Chuck Gould wrote:
On Oct 30, 10:56?am, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:47:41 -0700, Chuck Gould

wrote:
Question would be; does the local government really have the right to
dictate who can run a boat and how that boat can be rigged on a public
waterway
The answer is yes. There are many lakes with local restrictions. Some
allow no power boats at all, and some limit horsepower, typically to
under 10 hp or some such.

While I generally agree that the public should be able to regulate the
use of publicly owned waterways (through their elected
representatives), I lean more toward regulating behavior than
restricting property ownership.

For example: Here in Seattle we have a long stretch of water with
speed restrictions- it starts at the entrance to the Shilshole entry
channel out in Puget Sound, continues through the locks, runs all the
way across the E-W axis of the city and doesn't end until the
shoreline of Lake Washington. There is a 7-kt speed limit, which makes
all the sense in the world considering that during much of the year
this area is very congested and the shorelines are packed solid with
parks, marinas, residences, businesses, and other developed areas that
would suffer from excessive wakes.

As far as I'm concerned, if a guy is going 7 knots it shouldn't matter
whether he has 5-HP or 3,000.

Some reasonable exceptions make sense- for instance when people are
boating on a lake that is used as a reservoir for drinking water it
can be prudent to minimize pollution by restricting or prohibiting IC
propulsion.



Admit it...you just like all the boats to go no faster than yours!