Number of boats on Geneva Lake remains steady

Number of sailboats decline while motorboats on the rise

(Published August 10, 2006, 8:33 a.m.)

By Kasey Plucinski/Geneva Lake Environmental Agency

The number of boats moored around Geneva Lake remained about the same as last year, according to a recent boat count by the Geneva Lake Environmental Agency.

The agency county 4,815 boats moored around the lake on Aug. 2, compared with 4,853 boats a year ago.

The boat count only records moored boats. Normally the agency plans the boat count for a cool wet day, to ensure most boats are docked. This year the day turned out to be warm and sunny, the the numbers are not exact, but provide a general comparison from year to year.

The boats counted are divided into four categories: motorboat, sailboat, personal watercraft, and other. Personal watercraft includes jet skies and wave runners. Other includes kayaks, canoes, dingys, and rowboats.

Motorboats accounted for the largest categories at 3,441. Personal watercrafts had the second largest total at 553. There were 449 sailboats and the other category had a count of 372.

Sailboats continue to decline from year to year. In 2005 there were 532 sailboats, 83 more than this year. The others category also experienced a sharp decline with only 372 this year compared to 695 in 2005.

Personal watercraft continue to hover around the same numbers from year to year. This year's count had 553 compared to 577 a year ago.

The town of Linn had the greatest amount of boats with 1,361, or 37 precent of the total boats counted.

Williams Bay followed with 893 boat, or 26 percent. Fontana had 900 boats, or 24 percent. Lake Geneva had the least amount of boats counted at 609, or 17 percent.

Geneva Lake has 112,200 feet of shoreline. The town of Linn has the most, with 52,700 feet. Williams bay has 20,900 feet of shoreline. Fontana with 20,700 feeet. Lake Geneva holds the least amount of footage with 17,900 feet.

Fontana has the hightest density of boats with 13.8 feet per boat.

The town of Linn's north shore has 47 feet of shoreline per boat. Linn's south shore has 31.9 feet of shore per boat.

Lake Geneva has 27 feet of shoreline per boat while Williams bay has 20 feet of shoreline per boat.

Williams Bay was the only area with an increase in the number of boats. In 2005 Williams bay had 871. This year the number rose to 893. Fontana experienced the greatest loss in the boat count since 2005. In 2005 Fontana's boat count was 961 and in 2006 it was 900. All other location experienced boat loss between 25-55 boats.