New Wake Boat rules

Looks like there could be some new rules forth coming on these things. Article in the star tribune today. As usual though, rules aren’t much good if no one is enforcing them.

I can’t tell you how they’re affecting a bigger lake like Minnetonka, but on smaller lakes the waves are absolutely devastating. They are literally eroding shorelines. They’re loud, disrespectful, and they take way too long to load/unload at the access.

https://www.startribune.com/wake-boats-on-lake-minnetonka-are-making-waves/571820531/

I can’t tell you how they’re affecting a bigger lake like Minnetonka, but on smaller lakes the waves are absolutely devastating. They are literally eroding shorelines. They’re loud, disrespectful, and they take way too long to load/unload at the access.

I can’t say I like them. In fact I drive 4+ hours one way to stay away from them. That said, they have the same rights to the water as canoes, paddle boats, water skiers, tubers & fisherman.

I just wish they would set a 35 mph speed limit in VNP.

If someone’s actions are a danger to someone, their so-called rights go out the window. Things are regulated all the time. Too many examples to mention.

catmando wrote:

If someone’s actions are a danger to someone, their so-called rights go out the window. Things are regulated all the time. Too many examples to mention.

True but you can’t legislate specifically against them. Whatever special regs will need to be implemented across the board.

I’ll leave this thread now because I don’t care enough about wake boats to even read the article.

catmando wrote:

If someone’s actions are a danger to someone, their so-called rights go out the window. Things are regulated all the time. Too many examples to mention.

Does this apply to how people respond to a pandemic?

Dutchboy wrote:

That said, they have the same rights to the water as canoes, paddle boats, water skiers, tubers & fisherman.

And laws.

I wonder what the wake boat guys say about fisherman…..

I have a few friends that have them. The vast majority of people that do are respectful and don’t harm anyone. They are a blast to hang out and waste a day in the water on. If you don’t like a little loud music I guess that’s your prerogative. Mid day on a weekend I would just expect that on large recreational lakes around here.

I agree we need to look at what boats wakes do to shorelines. That’s the real issue…not the loud music or the time to load and launch. By the way, I’ve seen a lot more fisherman screw up a launch than wake boat dudes….

Just wait until this catches on…..

Link didn’t work. Please ignore.

I don’t have a problem with most wake board people. The one problem I have is when I’m out fishing with my 8 and 3 year old and every other verse is f this fi that bit h this ho that. If It can’t be played on the radio it shouldn’t be played so everyone has to here it.

michael keehr wrote:

f this fi that bit h this ho that.

Hey I know that song!

I don’t think you see any new regs concerning wake boats, If you own a wake boat you probably got a fair amount of cash, with cash you got allot of say with any lake association so nothing will be done by them. It would have to be done by the state, and they would need a study, and right now all states are tripping over themselves with other issues, by the time they got around to looking at wake boats we’ll all be in the ground. in the meantime these small lakes will be torn up, spawning area’s will ruined from the waves and fishing will go in the crapper.

Half the bass boats on our local lakes are just as rude and inconsiderate at the wake surfers

Bearcat89 wrote:

Half the bass boats on our local lakes are just as rude and inconsiderate at the wake surfers

X2

It seems to be only a matter of time before there is some serious property damage or worse yet injury resulting from one of these wakes. A 3 foot wake pummeling a shoreline could easily do some damage to docks/boats/kids playing on a beach, etc…. once that happens, the litigation will follow.

I believe it’s just a matter of “when”, not “if”.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Half the bass boats on our local lakes are just as rude and inconsiderate at the wake surfers

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bass boat plow by creating a 4 foot wake blaring rap music. If that’s the case, then bass boats need to be considered in this argument too.

The article mentions potential rules not about banning or prohibiting them, it talks about a bigger buffer distance, up to 600 from the shoreline. In some smaller lakes, that will almost completely eliminate them.

We are on a lake that’s not attractive to the wake boats. Too many rock piles , narrows and islands. so we don’t see them. I know a couple guys who have them and have been out with them and it’s a fun time. They are respectful for the most part but the boats are kind of like a bull in china shop. The waves ripple and reach people’s shorelines and I’m sure property owners are complaining.

The complaint people have at our lake are the jet skis. Couple families have multiple jet skis and let the kids use them but they must stay within the bay and in sight. The jet skis are used as babysitters so as long as the kids are obeying the parents rule they let them go for hours and hours. So you have four or five jet skis circling in the bay for hours and hours. It does get annoying listening to them after several hours but nothing illegal and I don’t complain but it’s causing a riff between some neighbors.

Bass boats may travel too fast, but many lakes have speed restrictions, and Bass Boats are designed to throw less wakes than most boats, I have seen plenty of people who are rude running pontoons so that augment doesn’t fly either. the problem I see with wake boats other than shoreline erosion is a safety concern, tipping or swamping a small craft or throwing someone out of such craft. When I had my Bass Boat, I have been on the trolling motor on the front deck, turned my bow into a Wake boat wave and been soaked from the waist down and boat deck soaked to the console. what would that be like for a kid or elderly person in a small boat?

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Half the bass boats on our local lakes are just as rude and inconsiderate at the wake surfers

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass boat plow by creating a 4 foot wake blaring rap music. If that’s the case, then <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass boats need to be considered in this argument too.

The article mentions potential rules not about banning or prohibiting them, it talks about a bigger buffer distance, up to 600 from the shoreline. In some smaller lakes, that will almost completely eliminate them.

I wasn’t talking about the wakes. I was talking about the operator being a d bag with no consideration for others. Just like some of the wake boats.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I wasn’t talking about the wakes. I was talking about the operator being a d bag with no consideration for others. Just like some of the wake boats.

That’s fair. I think we can all relate to other watercraft operators, regardless of the type of boat, being d bags. You can’t regulate that though. Its called respect or courtesy. No law or law enforcement will fix that problem. I’ve had a rowing team come by way too close and I would call them d bags too but they didn’t create massive waves or blare rap music when they went by.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I wasn’t talking about the wakes. I was talking about the operator being a d bag with no consideration for others. Just like some of the wake boats.

That’s fair. I think we can all relate to other watercraft operators, regardless of the type of boat, being d bags. You can’t regulate that though. Its called respect or courtesy. No law or law enforcement will fix that problem. I’ve had a rowing team come by way too close and I would call them d bags too but they didn’t create massive waves or blare rap music when they went by.

To be fair almost all of today’s country music is just as terrible as the rap music 😆

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I wasn’t talking about the wakes. I was talking about the operator being a d bag with no consideration for others. Just like some of the wake boats.

That’s fair. I think we can all relate to other watercraft operators, regardless of the type of boat, being d bags. You can’t regulate that though. Its called respect or courtesy. No law or law enforcement will fix that problem. I’ve had a rowing team come by way too close and I would call them d bags too but they didn’t create massive waves or blare rap music when they went by.

To be fair almost all of today’s country music is just as terrible as the rap music 😆

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I wasn’t talking about the wakes. I was talking about the operator being a d bag with no consideration for others. Just like some of the wake boats.

That’s fair. I think we can all relate to other watercraft operators, regardless of the type of boat, being d bags. You can’t regulate that though. Its called respect or courtesy. No law or law enforcement will fix that problem. I’ve had a rowing team come by way too close and I would call them d bags too but they didn’t create massive waves or blare rap music when they went by.

To be fair almost all of today’s country music is just as terrible as the rap music 😆

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I wasn’t talking about the wakes. I was talking about the operator being a d bag with no consideration for others. Just like some of the wake boats.

That’s fair. I think we can all relate to other watercraft operators, regardless of the type of boat, being d bags. You can’t regulate that though. Its called respect or courtesy. No law or law enforcement will fix that problem. I’ve had a rowing team come by way too close and I would call them d bags too but they didn’t create massive waves or blare rap music when they went by.

To be fair almost all of today’s country music is just as terrible as the rap music

I own lake property and I can tell you from personal experience that Wakeboats do indeed do major damage to the lake shore. We keep 1/2 of our lake shore as natural habitat (grasses, plants all untouched as nature intended) and we’ve lost several feet of it due to erosion from wake damage in the last 2 years alone.
I will say the wakes are getting bigger and bigger, at what point is big too big? We have a couple of the $100k+ boats on our lake and they routinely kick out 3’& 4′ rollers that just skim the underside of my dock (and I keep my dock very high above the waterline) normal docks get swamped not to mention anything tied upto the docks just gets destroyed. I’m guessing for a wakesurfer, the bigger the wake the better, so i’m sure boat makers are figuring out ways to make 5’& 6′ wakes a realty, to what end?
I’ve also seen huge wakes almost sink canoes & paddle boats and send cruising bassboats airborn and sideways (I know this from personal experience during my younger days) unintentional or not, they can be very dangerous to other boaters, especially those with little boating experience.

All that being said, the lakes are for EVERYONE, so I don’t want to outlaw wakeboats, but I do think there needs to be more common sense rules about how close to shore they can be driven to allow the wakes to dissipate as much as possible before they hit the shorelines AND those rules need to be enforced.

Our lake association does a good job of educating folks on the dangers of huge wakes and asks the boat owners to use common sense. They even worked with the county water patrol to setup a process of reporting OBVIOUS violators.

I have no issues with them playing music OTHER than pumping offensive language music loud enough my younger kids to easily hear.

I used to fiah foreat lake alot. The recreational boaters started making that tough. Now the wake boaters these days make it impossible and at times dangerous. Like some one else said, I also fish with a 8 year old and 4 year old in my boat all the time. I get pretty irate at some of these guys rolling 4 ft wakes next to us and the kids can’t even stand in the boat

Wake boat’s have been on the law makers radar for a few years now.

Lots of different rules for different types of boats already. Bow fishing at night, jet skis just to name a couple.

We are all responsible for our wake….I doubt anything will change.

crappie55369 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>catmando wrote:</div>
If someone’s actions are a danger to someone, their so-called rights go out the window. Things are regulated all the time. Too many examples to mention.

Does this apply to how people respond to a pandemic?

Cute. Now put you’re pandemic talk where it belongs. There’s a active thread for it. No need for it in a wake boat thread or any other entirely unrelated thread. That seems clear to everyone else here.

the law in MN already says that damage caused by your wake is considered the same as damage caused by an actual collision.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/safety/boatwater/own-your-wake.html

with the increase of wake surfing and boats filling ballast tanks to generate big waves at slow speeds, there’s a cooperative awareness campaign by MN and WI going on right now.

https://dnr.wi.gov/news/Weekly/?id=699#art1

Bearcat89 wrote:

I used to fiah foreat lake alot. The recreational boaters started making that tough. Now the wake boaters these days make it impossible and at times dangerous.

Speaking of wakeboats on forest lake. I was out there for muskie opener and some kids in daddys 100k wakeboat decided to drive a 5ft circle around my boat throwing at least a 3ft wake. obviously not the majority of wakeboaters but man they almost swamped us.