First of all, what is a Wake Boat?
From time to time Savin Lake Services likes to not only take care of our customers’ lakes and ponds, but to also educate. In order to preserve Michigan’s lake and ponds for future generations, we need your help. So, what is a Wake Boat? We’ve all seen boats pulling skiers or tubes carrying a smiling face. It’s fun to watch and to participate in outdoor water activities. A Wake Boat makes it more fun by using various technologies to allow the boat to make larger waves for a person to actually surf behind a boat! By the way, Wake Boating is also know as Wake Surfing.
For and older boat you can purchase ballasts bags that fill with water adding weight to the back of the boat. You can also attach fins to help shape the wake. Newer boats specially designed for wake boating have the ballasts and fins designed directly into their hull.
Are there any environmental concerns?
Wake Boating, or Wake Surfing can be a tremendous amount of fun to do and even to watch. However, it has the potential to hurt the environment if done irresponsibly. Wake boats can create wake that is 1.7 to 17 times greater than normal boats! The increased wake size can cause damage to shorelines that are not ready for the added pounding. For this reason, it is recommended that wake boaters stay at least 500 feet from shore.
There is also the possibility of damage to the lake bottom and health of the water. Wake boat propellers stir up the water which can make the water cloudy adding excess nutrients that contribute to poor water quality. Staying in water at depths of 15 feet or more greatly reduces the risk of lake damage.
Finally, be sure to empty the ballast tanks. It makes your boat much safer to tow and reduces stress on Michigan’s roadways. Plus, it keeps aquatic invasive species, such as zebra mussels, from catching a ride and spreading to other locations. This can prevent things like Swimmer’s Itch.
Does Savin Lake Services have an opinion?
Our mission is to provide safe and effective treatment programs to ensure aquatic nuisance plant control and improve water quality levels while preserving the delicate ecosystem.
Savin Lake Services truly means it when we say:
We are Preserving Our Lakes Today, for Our Generations Tomorrow.
We exist somewhere in the middle of “enjoy Michigan’s beautiful bodies of water” and “maintain and preserve Michigan’s beautiful bodies of water”. Our environment is a gift for us to enjoy, but we don’t want to destroy it. We would encourage everyone to have fun in the most responsible way possible. If you are Wake Boating or Wake Surfing and mess something up, give us a call and we’ll be there to clean it up. We want our great great great great grandkids to enjoy outdoor fun too! 🙂