Boat Smart

Many boaters need to wake up

By Senior Chief Tom Rau, Coast Guard Group Grand Haven, Mi

I have created my own share of boat wakes, mostly, however, when an urgent rescue case demanded a greater precedence. But even then I had to consider: Was racing to the rescue creating a greater threat to nearby boaters than the dangers facing those requesting assistance? Never an easy call, but at least, I was aware of the dangers wakes posed to other boaters. However, for the many boaters who disregard the rolling menaces pealing off their stern, they need to wake up and look around.

Boat wakes can strike long after the wake source has motored off, often leaving behind uncorrelated evidence as to the wake’s origin. Which leads me to wonder, just how many uncorrelated wake related deaths and injuries occur on our waters? I suspect many and Coast Guard statistics addressing recreational boating seem to corroborate my suspicions.

Coast Guard nationwide boating statistics reveal that annually over 55-percent of boating fatalities and injuries occur off small boats such as open motorboats, rowboats, canoes and kayaks, and that nearly 76-percent of recreational boating fatalities are caused by boats capsizing, boats being swamped or flooded and people falling overboard off boats. How many of these fatalities are due to wakes is difficult to determine. However, when you consider that nearly 70 percent of boating fatalities occur in moderate weather, one wonders- were boat wakes the cause?

Boat wakes are contagious. One boater kicks up a wake in a no-wake zone, then another, then another…setting off a chain reaction that soon finds the area boiling in wakes.

Why boaters ignore or seem oblivious to the damage wakes cause has baffled me for years, although I suspect wake shortsightedness stems from a blind exuberance to reach a destination or just good old ignorance. John Wetterhold, Captain of the Port City Princess, a 79-ton cruise boat, homeport, Muskegon, told me while cruising on Muskegon Lake last September (2003) a large power boat flew past throwing out a giant wake that forced him to make an urgent public announcement warning of the approaching tide. A private party aboard celebrating a couple’s marriage renewal vows braced themselves as the wake slammed into the Princess; dishes flew off kitchen counters and shattered across the galley floor. “What made it worse? The boater came about and roared by again, the operator waving and cheering as another wake slammed into the hull again sending dishes flying and passengers bracing themselves,” said Captain Wetterhold.

Many fellow marine rescue responders also have voiced great displeasure with wake-makers, and much of it is not fit for print. Ottawa County marine deputy Kelly Brandfield, who patrols Lake Macatawa in Holland, Michigan, told me that even with blue law enforcement lights flashing and with a disabled boat strapped alongside, boaters still threw out wakes. How would wake-makers respond if they were along side the sheriff’s boat as wakes ground the boats together while tow lines yanked on cleats? I nearly lost my life aboard a Coast Guard rescue boat when a wake’s aftermath yanked a cleat off the deck of sailboat. The nylon line attached to the cleat stretched out like a rubber slingshot line and when it parted it sounded like a gunshot as it rifled pass my ear.

Boat wakes not only pose a threat to boaters in confined waters, but in open water as well, where speeding boats churn up giant wakes. In August 2002, two males (ages 43, 44) were thrown into Lake Michigan near New Buffalo when the operator of a 24-foot Baja made a hard high speed turn into a boat wake. One person drowned the other ended up in the hospital. Rescuers found a 13-year-old boy aboard, unharmed. Neither of the adult males were wearing lifejackets. In 2003, a wake fatality occurred just outside Chicago’s Calumet Harbor when a Baja power boat flew airborne off a wake ejecting a father and daughter into the lake. The father broke his neck. The daughter kept him afloat while waiting for help to arrive.

Later in August 2003 a 24-foot powerboat carrying a family of four while returning from the offshore powerboat races in Grand Haven rocketed off a boat wake near Muskegon. A nine-year-old girl received facial cuts from flying glass, the wife a broken leg, and the husband cracked ribs. The impact separated the deck from the hull. “When I arrived on scene, I could see through the hull to the other side of the boat,” said Coast Guardsman Travis Jones, coxswain aboard the 27-foot rescue boat.

In September 2003, in Lake Macatawa, Holland, Michigan a run-about with five people aboard jumped the boat wake of a 34-foot power boat. The wake jumper’s bow dug into a second wake, swamping the boat. A mother and father and three children escaped injury- all were wearing lifejackets. “When I arrived on scene only the bow was visible,” said Chief Stein who responded to the call.

I’ve nearly been ejected off Coast Guard rescue boats while battling Lake Michigan’s short wave action; to wake jump on top of it is inviting disaster. Lake Michigan’s narrow body generates a short wave fetch that lacks the distance and energy required to form giant ocean like waves with 8-10 second intervals between sets. Lake Michigan’s wave fetch produces far shorter intervals (2-4 seconds) that form steep backsides to waves, yet they still pack enough energy to deliver a knockout punch to heedless wake jumpers.

One thing is certain regarding wakes, whether they be launching pads for wake jumpers or rolling menaces that rock other boats, both can be prevented, and often are, by those- who Boat Smart.

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