The St. Anthony Falls Lab team prepared this update as of mid-November 2022 following completion of their on-water work for Phase II studying the propeller wash produced by common recreational motor boats found on Minnesota lakes, including wakesurf boats.
Also – this research is still underfunded, so anything that you, or your lake association, or your coalition can do to help them financially is appreciated. Here is a link to their fundraising page.
The University of MN research team is well underway with their Phase II research project. This project is focused on studying the propeller wash produced by common recreational motor boats found on Minnesota Lakes, including wakesurf boats. The U team successfully completed their field work and data collection in September and October this year and were able to study five different boats. Two of these boats were wakesurf boats.
Here are some images from UMN’s Phase II research on propeller wash.
The field work involved deploying velocity sensors on the bottom of the lake at two different water depths. The boats were driven over the sensors and recorded the effects of the propeller wash. The researchers also collected water samples before and after the boat passes to measure any changes in the water quality. Andy Riesgraf, the project manager said, “The field portion of this study went really well and we’re excited to dive into the data analyses.” The research team will spend much of the winter going over the data and developing a report for peer review that will be published next summer.
The U team hopes this research will provide insights on how propeller wash can impact lakes. The data they collected should reveal how deep propeller wash penetrates into the water column and how long it takes to dissipate for both non-wakesurf and wakesurf boats. The data could also help us understand how propeller wash interacts with the lake bottom and possibly change water quality.
Again, this research is still underfunded, so anything that you, or your lake association, or your coalition can do to help them financially is appreciated. Here is a link to their fundraising page.