SB 1024

This bill imposes restrictions on the conduct of wake-enhanced boating specifies the authority of municipalities to regulate wake-enhanced boating. Under the bill, wake-enhanced boating is the operation of a motorboat in a manner that intentionally creates or enhances a wake for the purpose of wakesurfing, wakeboarding, or similar activities, including through the use of ballast tanks, wave-shaping devices, fins, or other mechanisms that displace water to increase wake size.

Under the bill, no person may conduct wake-enhanced boating on the waters of this state unless certain conditions are met at all times while the wake-enhanced boating is being conducted. Specifically, those conditions are that the wake-enhanced boating is conducted at least 500 feet away from the shoreline and in water with a depth of at least 20 feet. The bill specifies that these restrictions do not preempt or otherwise affect in any way the authority of a local governmental unit to enact more restrictive regulations of wake-enhanced boating.

Current law regulates the operation of boats, but allows a town, village, city, or public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district (municipality) to adopt ordinances that regulate boating under certain circumstances. This bill adds to the types of boating ordinances municipalities may adopt restrictions on wake-enhanced boating, including prohibitions on wake-enhanced boating in specified areas; minimum distances from shore, structures, or other boats; minimum water depths; time-of-day restrictions; or complete prohibitions on certain bodies of water.

The bill grants civil immunity to the state, any governmental subdivision or agency of the state, and any officer, official, agent, or employee of those entities that, in good faith, enacts, adopts, or enforces a boating ordinance that imposes restrictions on wake-enhanced boating that are more restrictive than those under state law.