225 Horsepower

[mixermarkb]

Easy. If you want to fish a small lake with a big boat, why not pull your prop off the big motor before you launch, then leave it tilted up. No way to get frisky and bend the rules then..

[Al Agnew]

Here's my take on it...

What's the goal of the rule? Is it to minimize wake damage to the shoreline? Then they shouldn't allow the fire department jets, and possibly not the pontoon boats, depending upon how much wake they throw. Is it to minimize conflicts with other users, and for safety concerns. Probably shouldn't allow the fire department jets, at least.

Now...how do you enforce the rule? Let's say you allow boats with big motors on them onto the lake, but they can't use the motor at all, or they can only use it at idle, just like a lake-wide no-wake zone. BUT...what happens when somebody succumbs to temptation and runs the motor? How often is the lake patrolled in order for them to be caught doing so? How much can the city afford to spend in money and resources patrolling it regularly? Probably not much. Probably very little chance of the doofus running his big motor being caught by law enforcement. So you report him to the authorities. Even if they investigate, all he has to do is say you're lying and he wasn't running the motor, or he wasn't even there. They can't do anything about it. They might even rush down there and try to catch him before he leaves the lake, and maybe they do, or maybe he just idles in to the ramp and says, "Who, me? I was idling all day."

So the only really practical way to enforce the law is to ban the big motors completely. Zero tolerance sounds stupid sometimes, but it really does make it easy for law enforcement. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not so much. I think this is one time it makes sense.

[fishinwrench]

Yeah well, I'm betting that there isn't as much "above idle 225 running" as some let on. Actually I'll go a step further and challenge anyone to produce a short video of any boat creating a significant wake on that lake that ISN'T a fire boat or other "special allowance craft".

I'll mark it on my calendar and dig this thread up this time next year and remind you that the challenge still stands.