Loading bigger boats leads to a load of cost

Comings and goings at the Department of Natural Resources' approximately 2,000 public-access boat ramps statewide can be the stuff of high comedy -- many people still can't back up a trailer -- or high drama -- the other night I saw a woman fall off a dock at a Mille Lacs DNR landing while trying to help her husband load their boat.

But the real excitement -- and expense -- at public accesses often play out behind the scenes.

Just ask Tim Browning, regional director in Bemidji of the DNR's Trails and Waterways division. Browning and his colleagues have had front row seats in recent years as emerging trends in boat sales, boat-trailer construction and boat loading have converged.

Examples:

• Minnesotans are buying bigger boats with bigger motors, a trend that has accelerated during the past 20 years.

• More boat trailers than ever are of the "bunk" variety, as opposed to trailers with rollers (which still constitute the vast majority of trailers). The former feature carpeted planks, on which boats ride. Roller trailers, by contrast, carry boats on a series of strategically placed rollers, or small wheels.

• Fiberglass boats are becoming more commonplace among anglers and particularly among recreational boaters -- who also tend to buy bigger, heavier boats.

Traditionally in Minnesota, game wardens (now called conservation officers) were charged with developing public access sites on Minnesota lakes and rivers. Their duty, by law, was to seek donations or willing sellers of potential boat access sites.

But they could pay no more than $1,500 per site. Consequently, many of the state's oldest sites are at inferior locations, with shallow water entries and/or limited parking spots.

Which wasn't a problem 30 or 40 years ago, when fewer people owned boats, and boats on average were smaller.

Today, the emergence of bigger boats, bunk-style trailers (which typically are backed deeper into the water for boat loading and unloading), more large fiberglass boats and bigger outboards has the DNR playing catch-up, trying to improve old sites (and develop new ones) to accommodate not only modern boats but modern boat-loading methods such as power-loading.

Boaters who power-load propel their boats onto trailers using their outboards, often gunning their engines at high RPMs, albeit briefly, to position the boats onto trailers. Bigger boats in particular are power-loaded, and fiberglass boats more often than aluminum.

When this happens, tow trucks might be needed to retrieve the trailer and the vehicle attached to it.

The DNR has responded in at least two ways: accelerated use in the past 10 years of "piano key" submerged concrete ramps. And inclusion behind the last concrete "key" in those ramps of 4-foot-by-12-foot concrete platforms, or "blast shields."

Blast shields can prevent development of blow holes while also minimizing the possibility of sediment piles building up behind the submerged, concrete piano-key-style ramps. These piles -- also the product, generally, of power-loading -- can damage boats as they are off-loaded from trailers.

All of which costs the DNR hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in maintenance and other costs. But quick fixes are few or nonexistent. Power loading is here to stay, everyone acknowledges. And ideal public-launch access sites are more difficult -- and expensive -- than ever for the DNR to find, purchase and develop.

"Unfortunately," Browning said, "what we want in an access site is the same thing a homeowner wants. A little bit of beach, flat land and a quick drop-off."