What should you do when operating a boat in large waves in Highland?

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on February 2, 2022 at 14:10

Second fatality in five months and other injuries reflect growing trouble on stretch of waterway plagued by congestion and excessive speeds

By Rich Pollack

It’s happened again. For more than a decade Highland Beach residents living along the Intracoastal Waterway have complained that speeding boats throw off wakes that damage sea walls and docked boats. They lobbied state legislators and the state agency with jurisdiction to create a no-wake zone and slow boaters down, warning that if nothing was done there could be dire consequences. In August, those predictions came true when a 37-year-old woman was killed after the northbound center-console boat she was in crashed into a sea wall, ejecting her and six others, including children.Then last month, a northbound center-console boat hit a wake and went airborne before crashing into pilings and hitting a docked boat. A 63-year-old grandfather died after he and two boys were tossed into the water. The injured boys were helped by residents from the nearby Seagate condominium and treated by paramedics before being taken to Delray Medical Center. “We’ve had seven boating accidents behind our house over the years but there were no fatal crashes in the entire town until last year,” said Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a town commissioner who has lived beside the Intracoastal for three decades. “We’re in a more serious time now because there are so many more pleasure boats and less visibility of law enforcement due to budget cuts.”Just two months before the first fatal accident, a 48-year-old Boca Raton man was seriously injured when a northbound boat slammed into the back of his smaller vessel. That boater, Harold “JR” Ewing, is still recovering from his injuries. While accidents on the Intracoastal Waterway are not uncommon, the number of fatal boating crashes on the waterway remains fairly low. Since 2016, there have been five fatal crashes on the part of the Intracoastal that cuts through Palm Beach and Broward counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which oversees the waterway.That two happened along the 3-mile stretch in Highland Beach — within just five months of each other — has residents hoping something can be done soon to slow boaters down. Following the second accident, state Rep. Mike Caruso reached out to leaders of the FWC, which is investigating the crashes. They told him a management team would soon be sent to the area to determine if a no-wake zone should be established, Caruso said. In a Jan. 31 email, the FWC confirmed its staff had met with Caruso the previous week and that the agency would take steps to improve safety in the area.The agency “previously met with county staff in regards to the application process for a boating restricted area,” an FWC spokesperson wrote. “We have also increased patrol efforts in this specific area.”

In addition, the town of Highland Beach hopes to launch its new marine unit, with a boat that will patrol the Intracoastal, by next month.

More and bigger boats
Veteran boaters John and Maggie Chappelear, who live just off the Intracoastal, say multiple factors make boating — especially on weekends — more dangerous than it used to be. More and bigger boats on the narrow stretch of water moving at faster speeds create wakes that can cause havoc for smaller vessels, the Chappelears say. “It’s all about the wakes,” Maggie Chappelear said. “Wakes are killing people.” Wakes and speed, Gossett-Seidman said, create a dangerous situation, especially for less experienced boaters. “If you see a big wake coming you can just slow down and, in most cases, just ride over it,” she said. “If you don’t slow down, you’ll hit the wake full speed and hit it hard. You can’t always control a boat under speed that’s hit by a large wake.” Gossett-Seidman, herself a boater, said that traffic on the Intracoastal has continued to grow to the point where some more experienced boaters stay home on Saturday and Sunday. “Some weekends it looks like I-95 on the Intracoastal,” she said. “It’s just one boat after another.” The migration of people from the north during the pandemic could play a role in that, Gossett-Seidman says. “So many people come here and want to live the boating life,” she said. Slowing down the transplants and other boaters has been a battle Highland Beach leaders have been fighting for years. The speed limit on the waterway by Highland Beach is 25 miles per hour during manatee season, which runs mid-November through March, and 30 mph off season. Even if boaters go the speed limit — and that’s a big if — they’re going too fast for the conditions, the Chappelears say.They believe that requiring a minimum wake speed would cut down on the problems, but persuading the FWC to lower the speed has been a challenge.

Maggie Chappelear, who sits on the town’s Natural Resources Committee, says she’s been told that a vessel congestion study, an accounting for tickets issued on the waterway and additional data would be needed before lowering the speed would even be considered.

Town especially vulnerableThe Chappelears and Gossett-Seidman say that one reason the stretch of Highland Beach has so many accidents is that boaters coming from the south have to stay slow until they get to the Spanish River Boulevard bridge and boaters from the north remain slow as they approach the Linton Boulevard bridge. Some boaters, they say, try to make up for lost time when they get to Highland Beach. Maggie Chappelear said that several blind corners on the waterway, where entering boat captains can’t see if traffic is coming, also create issues. Although the FWC does have officers on boats patrolling the Intracoastal, local law enforcement officials say that department just doesn’t have the staffing and the resources to make a significant impact. That is one reason why Highland Beach is launching a new marine unit focused primarily on the Intracoastal but also available for use on the ocean and inland waters. The decision by the Town Commission to spend $164,000 on the boat — and to staff it with a dedicated officer — came following the first fatal accident.The focus, says Town Manager Marshall Labadie, will be on slowing boats down, primarily by being visible and through education. “We’re finding that some boats are going faster than the speed limit,” he said. “A presence during high-use periods will be very useful.” Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann says the department has already hired an experienced marine officer to oversee the marine unit operations and should have the boat in hand soon. He hopes to have the boat in the water as early as March.

“Like everything else, our goal with the marine unit will be on compliance,” he said.

A push for state legislationCaruso (R-Delray Beach) believes the state Legislature can take steps to enhance safety.He said he plans to meet with sponsors of a proposed bill addressing several boater safety issues and possibly introduce an amendment that would provide regulations for safer conditions on the Intracoastal. He said he’s also concerned about the impact that wakes from speeding boats can have on sea walls as well as on manatees and natural areas that provide wildlife habitat.

“We’ve got a lot of concerns, and slowing boats can alleviate many of them,” he said.

Tags: highland beach, boats, deaths, safety, speed, wakes, fwc

A new study by researchers in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory found that popular wakesurf boats require a greater distance from the shoreline and other boats compared to more typical recreational boats. This distance is needed to reduce the potential impact of their larger waves.

The results provide key insights into differences between specialized wakesurfing boats and more typical recreational boats operating on lakes and rivers. It also provides baseline data that can be used for future decision-making.

Wakesurfing, which requires a boat capable of generating a large surfing wave, has become a popular pastime for some Minnesotans while sparking concerns in others about shoreline erosion, water quality, and safety. However, robust scientific data on the size and impact of wakesurf boat waves has been lacking.

"Minnesotans love their lakes, and they love their boats," said Jeff Marr, one of the lead researchers on the study and associate director of engineering and facilities at the St. Anthony Falls Lab. "Some of my best memories are of boating, waterskiing, and fishing with family and friends on lakes. This research isn't about trying to limit enjoyment of lakes for boaters, but it seeks to provide the data needed to ensure our lakes can be enjoyed by all for generations to come."

In an effort to provide scientific data on boat-generated waves, the researchers carefully examined these waves by measuring the maximum height, total energy, and maximum power of the waves (defined as wake waves) produced by four recreational boats -- two wakesurf boats and two more typical recreational boats. Using sensors and data collection hardware, the researchers also measured how the wake waves changed as they moved away from the boats and toward shore.

The researchers carried out the evaluation of the four boats in fall 2020 under a range of speeds, weight, and other conditions on Lake Independence in Maple Plain, Minnesota.

The findings reveal that wake waves produced by wakesurf boats during wakesurfing are not only higher, but they also require greater distance to decrease to the same height as wake waves from more typical recreational boats.

This study found that:

When researchers compared the wake waves of the four boats during their most typical mode of operations, the data indicated that wakesurf boats require distances greater than 500 feet from the shoreline/docks and other boats (or the distance of a little less than 1.5 football fields) to decrease their wake wave characteristics to levels similar to the non-wakesurf boats.
When researchers compared the wake waves of the four boats under conditions that generated the largest wake wave, the data indicated that wakesurf boats require distances greater than 425 feet from the shoreline/docks and other boats to decrease their wake wave characteristics to levels similar to the non-wakesurf boats.
In both modes of operation, the suggested distance from shoreline/docks for wakesurf boats is more than twice the distance of the 200 feet currently recommended by Minnesota guidelines for common recreational boats.
Under both slow and fast speed conditions, the wakesurf boats produced the largest waves in terms of height, energy, and power when compared to the non-wakesurf boats.
Larger, more energetic waves need to travel a greater distance to decrease in wave height, energy, and power.

This report establishes an important baseline for the study of wake waves produced by wakesurf boats -- a topic of growing interest across the country.

"We quickly learned that boat wave impacts were not just a Minnesota concern. We have received inquiries about our research from many others throughout the U.S.," said Andy Riesgraf, another lead researcher on the project and researcher at the University's St. Anthony Falls Lab. "We're hoping this study will provide a pathway for shared use of our lakes and rivers."

The researchers say this study gives legislators, lake associations, boat manufacturers, and property owners new information about the operation of wakesurf boats and other recreational boats on Minnesota's lakes.

But the researchers also see it as just the beginning. This foundational work has been critical as they design further studies, with future research aimed at propeller wash interactions with lake bottoms and an examination of the impact of large waves on aquatic vegetation and shorelines.

In addition to Marr and Riesgraf, other professional researchers involved include St. Anthony Falls Lab researchers Dr. William Herb, Dr. Jessica Kozarek, and Matt Lueker, as well as Associate Professor Dr. Kimberly Hill in the University of Minnesota Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo- Engineering.

Funding for the research was provided by more than 200 individual contributions to the St. Anthony Falls Lab's Healthy Waters Initiative.

Report "A Field Study of Maximum Wave Height, Total Wave Energy, and Maximum Wave Power Produced by Four Recreational Boats on a Freshwater Lake" https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/226190

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Materials provided by University of Minnesota. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.