"Big Wakes!" What to do to stop the madness!

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Regarding confronting said problem big wake boater captains, if I do it, history says it's almost certain to escalate the situation; if my wife does it, she has a much higher success rate in solving the wake problem. She tells me its something about my "presentation" - I don't get it :unsure:
 
We have had the same problem, Wake in the back deck of the house boat. Most of the time it stopped but we did have one that continually swamped us in Hansen and My wife bluffed them with a paint ball gun even though the heat melts the paint balls.
 
They need to make more canyons “NO WAKE ZONES” like Lost Eden Canyon next to Halls Creek. Just be ready for more people camping in that canyon. Sq
 
Not now, 3 weeks ago there was a nice sand beach/island in the 2nd fork on left. That idea wouldn’t set well with the tournament people. Sq
 
Powellobsessed is not alone with paying back rude boaters. We were in Slickrock tucked in a small cove on the right halfway back. On the left side there is a long beach with about 5 boats houseboats anchored. As far as we could tell they weren't together as a group. The last houseboat had a skiboat and would pull skiers all day long sending waves sideways into our boat since we were parked at an angle to the waves. They would start pulling the skier out of the water so the waves would hit the first 2 houseboats as they were heading out to the main lake and then they would turn around at the entrance to Slickrock and come back and just do circles in the canyon. Of course this was when the lake had a lot of water and slickrock would extend back a lot farther than it has lately. We had 2 seadoos and would go simi wakeless far away from other boats to get out to the main lake and continue on. My wife and i are in our mid 50s and are not the crazy type but we had had enough of the back and forth and noticed they never went by their houseboat. We went out in front of their boat and did figure 8s. We waited till they took a break and they had beached the ski boat. Normally i would not have done something like that but after hours of heaving up and down and side ways we had had it. Funny thing was they never came out to say anything. The skiboat slowly slid sideways on the beach. After that for the next few days they took the skiers out on the main lake and was not a problem for the rest of us.
 
I only go to the lake to water ski in glassy canyons. I don't go any where near anchored houseboats. Making more rules won't cause courtesy to start happening. Confronting someone will get you shot. I have been going to the lake since 1982, and have never had a problem with another boat or wake. I guess our experiences vary.
 
I’ve been in Lost Eden hanging out in the shade plenty of times since the canyon went “wakeless”. Just about every time someone comes in above that speed.

Sorry, that isn’t the answer either.
 
Dungee hit it on the head. We need to require a boat drivers license. The course should be a minimum of 6 hours of class instruction in conjunction with the coast guard course. Licenses would be linked to bow numbers and those caught offending the rules of the water would face suspension of said license and be turned away from entrances and launching. Also limit insuring boats to only those with current licenses. This would make those $150k wake boat owners think twice about not being licensed or insured. Taking pics of offenders bow numbers and reporting to the state park rangers or NPS rangers would require an investigation same as reckless driving in a car.
I have been trolling in BF bay and harassed by wake boats. When I got out the binoculars to check their bow number and picked up the marine radio and called NPS to report them, they suddenly headed back to camp. The ranger made a pass in the bay 30 minutes later to no avail. Had they come out when I reported it they would have written many tickets for overloaded boat, children not in life jackets, alcohol, etc.
In Germany there are many beautiful lakes to boat on. It is very difficult and expensive to acquire a boating license there and the waterways are very safe and enjoyable. Not to say we should do what Europe does, but if something works why not try it.
 
Squirrel said:
They need to make more canyons “NO WAKE ZONES” like Lost Eden Canyon next to Halls Creek. Just be ready for more people camping in that canyon. Sq
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There are few side canyons that are 308ft wide (150ft wakeless either side plus boat beam) that allow you to boat on plane. We are all guilty of violating wakeless rules at one point or another. The right thing to do is be courteous to other boaters. They’ll wonder what’s wrong with you.
 
thebigcanoe said:
There are few side canyons that are 308ft wide (150ft wakeless either side plus boat beam) that allow you to boat on plane. We are all guilty of violating wakeless rules at one point or another. The right thing to do is be courteous to other boaters. They’ll wonder what’s wrong with you.
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Of course the canyon width is irrelevant unless there is another vessel/person in the water or a shore fisherman. That said, the problem is not the canyon width but rather the lack of adherence to existing laws.

Goblin
 
This is a good article on courtesy from a guide, not on lake Powell, but nearly every word could be the said here. I guess we on LP don't have all of the oblivions in the world, they are elsewhere also!

www.islandpacket.com

How to survive boating on Lowcountry waterways overrun with beer-guzzling yahoos

Waterways around Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, Beaufort SC like a highway full of drunks with no consideration for wakes, small boats, fishermen and paddleboarders
www.islandpacket.com www.islandpacket.com
 
powellobsessed said:
I know this sounds a little childish and immature but I had the same kind of thing happen to us last year in halls creek with people surfing too close to us. They went back and forth for hrs one day causing waves crashing on the beach so bad you could see orange for about 30 feet from the shore !
We had been camped for 2 days when this started so noticing they were camped a little ways towards the bay and being an early riser like 6am I motored over their way and flipped my captains call exhaust on and having a 350 V8 and did laps in their cove. It wasn’t long till many heads popes up from the roof of thier house boat! I did it a few more times and even stopped so they could see my boat in case they wanted to discuss the situation later. Yea they never came back. Some times you have to fight fire with fire ! It sad to say there are more and more morons that are clueless to any decorum on operating a boat.
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I did the same thing in Paiute. Bunch of kids in daddy's boats I'm sure, being a holes all the way into the early morning hours so when we got up at 5 to go fishing I cruised over to their camp and layed on the horn with about 4 20 second blasts. Immature? Yes but did it ever feel good. When they left I was expecting some kind of problem but I really think they knew they were wrong cause they just cruised by.
 
I don’t go to powell until after labor day and stop before memorial day for this reason and the jerks at the boat ramps. It gets pretty bad up here at the flaming gorge, but we just don’t have the volume. There is nothing like loosing a good size lake trout because you are getting buzzed by narcissist in a wake boat. I swear that they just want you to look at them.
 
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