Sylvan Lake group wants noisy boaters to quiet down

Quiet Enjoyment Initiative targets unmuffled motors and pounding stereo systems

Image | sylvan lake boats

Caption: Boating is a popular activity at Sylvan Lake and a new community group is asking boaters to respect other lake users with their noise levels. (Travis McEwan/CBC)

A community group in Sylvan Lake is launching an awareness campaign to get noisy boaters to quiet down.
Residents say it's a decades-old discussion, as large speed boats and wakeboard boats with modified mufflers and booming stereo systems often irritate other lake users.
"There's sailors and fishermen and paddleboarders and canoers and kayakers," said Kent Lyle of the Quiet Enjoyment Initiative.
"They can all have fun," he added. "What we like to say is less noise, more fun."
Lyle said other municipalities have restricted motorized boats on their lakes, but his group isn't proposing anything that drastic.
They're hoping education will help curb the problem of noisy boats, which he said can be as loud as some motorcycles.
"If they don't have any mufflers, they just are earsplitting," he said.
"And there's no need for it."