PRAIRIE DU CHIEN – A half mile stretch of the Mississippi River at McGregor, Iowa, has been designated as a slow-no-wake zone for all recreational vehicles.
The slow-no-wake zone will be enforced between mile markers 633.4 and 634, directly in front of the City of McGregor, in Iowa. The rule applies on both the Wisconsin and Iowa sides of the channel.
Both sides of the navigation channel are now marked with white buoys carrying orange lettering that indicate a slow-no-wake. The upstream side of the zone begins at the north end of Boatels Marina. There is a large, white, slow-no-wake sign on a pier and slow-no-wake buoys on each side of the channel. The down stream side, at the southern end of the McGregor Marina, is also marked with buoys.
A slow-no-wake zone has been in place on the Iowa side of the river for several years to protect the two marinas in the McGregor area. In 2007 the Town of Bridgeport in Crawford County, Wisconsin, was approached to enact a similar ordinance restricting boat speed and wake in order to further protect the marinas from damaging boat wakes.
The Town of Bridgeport passed an ordinance consistent with the State of Iowa rule.
On June 30, 2009 the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources approved a waterway marker permit that, in conjunction with the Sate of Iowa’s slow-no-wake zone, makes the entire width of the Mississippi River in this section slow-no-wake.
“Through the years both the McGregor Marina and Boatels have sustained damage not only to their piers but to customer’s property from the ever increasing size of the vessels and their wakes,” said Iowa DNR Conservation Officer Burt Walters.
“The day before the buoys were placed on the Wisconsin side, a young boy was thrown into the water from a pier because of a boat’s wake” Walters said.
Wisconsin DNR conservation warden Mike Cross defines slow-no-wake speed as the slowest possible speed the vessel can be operated while maintaining steerage.
“Basically, it is idle speed,” Cross said.
Boaters should notice a line of buoys placed adjacent to and parallel with the navigation channel of both sides of the river.
“If you are travelling up or downstream and there are slow-no-wake buoys on your left and right side, you are in the slow-no-wake zone,” Cross said.
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