PSA: If you plan to boat in Lake Tahoe This Summer

[Matt Phillips]

This is a PSA for anyone planning to boat in Lake Tahoe This Season...

Lake Tahoe requires an invasive species inspection that's more involved than most other lakes. For anyone with a Yamaha Jet Boat, this means an engine flush on their pads using hot water to kill any possible contaminants. They will then issue a sticker and a tongue chain (I affectionately call it the Trailer chastity belt) and you won't be allowed to launch anywhere in the lake without these two items.

Reservations are required and fill up fast. I'm not planning to put my boat into Tahoe until the middle of June and they were already down to only a couple of time slots left for the Friday Afternoon.

Here's the Website for more info and to make reservations: Tahoe Boatinspections | Boat inspection information for Lake Tahoe

 

[BlkGS]

Do they require you to carry someone on board to look over your shoulder and make sure that you don't go too fast on the lake or speak poorly of Newsom too?

I get wanting to protect the lake, but reservations to use a public lake? Literally could not pay me enough to deal with insane crap like that.

 

[Ronnie]

ive always wanted to boat on Lake Tahoe but a few things keep me from doing so:
1. the strict, time consuming and expensive mussel inspection and decontamination process.
2. the long and winding road to the lake (highway 50 thorough Kyberz)
3. The cold water (snow on the mountain tops nearby mountain tops even in the summer)
4. it’s expensive to stay in Lake Tahoe
i could deal with these things individually but together they outweigh any benefits I perceive of boating in Tahoe.
I have considered renting but the places I looked at were charging $600 to $800 per day for a fully unloaded 19’ runabout from the 1980s or 1990s.

 

[Matt Phillips]

@BlkGS Reservations for the inspection stations were new last year in response to COVID and social distancing. Before then inspections were hadled on a first-come-first served basis. The reservations are a way to limit unnecessary interaction and keep those doing the inspecting safe from catching/transmitting COVID for those of us who just want to use the boat. I don't want to enter into a political discussion on this board as this is a place to share thoughts and knowledge about jet boating by jet boaters. Your comment above about Gavin Newsom however, show that you clearly don't understand the dynamics in the Lake Tahoe Basin. I'll just suffice it to say that since Lake Tahoe is bordered by two states (in this case California and Nevada) if falls under federal jurisdiction which means the myriad of rules around lake clarity, mussel inspections, and so forth fall under federal jurisdiction.

@Ronnie I hear ya on your four points they all do add up for a lot and if I'd seriously consider the same if it were for a short trip...the hassle factor far outweighs the benefits. I'm lucky enough to be able to rent a slip 1/2 mile from my vacation house up there so the boat goes in in June and comes out at Labor Day...so it's basically only one cycle in and out of the lake. Although it's beautiful, the only time it's good to wakeboard is about 8am...before the boat/wind traffic churns up the water for the day.

If anyone decides to come up for a trip, PM me and I'll be happy to share some fun things you can do on the lake with a boat. There's lots of places togo check out and enjoy

 

[BlkGS]

It was mainly a joke.

So the reservations are for inspections, not to use the lake? I was thinking it was more like a, reserve the day to go on the lake sort of thing.

 

[Maineiac]

Those mussels are no joke and if they get loose, are a PITA to remove. The inspections are a hassle, but warranted.

I lived and worked on the Great Lakes for many years and remember what a pain the zebra mussel infestation was. The Coast Guard had to board vessels in the St Lawrence to screen their ballast water. Ugh.

 

[RobbieO]

This is a PSA for anyone planning to boat in Lake Tahoe This Season...

Lake Tahoe requires an invasive species inspection that's more involved than most other lakes. For anyone with a Yamaha Jet Boat, this means an engine flush on their pads using hot water to kill any possible contaminants. They will then issue a sticker and a tongue chain (I affectionately call it the Trailer chastity belt) and you won't be allowed to launch anywhere in the lake without these two items.

Reservations are required and fill up fast. I'm not planning to put my boat into Tahoe until the middle of June and they were already down to only a couple of time slots left for the Friday Afternoon.

Here's the Website for more info and to make reservations: Tahoe Boatinspections | Boat inspection information for Lake Tahoe

I vacation at Lake Tahoe, but taking my boat there is probably not going to happen. $100 a day to launch and then you have to find some place to park it, or rent a slip if you can find one. Everything is privately owned up there now. It’s a rich mans playground. Unless you have a cabin near a public launch ramp, forget about it.