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SHERRILLS FORD The perennial problem of ski boats and personal watercraft coming too close to homeowners' piers has found its way to the northern fringes of Lake Norman.
Several residents along the Terrapin Creek section of the lake say boats are coming within 15 to 20 feet of their docks, endangering both the skiers they're towing and people on shore. Terrapin Creek is across Lake Norman from Lake Norman State Park.
“The number of boats using the creek continues to increase,” resident Bruce Johnson recently told the Lake Norman Marine Commission, speaking in behalf of several of his neighbors. “We're now having not one or two boaters skiing but three, four and five at the same time.”
When his wife tells offending boaters to slow down, “They just kind of laugh,” Johnson said.
“We're worried about liability problems, and our concern is somebody is going to get hurt out there,” he said. “… It is really becoming a serious problem.”
State law mandates that boats creating wakes must remain at least 150 feet from shore. Violators can be fined $25 plus about $150 in court costs, said sheriff's Deputy Al Minton of the Catawba County Lake Patrol.
Terrapin Creek residents told the commission they have called police to report fast-moving boats coming too close to shore, but the boaters are gone by the time police arrive.
Various neighborhoods elsewhere on the lake have tried to combat the problem over the years by having the commission approve no-wake signs for their coves. “Apply to us for a no-wake zone,” commission Chairman Sam Ausband of Lincoln County recommended.
Terrapin Creek residents said they wanted to try the enforcement route first.
Paul Carter, a marine commissioner from Catawba County, suggested the residents do as he did two years ago and take pictures of offending boaters.
Carter said he used both a video camera and a digital camera to catch offenders off Kiser Island on the lake during a poker run. He gave the photos to the event's sponsor, who tracked the offenders down, he said.
“They had the evidence and self-policed it,” he said.
