Geneva Lake Environmental Agency also counted piers
The 2018 annual boat count Aug. 28 on Geneva Lake totaled 5,216 boats docked, moored, or available for in-out service. It takes a lot of maintenance to keep a boat, that is why some are out of service as the owners are unable to keep up with what needs care, such as tending to the sails and replacing the stainless steel fasteners to ensure safety on the water.
The number of boats available for in-out service was 532 and accounted for 10 percent of all boats counted. The number of boats that were docked or moored just on the lake was 4,684.
The 2018 total number of boats is second highest in the past 15 years, second to 2016 when 5,598 total boats were counted. The lowest number of boats counted in the past 15 years was 4,464, counted in 2017. The 2017 count was done the second week of September when end-of-the-season boat removal had already begun.
The Geneva Lake Environmental Agency and The Water Safety Patrol have been conducting the count for more than 40 years. The boats are categorized into motor, sail, personal water craft and others. Personal watercraft includes jet skis and wave runners. “Other” includes kayaks, canoes, rowboats paddle boards and miscellaneous. The lake shoreline is divided into sections that allow for an assessment of boat types and community totals. The 2018 count was conducted on a partly cloudy day with mild temperatures and little wind.
Motorboats again accounted for the largest type of boats – 3,308 boats or 63 percent of all boats. The second largest group of boats were the “other” category with 1,016 or 19 percent of the boats. Personal watercraft accounted for 706 crafts (14 percent) and sailboats had a count of 231 (4 percent).
By community, the numbers were much the same in terms of percentage as in past years. The Village of Fontana had the greatest number of boats with 1,854, of which 382 boats are available for in-out service. The Village of Williams Bay’s total boat count of 1,090 boats was the second highest with 150 available for in-out service. Linn south shore was the third highest number of boats at 1,106. The City of Lake Geneva at 683 boats was fourth, and Linn north shore was fifth at 528 Only the Villages of Williams Bay and Fontana have off-lake storage that was included in the count.
Geneva Lake has 112,854 feet of shoreline. Forty-eight percent of Geneva Lake’s shoreline is in the Town of Linn. Fontana has 19 percent, and Williams Bay and Lake Geneva have 17 percent and 16 percent respectively. The 2018 lake-wide boat density of docked or moored boats on Geneva Lake, including the off-water storage, was one boat every 21.5 feet of shoreline. When looking at only the density of boats on the lake, the 2018 boat density was one boat for every 23.9 feet of shoreline. The highest boat densities were found on the southwestern area of the lake.
For the first time in the history of the boat count, the number of piers was counted. Each pier, regardless of size, length or number of slips, was counted as one pier. A total of 1,066 piers were counted. Fontana had the highest density of piers with one pier for every 60.6 feet of shoreline. Fontana was followed by Lake Geneva with one pier every 105.4 dwwr of shoreline, Williams Bay with one pier every 115.1 feet of shoreline, Linn South Shore with one pier every 131.1 feet of shoreline and Linn North Shore was last with one pier every 168 feet of shoreline. Overall lake density of piers was one pier for every 116 feet of shoreline.
