After hearing concerns about boats operating at high speeds and causing dangerous wakes across Wormley Creek, the York County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the installation of no wake signs on the creek’s west branch.
The board’s approval now goes to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, who will make the final call on whether the new signs are permitted.
“We see a situation where somebody sooner or later is probably going to get hurt and we feel that something should be done,” said Walter Reiser, one of the residents who approached the board with concerns, at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
Reiser and Henry Hortenstine III, who live on the eastern shore of the channel, told supervisors in a letter they “constantly see boats going in and out of the creek under full power, sending out large wakes” and are afraid to dock their boats “for fear of damage from the wakes.”
They said they often see boats coming around the bend nearly collide with kayakers drifting in the water near their homes.
The area Hortenstine and Reiser are concerned with also affects Wormley Creek Marina, and owner Doug Truston said he supports having “no wake” signs, according to a memorandum to the supervisors.
Coast Guard vessels, Navy vessels, ship tender vessels and pleasure boats go through the channel on a regular basis. The VDGIF already requires watercrafts to abide by “no wake speeds” when within 50 feet of docks, piers, boathouses or people in the water. However, there are no regulatory signs in the channel indicating no wake zones.
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