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Old 03-02-2022, 06:42 AM   #84
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By Kevin Landrigan, New Hampshire Union Leader

Mar 1, 2022 Updated 57 min ago

A House panel voted by a 5-1 margin to recommend killing legislation that would eliminate the daytime, 45 mph speed limit on Lake Winnipesaukee.

CONCORD — A move to get rid of the daytime speed limit on New Hampshire’s biggest lake failed a House committee test Tuesday, after citizens flooded legislators with hundreds of emails in opposition.

Many owners and sellers of large recreational boats favor dumping the 13-year-old limit of 45 mph on Lake Winnipesaukee that kicks in a half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

The nighttime speed limit on the lake is 30 mph.

Rep. Aidan Ankarberg, R-Rochester, said 600 people signed up remotely in support of the bill, with 200 opposed.

Five House Republicans from five of the state’s 10 counties agreed to sponsor the measure (HB 1424).

The chairman of the House Transportation Committee and the House deputy speaker didn’t want to kill it.

But state Rep. Dennis Thompson, R-Stewartstown, said more than 800 emails he received against the bill convinced him to drop his support as a co-sponsor.

Thompson joined the 15-3 majority on the House Transportation Committee who voted to recommend the full House kill the bill later this spring.

“Early on I thought it wasn’t a bad idea,” Thompson said.

The Winnipesaukee Sailing Association started one petition in favor of the speed limit, which had more than 300 supporters.

“The typical family motorboat can’t go 45 mph anyway. This bill is aimed primarily at huge, high-speed ‘muscle boats’ that can go 80 mph and plenty more,” the petition said. “Fortunately, the existing law has kept a lot of those monsters off the lake.”

Marine patrol had no position

Rep. Ted Gorski, R-Bedford, said he was certain many boaters could stay safe without a speed limit, but he worried about those who weren’t careful.

“I appreciate the responsible boat owners who might be able to navigate this,” Gorski said. “What I am more concerned about are the irresponsible boat owners.”

The state Division of Marine Patrol that polices traffic on the state’s lakes and ponds took no position on the bill.

Rep. Michael Bordes, R-Laconia, prime author of the measure, said he was open to compromise.

Supporters convinced him to extend the bill beyond his original idea, to only eliminate the speed limit on “The Broads,” the island-free, very wide expanse north of Governor’s Island in the center of the lake, where owners of large boats often go to travel at maximum speeds.

Bordes also said he could live with leaving the speed limit in place on the weekends, when boat traffic is most congested.

But Rep. Karel Crawford, R-Center Harbor, said she can’t support any change.

“It’s a safety issue as far as I am concerned. I felt like eliminating the speed limit in Lake Winnipesaukee, whether it is in The Broads or not, would be a hazard to our citizens using the lake,” Crawford said.

Committee Chairman Tom Walsh, R-Hooksett, said he’s been safely boating on the lake for decades and thinks changing the speed limit would not make it less safe.

“You can go slower if it’s busy,” Walsh said. “If we have an issue with unqualified boaters, maybe we should be looking at that.”

Most of the state’s largest lakes have no speed limits, though 40 mph is the fastest a boater can go during the day on Spofford Lake near the Vermont border and Squam Lake, the bucolic waterway that was the location for the Academy Award-winning film, “On Golden Pond.”

A number of much smaller ponds and rivers have even lower posted limits.

Former Gov. John Lynch signed a 2010 law that made the Lake Winnipesaukee speed limits permanent.

The Legislature in 2009 set speed limits for two years to test the idea, but a year later lawmakers acted to enshrine them
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