HP limitations

[AKmud]

Giving this poll thing a shot. Just want to get an idea of how many people would be in favor of a horsepower limitation on the Little Su.

[tccak71]

Little Su

I don' think that there should be a limit, but I also don't think anyone really needs a monster motor to go up/down the river. I have taken a 14 jon boat with a 15 hp up and down the river, just not quickly!

Tim

[jrogers]

From Anchorage

I go out of the Port of Anchorage, and I would not want to try this with a boat with a 50HP motor, although I know others that do. Maybe a restriction where the lower sections are unlimited, and the upper sections have a HP limit?

[tccak71]

I agree..

thats why I don't think they should limit it either. We've came across the inlet to our fish site and then up the Big Su, so I figured people were crossing the inlet and going up the Little Su too.


Tim

[griff]

I used to take my 18 foot wooldridge with a 150hp jet for many years, and I felt it was way too big of a boat for the river. Now that i think about it, I feel very lucky about not hitting an smaller on-coming boat coming around a blind corner.

[chriso]

I voted other because...

I don't believe in hp limitations because it seems they are often enacted as a method of dealing with issues that don't necessarily have anything to hp specifically. If crowding is the issue, then my most preferrable means of dealing with the issue is decent boating ettiquite amongst us all. If wake is the issue, then no wake zones seem more appropriate than limiting horsepower on folks who just may happen to be very courteous operators while allowing discourteous operators who happen to have smaller hp motors to continue to operate in a discourteous fashion. I mean, does having less hp actually make you a more courteous boatsmen? Although, I must admit, if clogging a launch facility is the issue, then limiting HP may actually be in order! (If backing to the launch is an issue... then the problem is truly unsolvable!) If issues continue in spite of efforts such as I've described above, then maybe we need a greater presence of law enforcement in some areas, (the least preferrable option.) Maybe some organization would want to take it upon themselves to sponsor a "courteous boater" program where voluntarily the boating community could include themselves in the program to encourage more polite boating etiquitte and to demonstrate their responsible boating habits. Just my 2 cents worth, Chris

[Rod in Wasilla]

HP limitations don't deter people from using the river. They tend to force people to underpower their boats. This only causes the boats to move slower and sit lower in the water, generating more wake and destroying the banks. If you want to have HP limitations (I don't know why you would want to...) you also need to limit overall wake, either by limiting the number of boats or by some kind of wake inspection system. How to do that is anybody's guess. There's simply not enough money available for proper enforcement.

[Akres]

Limit People
Not the boats they use. Crowding is the problem, address the real issue. Do not apply a band-aid to a gash.

[Michael Strahan]

Zones

I would favor a zone system that allows drift-only in the upper section. We're seeing serious bank erosion on some of our valley streams and have been for the last ten years and more.

-Mike

[Alaskacanoe]

Wake damage

Wake damage is possibly one of the biggest things to impact the hiding places, overhangs etc. that protect the young fish. The study done on boat wake damage has so many variables. Heavy V hull or river sled with a 50 hp, or the same boats unladden,,, the wake is like night and day... if the boat had a 100 hp when ladden down, it would have been on step and caused less wake than when underpowered and ladden down, and could not get on step... the debate rages on about "Horse Power".. .. I remember the days when on the Kenai they would run up the river in V-8 driven monsters wide open... running 70 mph around Big eddy turn... man what a show... does anyone remember the guy that mounted the 50 cal machine gun on the bow of his (Kenai river style) Cigarrete boat complete with tri-pod and the ammo belt waving in the breeze??? He would roar up the Kenai with straight headers throwing flames out the sides.. (It was just a fake gun, but it just made you laugh)
Anyway...
but those were the days....
lets talk about Safety.....LOL
Is it safe to go fast on the river? Is there a history of wrecks etc? and Noise etc? and then Bank problems?
Sounds like a Study is in order...
Oh yeah.. the study they did for the Kenai came back with the Answer..
" We need more money to do additonal studies, as the first one was unconclusive"...
Max