True or False?

Q:  I am over 18 years old so I can drive any boat or PWC without a boating safety certificate?

A:  False

•  A person who was born on or after January 1, 1989, and who is 16 years of age or older may operate a motorboat only if he or she:

1. Has completed a boating safety course accepted by Wisconsin DNR 

2. Is accompanied by another person in the motorboat who is at least 18 years of age and that person holds a valid boating safety certificate or was born before January 1, 1989.

• A person at least 16 years old may operate a PWC only if he or she has completed a boating safety course that is accepted by the Wisconsin DNR.  A person born before January 1, 1989, is exempt from the safety course requirement.

Boat Safety Education

Persons required to have successfully completed a boater education course must carry their boater education certificate on board and make it available upon request by a law enforcement officer.  

For more information on the boating safety rules "Click Here".

New Information on electric foils and surfboards

Elkhart Lake Improvement Association President, John Schott, recently had a conversation with a representative of the Wisconsin DNR regarding e foils and surf foils. (some of which are pictured above) Discussion revolved around how WI boating rules and regulations apply to the new electric watercraft.  Here is a brief synopsis of the discussion:

• They are powered watercraft and as such, they need to be registered and display numbers and the annual/biannual stickers.

• Operators must follow the same boating laws as when they are operating any other power watercraft.

• Operators need to follow all slow-no-wake regulations.  ("Slow-No-Wake Speed" means that speed at which a boat moves as slowly as possible while still maintaining steerage control.)

• Operators of these watercraft need to operate 200 ft from shore and 100 feet from other watercraft.

We will keep you posted as we receive more information........

Did you Know..........

There are 15,074 documented inland lakes in the State of Wisconsin and Elkhart Lake is the third deepest natural inland lake at 119 feet deep.  The deepest lake is Big Green Lake at 236 feet deep, followed by Geneva Lake at 135 feet.  These three lakes were all formed as remnants of glacial activity.

However, if artificial lakes were included things would look different, with Lake Wazee (a former iron mine in Jackson County) the deepest at 350 feet in depth.  There are also two very deep quarries that filled with water: Redgranite Quarry in Waushara County at 163 feet deep and Lohrville Quarry in Waushara County at 120 feet deep.

Having a deep lake is a good thing because lakes with higher volumes of water tend to better withstand land use changes around them.  Big, deep lakes tend to have clearer water.  This is a win for residents and visitors alike who love the clean water when swimming and it’s also great for our native fish and animals.