Vermont opened 7,509 acres of its inland lakes to wakesports on 11 June 2026, spread across 18 named lakes. The state has, by its own Department of Environmental Conservation’s count, more than 800 lakes and ponds. That is the whole of the change in one line, and it is the number nobody selling a wake boat is putting in front of a buyer: in Vermont, a boat built to make a large wake may now legally do so on a defined area of 18 named lakes, and nowhere else inland.
The rules sit in Section 3 of Vermont’s Use of Public Waters Rules, administered by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. They do not ban wake boats. They define where an enhanced wake may be made, and the definition is geometric rather than political, which is why the acreage lands where it does.
What Vermont’s wakesports rule actually says
Vermont’s rule turns on three definitions, and reading them in order explains the acreage better than any argument about lake politics does.
- A wakeboat is a motorboat with one or more ballast tanks, ballast bags, or other devices or design features used to increase the size of its wake.
- Wakesports means operating such a boat, or riding on or in its wake on a surfboard, wakeboard, hydrofoil or similar device.
- A wakesports zone is an area of a lake, pond or reservoir with a minimum of 100 contiguous acres that are at least 500 feet from shore on all sides, 3,000 feet long, at least 20 feet deep, and at least 200 feet wide.
The third definition is the operative one. A Vermont lake can be large, popular and deep and still contain no qualifying water, because the 500-feet-from-shore-on-all-sides test excludes the entire perimeter and the 20-foot depth minimum excludes the shallows. Two conditions that each sound modest intersect to remove most of a typical lake.
The 18 Vermont lakes with a wakesports zone, and how much of each is open
Vermont’s DEC publishes each lake’s total acreage and the acreage of its wakesports zone. It does not publish the ratio. The right-hand column is that arithmetic, the share of each lake’s own surface on which an enhanced wake is legal. Figures read from the Vermont DEC wakeboats page on 5 August 2026.
| Vermont lake | Total acres | Wakesports zone acres | Share of the lake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seymour Lake | 1,777.2 | 1,130.01 | 63.6% |
| Lake Willoughby | 1,733.6 | 1,049.14 | 60.5% |
| Echo Lake | 546.5 | 298.63 | 54.6% |
| Little Averill Pond | 470.2 | 255.44 | 54.3% |
| Crystal Lake | 771.6 | 408.20 | 52.9% |
| Caspian Lake | 789.8 | 410.53 | 52.0% |
| Maidstone Lake | 755.8 | 387.41 | 51.3% |
| Great Averill Pond | 835.0 | 411.89 | 49.3% |
| Lake Bomoseen | 2,415.1 | 1,075.00 | 44.5% |
| Lake St. Catherine | 885.4 | 371.40 | 41.9% |
| Lake Morey | 549.8 | 193.00 | 35.1% |
| Salem Lake | 776.4 | 269.42 | 34.7% |
| Fairfield Pond | 463.3 | 159.91 | 34.5% |
| Island Pond | 614.2 | 204.84 | 33.4% |
| Harvey’s Lake | 357.2 | 116.51 | 32.6% |
| Lake Dunmore | 1,039.6 | 313.34 | 30.1% |
| Harriman Reservoir | 1,949.4 | 454.80 | 23.3% |
| Lake Carmi | 1,415.2 | 0.00 | 0.0% |
Across those 18 lakes, 7,509.5 acres of the 18,145.3 total acres are open to wakesports, 41.4 percent. Seymour Lake is the most permissive at 63.6 percent of its surface. Harriman Reservoir, the second-largest water on the list, is the most restrictive that still functions, at 23.3 percent across two separate zones.
Lake Carmi is on Vermont’s eligible list with a zone of zero acres
Lake Carmi covers 1,415.2 acres, which makes it the fourth-largest water on Vermont’s wakesports list. Its wakesports zone is 0.00 acres. It appears on the eligible list and no part of it is open. Lake Morey, at 549.8 acres, carries an altered zone for the same reason.
Both are flagged under Section 3.7(g) of the Vermont rules, which covers lakes that have received phosphorus inactivation treatment. When aluminium sulphate is applied to a lake it binds phosphates into a floc that settles and forms a barrier slowing phosphorus release from the sediment. Vermont’s concern is that wakesports generate lakebed disturbance deep enough to undo a treatment that cost a great deal to apply. A buyer reading only the list of eligible lakes would count Lake Carmi as open water. It is not.
Vermont can revise the zones every year, which is the part that prices a boat
Section 3.7(g) of Vermont’s Use of Public Waters Rules lets the Secretary update a defined wakesports zone, or a lake’s eligibility to have one, on an annual basis: if surface water level or other characteristics change, or if a lake management activity or scientific research creates a risk that wakesports would damage water quality or the research itself. Changes run through the public process set out in Section 2 of the rules.
That clause is the reason this is a Rich & Richer story rather than a local news item. Everything else about a wake boat is a fixed cost that can be modelled. Access to Vermont water under this rule is a permission reviewed yearly. The alum-treatment provision shows the mechanism already working: two lakes that meet every geometric test have had their zones cut or zeroed for a reason unrelated to geometry.
Vermont’s decontamination requirement is a real operating cost
Vermont requires a ballasted vessel to be decontaminated when moving between waterbodies. Under Section 3.7(e), if a ballasted vessel was last launched at a different waterbody within the calendar year, its interior components, engine, ballast systems, pumps, bilge areas and water containment devices, must be drained and flushed with low-pressure hot water at 120°F for three to five minutes, and its exterior rinsed with high-pressure hot water at 140°F to remove particulates.
Section 3.7(d) applies the aquatic nuisance species provisions of 10 V.S.A. § 1454 to ballasted vessels and requires ballast tanks to be drained as fully as practicable on leaving state waters. Vermont lists free decontamination stations for ballasted vessels at four Lake Champlain Basin boat launches, South Hero, Malletts Bay, Shelburne Bay and Converse Bay, open 9am to 5pm daily, with service availability not guaranteed. For an owner trailering between lakes, that is a scheduling constraint on every move, not a one-off.
What Vermont’s rule does not restrict
Wakesports are not confined to defined zones on Lake Champlain, Lake Memphremagog, the Connecticut River reservoirs and Wallace Pond. Vermont’s DEC describes riding at least 500 feet from shore and in at least 20 feet of water as best practice on those cross-boundary waters rather than as a zone boundary. The 500-foot safety offset from other recreational users still applies there.
So the 7,509-acre figure is the total defined wakesports zone on Vermont’s inland lakes. It is not the total water in Vermont on which a wake boat may legally make an enhanced wake, because Lake Champlain is not zoned in this way. Anyone quoting the acreage as though it covered the whole state would be overstating the restriction, and this publication would rather be the one that says so.
Two further limits worth knowing before buying near a specific lake: Caspian Lake and Little Averill Pond have privately owned access ramps whose owners impose their own restrictions on wakeboat launching. A public wakesports zone does not guarantee a way to get a boat onto it.
Frequently asked questions
When did Vermont’s new wake boat rules take effect?
Vermont’s revised wakesports rules took effect on 11 June 2026 under the state’s Use of Public Waters Rules.
How many Vermont lakes allow wakesports?
Eighteen Vermont lakes carry a defined wakesports zone, and one of those, Lake Carmi, has a zone of zero acres, leaving 17 with usable water. Vermont has more than 800 lakes and ponds in total.
How far from shore must a wake boat stay in Vermont?
A wake boat creating an enhanced wake must keep 500 feet from other recreational users. Without filled ballast the default 200-foot offset applies. A separate 500-foot offset applies to signed loon nesting sites from 1 May to 31 July.
Can Vermont close a lake to wakesports after I buy a boat?
Yes. Section 3.7(g) of Vermont’s Use of Public Waters Rules permits the Secretary to revise a wakesports zone or a lake’s eligibility annually, subject to a public process. Lake Carmi and Lake Morey have already had zones zeroed or altered under the related lake-management provision.
This piece is part of our marine reference, What a Boat Costs to Own: Depreciation, and Where You Are Allowed to Use It, which sets out the method and collects every figure we have published on the subject. Also in it: The Best Wake Boats of 2026, Ranked by What They Cost to Own, South Carolina Caps Boat Sales Tax at $500. Virginia Has the Lowest Rate and the Biggest Bill..
Sources
Every figure above was read from the following on 5 August 2026. The zone share of each lake, and the 7,509.5-acre and 41.4 percent totals, are our arithmetic on Vermont’s published acreages.
- Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation: Wakeboating and Wakesports in Vermont, including the Use of Public Waters Rules Section 3.7 text and the table of wakesports-eligible lakes
- Vermont DEC, Lakes and Ponds Management and Protection Program, for the 800-plus lakes and ponds figure
- 10 V.S.A. § 1454, aquatic nuisance species inspection and decontamination