Here’s how a new SC boating law will impact two-state, three-county Lake Wylie

A boating safety change in South Carolina will make the rules more standard across Lake Wylie. It’ll just take a long time.

“I’m glad at least that something has occurred,” said local boating safety expert Charles “Bo” Ibach. “It’s a start.”

Ibach is a Charlotte native with decades teaching area boating safety courses through the Charlotte Power Squadron. Ibach was a Mecklenburg County member of the two-state, three-county Lake Wylie Marine Commission before moving to Indian Land.

So he’s keenly aware how different state boating laws can be. Laws that are particularly important for Lake Wylie, where the state line runs through the old river bed and, in some places, splits coves and channels often used by area boaters.

Gov. Henry McMaster scheduled a ceremonial bill signing Thursday afternoon. A new South Carolina law updates and adds new requirements for boat operation. Anyone born since July 1, 2007 will have to pass a boating safety class to operate a boat of 10 hp or greater, or a personal watercraft.

Boating licenses or certificates from other states will count. Boaters also will be exempt if they’re with someone 18 or older. Or, if they’re renting a boat or personal watercraft and have a safety certificate from the rental company.

The new South Carolina boating education requirement is similar to what North Carolina passed years ago. It sets a date to allow older boaters to continue as they have, but adds the rule for younger boaters.

The North Carolina law, initially set for teens there, applies to anyone born in 1988 or later.

“Right now a 35-year-old has to have boater education in North Carolina,” Ibach said.

If neither state rule changes, in time more boaters than not will fall under the requirement.

Boating education isn’t the only issue where varying state laws can be tricky for Lake Wylie. The marine commission is able in some cases to set lake-wide rules.

Recent work brought North Carolina waters in line with what South Carolina already had about distances boats have to be away from anchored vessels, docks and people in the water. Wake surfing, when a boat is above idle speed, now has to be 200 or more feet away from those markers across the lake, regardless of state.

“It’ll take a while for this to sink in to everybody,” marine commission executive director Neil Brennan told York County Council earlier this month, “but we’re doing our best to get the word out.”

For personal watercraft, North Carolina requires 100 feet unless idling while South Carolina requires 50 feet. Other rules vary on a lake where two state agencies and three county sheriff offices patrol. The marine commission prints business card-like information on rules for the lake and gives them to law enforcement agencies to distribute to boaters.

Ibach said there are other safety needs.

He’d like to see South Carolina join North Carolina in requirements to have life jacket requirements for younger children, regardless of boat size. But boater education — sometimes described in failed, past pushes as boating licenses — is a step. In a recent safety class he taught, Ibach said 10 of 11 students came from North Carolina.

“I hope that it will bring some more students,” he said of the new South Carolina law.

The power squadron, state natural resource and law enforcement agencies often provide items from loaner life jackets to free vessel safety checks on area lakes. In years past, opposition to mandated boater education came at least in part from a sense that boating is recreational and shouldn’t be regulated the way roads are with driver’s licenses.

Ibach said many people refuse free vessel checks at boat landings when offered. He’s seen plenty of people who don’t want to take the time, despite finding at times significant safety issues that could easily be fixed. People just have to know the safest way to operate a boat.

“People are just ignorant to the need to learn,” Ibach said. “They just blow it off.”

In South Carolina a number of people, growing each year, won’t have that option.