 3 persons.

Sorry, I stand corrected.

The line “Water-skiers are considered to be aboard the vessel” comes on some legal sounding info attached to a life jacket. I assumed the life jacket company was reprinting some actual laws. But I could not find it in any of the rule books either.

Sorry if I confused anybody.

I stand by the other part of my original post though.

And I do think in a round-about way water-skiers and tubers ARE considered to be aboard the vessel because of the situation I explained above.

I agree RB. The other thing people should be aware of, if the law is not in your thin regulations doesn’t mean the law is not in the Officer catalog they carry
And stupidity, I mean negligence is no excuse to the law

speakin of jet skis, saturday the 7th sometime in the later part of the day. there were a group of people from around the chicago area. some had bass boats and one or more had jet skis. this would be on pool 14 between albany and camanche. they were doing their wild and crazy jumping waves in front of the balls to the walls bass boat when something went wrong and the bass boat ran over the jetski and driver. which later died at the hospital. its bad enough u kill someone, but they were all freinds i understand. how would u like to live with that the rest of ur life. tonights paper is the first time i seen anything about the accident, and of course alcohol was involed. very very sad ending to a wonderfull july 4th weekend.

I wonder if the boat pulling these people has a 13 cap.?

Brett,
I guess I wouldn’t go so far as to call my bro inlaw stupid or negligent (I think you might mean ignorance) because the DNR can’t publish a regulation that is clear. Even though he might be both. I’ve been around boating my whole life, and so has he. I agree, the regulation makes total sense, but why not just state it clearly in the regulations they hand out with your registration.

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“Water-skiers are considered to be aboard the vessel”.

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I’ve also seen people breaking this rule almost every weekend on the lake we have our cabin on and hadn’t heard of anyone getting a ticket for it. That is why I thought it would be good to post.

The version of the regulations provided online, is the same as the version they hand out with registration. Where can someone go to find the complete list of regulations?