In the wake of the accident a couple of years ago by the power plant , the powers that be have been looking into posting a day and/or night speed limit. I would like to know where evrybody stands on this and why. They have thrown some prelimanary numbers out but have nothing set in stone if at all. I believe I heard of 30 at day and 5- 10 at night. What do ya think?
wouldnt bug me any… my current boats top end is about 25.. and I cant imagine that I will get anything capable of much over 30 tops… and it gets so cut up out there that its rough going anyway……
i guess i thought the croix already had a limit? maybe that was just a possibility relating to what youve heard. but my experience on water in general it seems like its not nessesarily the speed of the boat that kills but the lack of resposibility of the drivers that are the underline problem. but i wouldnt mind seeing a limit, they have many more + than -.
No problems with it here. I wouldn’t mind a 30, my boat does 32 wide open. It would be nice to slow some of those big boys down and keep the wake down a bit too. The only bad thing that I could see from it would be it a big boy was going 30 and not on plane that will create more wake then on a plane but you get the bad with the good too. I would really like to see a night speed limit in place. Many times I see a guy going like 60 down the river at night and can’t imagine how they can see where they are going!!
My two cents.
FH
Bill,
Are you speaking about the 4th of July deal where everybody was intoxicated?
That was pretty horrible. With the amount of alcohol that was involved, I doubt that a speed limit would have helped in that case. Nobody would have been around to enforce it and it would have been ignored anyways.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Where do you need to go that quickly?
yes , the accident between the power boats at nite. Everybody sees these scarabs, fountains, etc. racing at speeds of up to 75 miles an hour every weekend. it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that the people who make these proposals are going to target the most reconized prob. Yeah I know that to of alcohol was involved and that no matter what time of the day it would o f been it wolud have still happened. But the fact of the matter is that I have seen dozens of near misses during the day and cant believe that hasn’t been more accidents/deaths. I spend hundreds of hours, if not more, on the croix every summer and would hate to have to watch my speed because of the law. I feel that a night speed limit is definetly in order, but during the day I would like to keep it as it is..none You have to take in to consideration wake , traffic and other fators. 95% oof the people are responsible and know how to handle their boats, its the 5% who are going to ruin one of the last great scenic waterways that is the least regulated by laws and etc. One other thing is if they do put a speed limit on then they will raise our taxes to cover more patrols so they can effectively cover the river. This is one thing we have in our favor, COST. I would like to see one sheriff boat patrol; the river for speeds on the 4th of july weekend, yeah right!!! they know it is a lost cause at this point. I’ll keep everybody posted as I hear more.
should be interesting.I also hate to see more regs in place.
the top speed of my boat is a shade over 40. I can see if you’re on a guide trip, by Stillwater, no fish in the boat and you want to try one more spot by the Kinni. Rock and Roll
It’s been some time ago but I thought I read in the Hudson Star Observer that it was going to be 40mph day and 25mph at night, with the 2002 summer being the trial run of enforcement and 2003 running the permanent “findings” of having the regulations. It was at least 6 months ago but I thought the article stated those numbers as the current suggestion………..it’s not impossible to have changed that by now either………….but that’s all I’ve seen on the subject.
I agree. I would not like to have the speed limit imposed, since it won’t stop the irresponsible anyway.
I fish the Croix a fair amount (live in WBL) and our boat doesn’t go that fast, but over 40. It is nice a on flat day to be able to cruise down the river fast for a long stretch without powering down.
And as was mentioned earlier, the big boys will push more wake when plowing at slower speeds. My boat makes almost no wake at wot. I doon’t mind no wake zones where needed, but I don’t like speed limits, although an after-dark limit probably would be a good item. Minnetonka has it…
-Box
i think the bigger boats plowing more water at slower speeds is an excellent point, i didnt think of that, and the idea that it woulndt stop the irresponsible anyways is true (unfortunatly) just like gun control….
I spend some time on the St. Croix, mainly from Prescott to the Kinni. The only time I can see a need for a daytime speed limit on the lower Croix would be on weekend and holiday afternoons during the summer months. Having a 30 or even a 40 mph speed limit during weekday morning would be like driving down the interstate at 30 mphs. The low Croix is wide and deep. Night is a different story but I think 20 mph would be reasonable… fast enough to get up on plane and get where you’re going but not dangerously fast. And I’d make the night time limit start at 20 or 30 minutes after sunset…. not at sunset. Everybody knows you can see just fine 20 minutes after sunset. Actually sometimes better due to the reduced glare. Maybe a 60 mph limit might be reasonable during the week but 40 mph is certainly too slow.
The real problem is cruiser wakes… not some bass boat or even jet skis.
Remember…. some people will be pushing for speed limits just because they don’t like motor boats on the Croix… not because of safety concerns.
Boone
I don’t have a problem about having a speedlimit at night of 30 or so and a speedlimit of daytime to be 55 – 60. With a system this big, you can safely travel 60mph. The people that cannot travel the river system at 60 can’t travel the river safely at 40 either…
I don’t support 30. 40 at the least. My boat does 47 and I would prefer to go full-blast on the long stretches. They already have plenty of no-wake zones so I don’t see the significance of a limit under 50 except at night. I would be more inclined to take this topic seriously if it were environmentaly based but if the speed limit controversy is based purely on one singe accident then I question it’s validity.
I woudn’t care much if it was 30 since I can only go 29 
But where would it end? First a speed limit then no wake???
Every year you hear those rumblings too!
We have enough laws the way it is so I’d give it a thumbs down. Even if it does bug me when Captain America flys by me 3 times in a row on the weekend going 70 (heading for the gas station no doubt!)
Ferny.
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