Wake Up to the Damage your Boat Can Do
Dusty Miller writes:
Who would have thought a leisurely afternoon cruise could be so destructive? The family is in the boat. The cooler is full. But the weight on board is well within the limit. Following the shoreline the boat enters a narrow channel and slows down. The craft comes off plane, the stern lowers and the speed drops. After a minute or two cottagers on shore start shouting to slow down… and they’re not being very nice about it. The trouble is no one in the boat has any idea what the cottagers are so angry about.
Some Boats are Made to Make Wakes
Like too many boaters, this group needs to wake up. All they have to do is turn around and look at what’s happening behind. The boat is dragging half the lake, throwing a huge wake. Boats and floating docks along the shoreline are being tossed around, straining their lines. In places where the shoreline has few rocks, it’s being eroded as the waves wash the earth into the water. These boaters aren’t being wilfully destructive. They’re just unaware.
The reason you slow down close to shore and in narrow channels is to reduce the amount of wake your boat throws against the shore. Slowing down until you come off plane is not always enough. In fact, it can make the problem worse, particularly if the boat is carrying a lot of weight. When the stern drops down into the water, the waves it creates are even larger than they are when the boat is riding on plane. When they reach shore they can be very destructive. As the waves approach the shore, the shallower water lifts them up so their crests are even higher, so what seemed a bit of a swell in the lake, gets much worse where the damage happens. I’ve seen boats lifted so high that their fenders rise above the dock so their hulls smash against the dock unprotected. Most of the time, the best speed to make close to shore is dead slow. Idle only. No throttle at all.
Wake can also be destructive out in the lake. Often when inexperienced boaters pass other boats - whether they’re anchored or just proceeding at a slower pace - they go too close. The idea not to “just miss” but to give as wide a berth as you can. It’s easy to think that the boaters are actually trying to irritate the other boaters by “buzzing” them. I don’t think this is always the case. But whether it’s done on purpose or not, however, the wake is just as damaging.
One beautiful afternoon I was anchored in “Miller Time” on Georgian Bay when a cruiser motored by. He made no effort to slow down or go around. The boat was not quite on plane and was dragging a lot of water. When the wake hit, our lunch was on the floor being gobbled up by the dogs. The drinks were on my newly cleaned carpet and what had been on the shelf below was on the floor. The other boaters waved merrily, blissfully unaware. Well… the dogs didn’t mind.
I know how easy it is to be unaware. I have been the perpetrator as well as the victim. Some years ago, I was in a hurry in the Erie Barge Canal where the cottagers along the shore take speed seriously. I didn’t see any cottages or boats nearby and I was taking liberties with the posted limit. Suddenly, I heard a gun. I don’t know whether it was aimed at my boat, or just up into the air, but once I got out of range, I slowed down!
Wake can be damaging is in the locks. I know you don’t speed into the lock itself, but when boaters race to get into a lock, and slow down at the last minute, the roll behind them follows them into the lock and can really throw the boats around. The same thing happens when boaters drive too quickly up to harbour and marina entrances. The wave you create continues, even when your boat slows down.
One final thought: a boater is responsible - not just morally, but financially liable - for any damage his boat does on shore or to other boats. And as boats are getting bigger, so are the wakes. It’s time to wake up.