Lawmakers Consider Statewide Rafting Ban

Rafting -- which can involve up to 150 boats -- is already prohibited on 10 or so areas of lake Winnispesaukee. And some GOP lawmakers from the Lakes region say it may be time to extend the prohibition to all state lakes. Representative Mike Whalley of Alton, says the issue is one of safety, and not an attempt by shorefront homeowners to privatize public waters.

"I need to emphasize that in no way are they trying to prevent those same people from enjoying that cove from coming back to enjoy the cove. They simply don't feel that it's fair that they be tied up like the navy in Baltimore harbor --boat to boat, boat to boat --preventing them from getting to and from their home."

Boaters are already prohibited from rafting closer than 75 feet from shore, but advocates of the ban argue that existing regulations have proven confusing to boaters and law enforcement alike. Part of this is because rafting is defined as two or more boats if the boats are ties togethe, and as three or more boats if the boats are aren't tied together but are within 50 feet of each other.

Less ambigous, says State Senator Carl Johnson, is that rafters have at times abused the public trust. To make that case, Johnson shared a constituent e-mail.

"Dear Senator Johnson, We and out neighbors have had huge problems with loud and intimidatingly aggressive and polluting behavior from the rafters. Additionally they have entered our property to go to the bathroom in the woods."

The insinuation that rafters are inherently any more boorish than property owners did not go unchallenged.

"There was maybe four of us rafting And we were within the right of the law. We were off the shore, and a homeowner got mad."

Erin Hall lives in Hooksett. She and her family often raft on Winnipesaukee.

"And a homeowner came out of his dock and came by us closer than 150 feet and left a wake. He was breaking the law. We called marine patrol to report it. He went out and found marine patrol and the marine patrol actually came back and actually said you were in the right he was in the wrong."

The Senate Transportation and Interstate Cooperation Committee will continue work on the bill. Committee chairman Bob Letourneau -- who himself keeps a boat on Squam lake -- says the committee will do what it can to balance the rights of boaters and landowners.

He also says the committee will also consider limiting the proposed ban to Winnipesaukee.