At 6 am you load up your gear and friends and head out for a day of fishing. You figure no one else is around so you can motor out of the harbor at a pretty good clip. You see the wake you are throwing off but don’t pay much attention to it. Hundreds of people are hurt each year by other boaters careless wake. Over the Independence day weekend a person on the Connecticut River lost a finger due to the careless wake of another boater when the boats that were rafted together were struck by a wake. The person lost their balance and ended up with a hand between the gunwales. It is impossible to move a boat through the water, at any speed, without creating a wake. A wake is the water around the boat that is put in motion when a vessel is underway. Next time you are in your boat, take a look behind you. You will see what looks like a track through the water where you have been. That is your wake, watch what it does to the boats that are moored up at the marinas, and the waves it creates when it hit the shoreline. Would you want your boat to be rocked up against the dock like that? You are responsible for any damage caused by your boats wake. That is to say if your boat causes a person on board another boat to slip and fall, you are legally at fault. If the wake thrown off by your boat creates damage to another boat, it’s coming out of your paycheck. Operators can be charged with careless operation if their wake adversely affects: other vessels, including anchored vessels, grounded vessels, vessels tied to docks, wrecks, dredges, tows, rowboats or canoes; work being passed; the shoreline; docks or floats; wetlands; other waterway users such as swimmers or users of bathing beaches; where divers are working; or an area of anchorage. The NAV Rules state that you must be a prudent operator at all times based on the prevailing conditions and local restrictions. Even on Long Island Sound, a boat’s wash can travel for quite a distance, causing disturbances on the shoreline. Often operators are not aware of the problem as their wake reaches the shore several minutes after they have passed by. Some common sense does need to be applied by all however. It doesn’t make much sense to anchor in the areas where most boats pick up speed to leave a harbor. Nor does it make a lot of sense to try to kayak or sail a small sunfish in these areas, you are putting yourselves at risk by doing so. Ironically, in the argument for control over wakes that rages along narrow channels and near shorelines, boaters and non-boaters alike relate the problem strictly to speed. While speed is a factor, a planing hull makes a much larger wake when they are traveling at certain slower speeds than they do while they are on plane. So, the only way to regulate the problem is by controlling your wakes size. You watch yours and I’ll watch mine – and be aware that both of ours are being watched by others.