30.66 Speed restrictions.

(1) Speed to be reasonable and prudent. No person shall operate a motorboat at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions and having regard for the actual and potential hazards then existing. The speed of a motorboat shall be so controlled as to avoid colliding with any object lawfully in or on the water or with any person, boat or other conveyance in or on the water in compliance with legal requirements and exercising due care.

(2) Fixed limits. In addition to complying with sub. (1), no person may operate a motorboat at a speed in excess of the posted notice as established by regulatory markers.

(3) Prohibited operation.

(a) No person may operate a motorboat within 100 feet of any dock, raft, pier, or buoyed restricted area on any lake at a speed in excess of slow-no-wake.

(ag)

1. Except as provided in subd. 2., no person may operate a motorboat, other than a personal watercraft, at a speed in excess of slow-no-wake within 100 feet of the shoreline of any lake.

2. In its ordinances enacted under s. 30.77, a city, village, town, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, or a town sanitary district may provide an exemption from the prohibition in subd. 1. or may substitute a lesser number of feet.

3. This paragraph does not affect any of the following:

a. The authority of a local governmental unit specified in subd. 2. to enact more restrictive ordinances under s. 30.77.

b. The authority of the Dane County board to enact more restrictive ordinances under s. 33.455 (3).

(ar) No person may operate a personal watercraft at a speed in excess of slow-no-wake within 200 feet of the shoreline of any lake.

(b) No person may operate a personal watercraft at a speed in excess of slow-no-wake within 100 feet of any other boat.

(c) Paragraphs (a) to (b) do not apply to pickup or drop areas that are marked with regulatory markers and that are open to operators of personal watercraft and to persons and motorboats engaged in water skiing or similar activity.

History: 1973 c. 302; 1981 c. 303; 1991 a. 257; 1997 a. 198; 2009 a. 31.