By Bryan Polcyn and FOX6 News Digital Team
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Wis. – Summer may be winding down, but a water war is still heating up in Wisconsin. A new kind of powerboat is prompting a wave of local ordinances all over the state.
There is hardly a more sensitive issue on Wisconsin lakes than so-called “wake boats” – boats designed to make bigger waves for water sports.
It’s unclear if lawmakers will tackle the issue at the state level, but in one small town after another, residents say they can’t afford to wait. And wake boat owners are feeling singled out.
“We’re trying to be responsible, respectful boaters,” said Corey Kincaid, who is raising three boys on Blue Spring Lake in southeast Jefferson County.
In recent months, Kincaid said neighbors have been recording him and his boys when they’re on the lake. He said their affinity for competitive wakeboarding has made them targets.
“They’ve been filmed and kind of somewhat harassed,” he said. “You know, we just don’t want people hating us.”
Minutes after Kincaid gave the FOX6 Investigators a ride in his wake boat, we sat down for an interview with one of his neighbors, Ryan Tobiasz.
“We have one boat that goes back and forth and back and forth,” Tobiasz said, referring to Kincaid’s boat, which he said makes repeated passes within a short distance of his shoreline. “We have said, ‘Hey, back off. You’re coming in too close.'”
Tobiasz believes so-called wake boats like Kincaid’s are doing damage to the lake his family has called home for generations.
“If the lake is damaged, if the bottom is going to be damaged, the shorelines are going to be damaged, that’s going to impact all of us,” Tobiasz said.
hat is why he and others want to restrict their operation on the public lake in southeastern Jefferson County, which covers about 150 square miles.
“You can see across the lake here,” Tobiasz said. “It’s very small.”
With a mean depth of just seven feet, wake boat critics say Blue Spring Lake is especially vulnerable to the slow, plowing speeds typically associated with wakesurfing, which requires a boat to operate with its bow pointed up.
“And that prop wash going down and scouring the bottom of the lake,” Tobiasz said.