Larry's Law

For those of you who have been paying attention, you may know I am on a lake in a neighborhood, governed by a bunch of old coots. One relatively new lake rule that isn't that unreasonable is that surfing has been banned because of the wakes on our small lake. The rule doesn't just say no surfing tho. They drive home the point by saying you have to have a rope and the rope has to be greater than 30 feet long.

Our neighborhood also has busybodies that have nothing to do but drive around the neighborhood or sit on their docks with their cameras and binoculars and look for infractions of the neighborhood rules. One such busybody fussed about my using a boom and hence using no rope or a rope less than 30 feet. The HOA called me to relay the concern. I spent some time on the phone explaining how my using a boom to teach little children to ski has nothing to do with the no surfing restrictions. (I also offered my opinion about these busybodies, but remained professional and polite)

Hence, "Larry's Law" a revision in the regulations to allow my boom. It also ended up with me serving on the "Lakes and Dams" committee, since the head of the committee decided it might be nice to have someone on the committee that actually has a clue about boating. I wasn't going to do it, who needs the aggravation, but then I decided what the heck, get in there and stir things up a bit.

Taken from the meeting minutes:

Change to Water Skiing, Wake Boarding, Knee Boarding, Tubing, etc. Rule 8.4.5


Below is the current Water Skiing, Wake Boarding, Knee Boarding, Tubing, etc. rule:

8.4.5.4 Skiers must stay at least 150 feet from shorelines including the dam and 75 feet from floating objects such as boats and swimmers. No dropping of skis is allowed. Ski lines must not exceed 75 feet nor be shorter than 30 feet. There must be a ski rope or line connecting the skier, tuber, boarder, etc., to the boat, until termination of the ride.


Below is the proposed changes to the Water Skiing, Wake Boarding, Knee Boarding, Tubing, etc. rule:

8.4.5.4 Skiers must stay at least 150 feet from shorelines including the dam and 75 feet from floating objects such as boats and swimmers. No dropping of skis is allowed. Ski lines must not exceed 75 feet nor be shorter than 30 feet. Short ski ropes or no ski ropes are allowed with a boom from the side of the boat for the purposes of training and/or barefoot skiing. Otherwise, there must be a ski rope or line connecting the skier, tuber, boarder, etc., to the boat, until termination of the ride.

How about the max 75' part?

There will never be any rules Pete, but I could give them an earful. I tried to find the USCG reference you cited about tubing accidents, and even that OBrien sponsored video on tubing that someone posted said its the most dangerous towed water sport. I witness it every weekend. Drivers never look forward, irregular, unpredictable path, Swinging kids off of tubes on crowded afternoons in the path of other boats, swinging a tube with riders into the no wake zone bouys. Last year, an idiot tuber driver, not watching where he was going, almost ran over my downed skier and t-boned my boat. I had a few words with him. And sadly, our rookie boat patrol, who knows how to look for HOA stickers and watch for no wake zone infractions, knows nothing about safe and courteous boating and just lets all this stuff go on. Meanwhile, I get a notice of infraction, from some busybody's reporting me, for driving up and down the middle of the lake in the middle of a weekday afternoon, when no one else is on the lake. Yeah, its goofy, but its still worth it, so I wont complain.

Good thing!! I'd hate to have that stand in the way of my course progress.

No bombs away! that sucks!

I found the loop hole-It does not say the person has to be 30 ft behind the boat just the rope has to be 30 ft. A few 7 foot loops and your good---- I just guess I could never live in an area that had a HOA

Larry, sounds like you have to stay on that board and start recruiting like minded people. How is it that the state of NC lets property owners make rules for a lake? Do they not own all the lakes?

Jeff and Bruce. I believe that Seven Lakes HOA owns the lakes vs the state, although Bruce, in my experience, states own navigable waters, I guess not here. It is private, with restricted access and no state support (ramps, stocking, weed control....) Tho, surprisingly, I think State Fish and Wildlife (the boating governing agency has made an appearance or two in past years)   Our rules are looser than state in one instance (registration numbers are not needed) and more strict in some instances (speed limit, need an observer vs just a mirror) In terms of enforcement. A notice from the HOA as a result of a busybody report, carries no enforceable action, just a warning. There is a patrol on weekends. His actions can result in warnings, or hearings by "judicial board" that can result in fines or suspensions of lake use privileges.

In Georgia all lakes are man made, not a natural lake in the state.. Built, owned, and managed by either Georgia Power (like mine, Oconee), Army Corp of Engineers (like Lanier) or TVA (like Blue Ridge). Shoreline codes, building & dock permits etc are handled by the applicable owners above. Law enforcement handled either by Sheriff, DNR, or both.

The plus side to the rules down there is you can build nice permanent docks. Up here you can't build anything within 100' of the water, unless it was already there, and then you can maintain it.

Its a lot harder to argue such man made things destroy the natural beauty and ecosystem of the lake when the lake itself is man made. Listen officer I just build a deck in my back yard and some fool done made a lake under it...

74Wind wrote: Technically Joe, only the few Army Corp lakes are reservoirs, which by definition are intended for water supply. The vast majority are Georgia Power lakes intended for the generation of electricity. ]

Technically by definition - a reservoir is anything man-made or man enlarged to store water... they have many uses including in hydroelectric power generation, and recreation. Everything you have in GA is a reservoir,

Chris, sounds like we are in similar situations. Same here, that I didn't mention is we don't need registration numbers either, just an HOA registration sticker. (My # 77 for 2015 missed my boat year by 1, I will have to shoot for #76 next year). Just weekends from around 11 til 8 we have a patrol on the lake (a neighborhood security guy) I guess he is of some value in that he is a presence which hopefully curtails some of the idiot boating. Sadly, some boaters are so bad, they don't even know what they are doing is idiot boating. I like you should be a member of the security team. I think a blue rotating lite on the top center of my windshield would be great. In fact, one day the security guy did chug by me saying he needed a boat like mine.

Sadly the guys they get are rookie boaters. As I mentioned above, even the security guy doesn't recognize bad boating. I wish they would enforce that more just for safety reasons. Despite my own sometimes over the top watersporting, I am a safety Nazi and unsafe boating drives me nuts. I would have no reservation stopping folks just to educate them, not penalize them. One state rule that is also on our books is boater training/certificate under 26 years old. Should be anyone, not just under 26, but that is another story. I don't think they enforce that. I don't believe in routine stops to check credentials or safety equipment but if there is any excuse to stop a younger boater, I would certainly check and enforce that rule.

74Wind wrote: They run water through the hydroelectric oconee dam down to sinclair, then pump it back up and through again in cycles.

Jeff,
Why? With all the losses, I don't see a gain or reason unless they can buy off peak power for the pump back up and then generate expensive power during peak!