A Day on the Lake – or, Why a Wake Boat Offset of 500 Feet Won’t Work on Small Lakes
View the narrated animation here
Wake Boat Legislation
The Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules has passed a rule that ANR put forth regulating wake boats. The rule states that wake boats can only operate in wake sport mode in at least 50 contiguous acres of water, at least 20 feet deep and at least 500 feet away from shore. They must also abide by the Home Lake Rule which stipulates that they must only operate in their ‘home lake’ and if they choose to trailer to a different lake they must go through an official state decontamination station. This rule will go into effect this summer.
This rule is weaker than what we had hoped. Shadow Lake Association has petitioned the state to prohibit wake sports on Shadow Lake, just as Personal Watercraft (jet skis) are prohibited on the lake. Please be observant when boats are on the water. If a wake boat enters our lake, they only need to stay 200 feet away from other boaters and swimmers which may lead to safety issues for the rest of us.
As many of you already know, the SLA board, the LPA (Lake Parker Association) and the Town of Glover have supported the work of the Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes, a contingent of concerned lake stewards state-wide, to pursue the regulation of Wake Boats on small and/or shallow lakes. To that end, a scientific research project was launched almost two years ago in order to find the most up to date information to support our mission.
This information, in the form of a petition, was submitted to the Department of Environmental Conservation who presented it to the Agency of Natural Resources. It is now going through the governmental processes that petitions are required.
The link below is for the Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes organization. There, you will get up to date information. Please stay informed and become involved.
Click here to visit the Responsible Wakes website.
Jenifer Andrews, SLA presidentARTICLE: Responsible Wakes for Vermont Lakes – 500 Feet From Shore Is Not Far Enough
If you have not signed the online Letter of Support for the Wake Boat petition, please do so at this link: tinyurl.com/
Have questions or want to get involved? Please contact responsiblewakesvt@